Homicide Episode Guide: Just An Old Fashioned Love Song

Written by Eric Overmeyer

Directed by Leslie Libman & Larry Williams

The biggest flaw with Homicide is, in retrospect, that they never really got a handle on how to deal with regulars who weren't detectives. They would do find with all of the actors who appeared in smaller roles in other jobs, but whenever they tried to introduce a character who didn't work in the squad, they would fail. Russert's up and down movement within the department seems to smack of desperation; when Howard was promoted to Sergeant, her character practically disappeared into the ether; the effort to paint Brodie as an outsider worked a bit too well, and as good an actress as Michelle Forbes was, Juliana Cox only seemed to work as a romantic lead less than an actual character with the ME.

When the writers moved Mike Giardello into the squad as Agent Liaison, they clearly were trying a little harder. By having someone who could link to the FBI and CIB, there was clearly a mix of both insider and outsider to the character. And because he was Al's son, there was an added element of tension to the character that wasn't just professional, it was personal.  We can see it when Al basically spends most of the investigation barking at Mike, even though Ballard is the primary of the case, and the way that Mike has a clear problem with his father. In another telling conversation, mostly having to do with all the failed marriages in the squad, Mike very painfully points out what a failure his father was. "She was married to him. He was married to the job." For six seasons, Al had been painted as a lonely widower, now it becomes clear that he misses her more in theory than he did when she actually alive.

Much of these problems with love come into play in the central investigation at the heart of 'Love Song'. Ballard goes out to see a shooting where a prominent sports doctor has shot and killed a prowler, who turns out to be his own sister-in-law. It soon becomes clear that the victim was a desperate woman long before she walked into her brother-in-law's garage. She was a gambler who was in debt up to her eyeballs, and maxed out her credit cards in order to pay her markers. Gradually, it becomes clear that she conspired with her sister to murder her brother for her life insurance policy.  What gives the story a bit of a Homicide feel is that the husband (well played by Oz  actor O.L. Duke) refused to admit that his sister-in-law would have a reason to kill her, and that his marriage to his wife was superb. He's even willing to post a half-million dollar bail for his wife after she's arresting for conspiracy to commit murder. The story basically ends with the very real possibility that the wife will try to plant reasonable doubt by basing blame on her husband, something Danvers more than admits might work.

This is an intriguing case, far more interesting than we got in the first two episodes. Unfortunately, we're still getting buried in so much of a hormonal messes that we've gotten before. Meldrick may have decided that he's not going to try anything with Sheppard, but that merely means that Bayliss is now entering into a flirtatious period. At least, Meldrick and Falsone were blunt about how they approached things; Tim's way around Renee looks and is incredibly painful, both for him and the viewer. What gives this even the slightest bit of interest is that when Renee points out Tim's sexual history with men, he eventually refers to himself as 'bi-curious', a phrase that had barely entered the vernacular in 1998. To have a lead character that questioning of his sexuality would have problems these days; twenty years ago, on a network TV series, it really was ground-breaking, and I imagine a lot of fans missed it.

But there's no redeeming value to what's going on between Ballard and Falsone. When the two characters are in a gym to learning more information about one of their victims, Falsone gets into the ring, and Ballard does everything short of tossing her panties at him. It's all the more painful, because right now, Falsone is oblivious. (I'm honestly not sure what would have been more painful, him finding out or his ignoring it)

What gives the series a little more room to breathe is what's going on in two smaller stories. Gharty is officially moving out of his house as the divorce proceedings begin. Munch is particularly sympathetic, saying that the Irish tend to internalize - "alcoholism and ulcer'. For once, he has remarkable insight, as this is a problem that will plague Stu for much of the season.

But Munch has problems of his own. The IRS has basically started going after him due to back taxes that basically will end up crushing him even more financially. In typical fashion, he turns to Mike Giardello's help in going after his IRS agent. MGee is particularly smart in saying know. Even the FBI doesn't want to screw with the IRS.

Just An Old Fashioned Love Song is marginally better than the first two episodes of the series. The investigation is more interesting, and than the conversations between Ballard and Mike paint a far more compelling story of the Giardello family than we've gotten before. (There's some background about Mike's former relationship with a woman when he was in Arizona, but its never followed up.) And even though Mike shows some flair of his own, particularly in pursuit of a gun dealer with the unlikely street name of Lemonhead, the writers are going out of the way to make sure that he is not going to be an Andre Braugher imitator. It makes for interesting television, but its still not up to nearly the high bar that Homicide has even with its weakest episodes. And sadly, things are not going to get better quicker.

My score:3 stars.