Homicide Episode Guide: Wanted Dead or Alive, Part 1

Written by James Yoshimura

Directed by Robert Harmon

When I first saw this episode nearly twenty years ago, I considered the absolute nadir of Homicide's entire run, a complete and utter disregard for everything the series had stood for when it premiered. In retrospect, that's a little ridiculous - we did, after all, have the squadroom shootout just a few months ago - and the episode itself is a bit better than I remembered I. But just as The Twenty Percent Solution seemed like it would have never come from David Simon's pen, its even harder to believe that this is the work of the same man who brought us The Subway. There's so much action, backbiting and sex going on that it really seems like we're stuck in a syndicated series from the nineties rather than one that got three Peabody's.

To be fair, most of the violence has nothing to do with the detectives themselves. The opening sequence, when three bounty hunters try to grab up a fugitive, and end up killing a man seems utterly out of place for this series. The writers back away from it quite a bit by having Falsone and Stivers go after the bounty hunters quite hard. There's clearly an animosity between the squads, and there's actually an interesting touch considering that Sheppard, who came from fugitive, where she would work closely with them, is the only one to treat them with a modicum of respect. Giardello is openly hostile to them, and thinks they have run roughshod over the city, and they act without boundaries. He has no problem with the shooter being charged with manslaughter, and very clearly wants to throw the book at his colleagues.

There is a certain degree of subtlety with the bounty hunters that I didn't notice as first, particular Chris Meloni as Dennis Snow. Initially coming off as a stupid redneck, he has a certain charm to him that might work on his clients (but not on the detectives). Meloni had just begun his stint on Oz as bi-sexual serial killer Chris Keller and one could see this role as sort of a way station between Keller and Detective Stabler on Law & Order SVU the following year. But it's sort of diminished by the southern accent which he can't quite master.  The episode also tries to grant fairness to the job by having Sheppard relate a story in which Snow managed to get a fugitive out of a violent situation with nobody getting hurt, as well as point out the ridiculous disparities in pay between a bounty hunter and a Baltimore cop.

if the episode had stayed with the subtlety, it probably would've been more engaging. But for some reason, Yoshimura is fixated on the action instead of the story, and ends the episode with a three minute car chase that ends with a crash that puts Meldrick's life in jeopardy. Do we really have to go through this again? We're a step away from turning into Hawaii Five-O.

Normally, when the front story is this awkward, one hopes that their would be some subplots that would be more interesting. The most interesting one occurs when stinkbug Gaffney tries to do a magazine puff piece on Mike and Al, mainly in regard to last week's mass poisoning case. Al, understandably, gets pissed and dismisses the idea. Gaffney then goes to Mike behind his father's back, trying to undermine his job with the squad and the detectives themselves. Had the series tried to follow through with this it might have been interesting, but the storyline is basically discarded.

The other major storylines involve Gharty in some way, and neither is encouraging. Stu is recovering from a night of boozing with Falsone, and can't remember how he got home. Munch's idea about how he'd handle the divorce are accurate, until he eventually becomes just short of a drunk. But even worse, comes the story when Gharty boasts about his days in Vietnam. Munch happens to overhear him, and starts going into a rant about how bad the war was. This rant continues when he and Bayliss go to the ME's. This is par for the course for Munch. But then, he starts going after Gharty record as a cop. Now I'll admit, for those of us who've been following his career, it hasn't been a shining example of great police work. But Munch has had no problem with it until now. And to go against a man who took a bullet six months ago is even more offensive. It leads to Gharty going after Bayliss, just because he's Munch's partner, and the two have an even bigger tiff at the Waterfront. I'm willing to forgive this mess because there will be a payoff, but it seems kind of ridiculous for that much anger to be going on between two men who have mostly gotten along until now.

Then of course, there's the ongoing sinkhole that is the Ballard-Falsone romance. Ballard has gone off to Seattle in regard to some kind of personal problem, which seems to lead to a discussion about Ballard as a sexual being, and Falsone admitting he spent the night with her. These are details I could've lived without, but we're going to get visuals very soon. Ick.

On top of all the misery that we've had to go through with this episode, Wanted Dead or Alive ends on a cliffhanger, which frankly the series has never quite done well, and hasn't really needed too for the majority of its two-parters. I realize this story has a lot of loose ends that couldn't be tied up in a single episode, but this is the first one in a long time that I really wasn't looking forward to see what happened next week. This may not be the worst episode of the series, but its by far the weakest multi-part.

My score: 2 stars.