Written by Eric Overmeyer; story by Tom Fontana,
James Yoshimura, and Eric Overmeyer
Directed by Barbara Kopple
It isn’t very often that a television show will make
deliberate attempts to satirize itself and its atmosphere. Such attempts of
mockery often fall flat or leave viewers scratching their heads. (This would
change in the 21st century where series would become more and more insular,
even the comedies.) Only three programs that I have watched have made this
attempt. The X-Files satirized itself several times, most memorably in the
extraordinary episode ‘Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space”. Buffy The Vampire Slayer did so on a couple of occasions, perhaps
having the greatest success with ‘Superstar’ and ‘The Zeppo’, two episodes that
looked at the show from a completely different angle. And Homicide does so in ‘The
Documentary’, a multi-layered, interwoven episode that while presenting itself
straightforward is, in many ways, one long in-joke.
The episode centers around an unusually quiet New
Year’s Eve as the detectives gather to watch a documentary made by J.H. Brodie
in his spare time during the last year. While much of the documentary is
pretentious (it is titled Back Page News: Life and Homicide on the Mean Streets of Baltimore),
in many ways it runs like an episode of the series. It also features many
elements openly mocked by the detectives that are, in realty, probably based on
what network executives thought of the show. It features editing that repeats
some shots, over and over that are considered mistakes. It also features the
camera lingering on things over and over and the detectives frequently complain
that the show doesn’t have enough action.
On a more personal level, the detectives are also
annoyed that Brodie has captured many secretive moments that they don’t want
revealed--- jokes about overtime, their off-screen relationships, and their
approach to the job--- all obstacles David Simon had to overcome when he wrote
his book on the Homicide unit. It is clear that Gee realizes how embarrassing
this could be to the squad when he tries to get the tape from Brodie. He is
therefore particularly upset when Brodie reveals he has sold the documentary to
PBS (ironically, one year later PBS would broadcast a documentary based on the
filming of Homicide) It is here that
Perlich makes an impassioned speech saying that his pursuit of the truth in the
film is exactly the same as the detectives pursuit at their job, that invading
their privacy serves the greater good by documenting the truth about police
work. It is his finest hour on the
series.
In the actual documentary, Brodie films a series of
sequences that are among the best the show would ever do. Set in the
interrogation room, it features all six detectives, describing in detail the
rights of a murder suspect, how the detective gets around them, and how he
manages to elicit a confession from these less than brilliant minds.
Essentially, the detectives are splitting a five page passage in Simon’s book
about this very subject, often line for line. One of the highlights of the
book, the actors’ delivery (particularly Braugher’s, Richard Belzer’s and
Melissa Leo’s) is near perfect, putting the viewer literally in the hot seat.
Another great sequence appears when art imitates life
imitating art. Kellerman and Lewis chase
after a suspect around a corner--- right into the production team of Homicide including Barry Levinson playing himself. This
is in fact a fictional adaptation of a real-life incident that occurred in
October 1996, when security guards chased a thief right on to a location where
the show was filming--- whereupon the suspect promptly surrendered to the fake
cops! Brodie’s adds to the general surrealism when he tells Levinson how to
make the show more realistic.
Many of the montages that we see in the film feature
clips from actual episodes of Homicide filmed
over the past season. (The creators don’t care that much for continuity, as not only are many of the clips Brodie uses he
never filmed but in fact wasn’t even in the episode they took place in!) The
main one is filmed in a music video style, practically identical to the musical
sequence that we have seen on the show.
The main case featured in Brodie’s documentary--- the
murder of Llewelynn Kilduff--- is filmed very much like a typical case. The
suspect (played by Melvin Van Peebles) in
the murder--- a mortician--- is on the
scene when Bayliss and Pembleton arrive, he is still holding the gun, and he is
more than willing to surrender himself to their custody. He does not, however,
offer an explanation as to why he killed the man and while this is good enough
for Frank, Tim (as always) is focused on the why. Ever persistent he pursues
the cases and uncovers the lonely undertaker’s secret--- he took corpses home,
dressed than up, took pictures of them, and (though this is not explicit) had
sex with them. The nature of the murder is probably a subtle in-joke about how
many executives and viewers considered Homicide
too dark a show.
We also see a lot about personal relationships—those
Brodie caught on film (Howard with her unidentified boyfriend, Gee with two young ladies) and one he hasn’t---
Mike and Julianna Cox, who are actually trying to make a relationship out of
the attraction they share.
Brodie even manages to solve one mystery of his
own--- the identity of the Lunch Bandit (first mentioned in last seasons ‘Map
of the Heart’) To everyone’s surprise, the bandit is Captain Gaffney.
Magnificently shot and well-written ‘The Documentary’
does require that the viewer know a lot about Homicide in order to get all the references. But even if you don’t
this is still a very entertaining show and one of the most memorable in the
series history.
My score: 5 stars.
Ranking by Fans: 5th
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