‘Homicide’ Returns With Quality Drama
NBC’s absorbing “Homicide: Life on the Street” makes its sixth season premiere at 10, picking up right where it left off with gritty crimes and richly crafted characters - perhaps the best on television.
When the Baltimore detectives return from a three-month rotation in the robbery division, they’re welcomed by changes.
Gone are Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) and J.H. Brodie (Max Perlich). Joining the cast are detectives Laura Ballard (Callie Thorne), Stuart Gharty (Peter Gerety) and Paul Falsone (Jon Seda).
Things happen quickly.
Police are summoned to a banquet honoring a civic leader, Felix Wilson (James Earl Jones).
A woman’s dead body has been found in a restroom. She turns out to be Wilson’s maid.
This three-part story unfolds dramatically as accusations fly that Lt. Giardello (Yaphet Kotto), a friend of the Wilson family, and lead detective Pembleton (Andre Braugher) allow personal friendships and race to stand in the way of investigating Wilson and his son as suspects.
At the same time, a sniper makes targets out of the detectives linked to the season-ending confrontation with hoodlum Luther Mahoney.
Though Melissa Leo will be missed, the new cast members show great promise. It is implied that Falsone is an internal affairs operative investigating the Mahoney killing. Gharty is a cop with an attitude who will add to the always-volatile mix.
Highlights
“Players,” NBC at 8: Ice-T, Costas Mandylor and Frank John Hughes star in this new crime series from “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf. They play parolees released from prison to work as FBI agents.
Their first assignment: Grab a thief hiding out at the United Nations’ heavily guarded, diplomatically protected Cuban Mission.
“Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” ABC at 8: Talk about your adventures in baby sitting. Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) is paid a premium to watch her witch cousin (played by Hart’s real-life sister, Emily), but she finds out that it’s really combat pay when the little angel turns Sabrina into a doll and holds her captive in her toy closet.
“Meego,” CBS at 8:30: In yet another unimaginative plot, Trip (Will Estes) uses Meego’s alien watch to put a love spell on a girl (Maggie Lawson) he’s hot for. Well, of course, the magic is too potent, and the next thing he knows she’s stalking him.
“Dateline NBC,” NBC at 9: In another of the newsmagazine’s “survivor stories,” Len Cannon reports on Carmen Genao, a Brooklyn, N.Y., woman who, four-months pregnant, fell in front of a moving subway car.
“Teen Angel,” ABC at 9:30: The writers must think that young viewers are oblivious to these cliched plots. Steve (Corbin Allred) makes the wrestling team, unknowingly with divine intervention from Marty (Mike Damus).
“Step by Step,” CBS at 9:30: Karen (Angela Watson) runs headlong into a real-world issue as she goes from being an “A” student in her poetry class to a “D” student when she refuses to go out with her professor.
Cable Calls
“Biography,” A&E at 5 and 9: “Mia Farrow: A Life of Drama” (the title is certainly no overstatement) covers the life of the actress who married Frank Sinatra and whose relationship with Woody Allen ended in scandal. Interviewed are her mother, Maureen O’Hara, as well as her close friend Liza Minnelli.
“Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way” (1997), SHOW at 9: Paul Sorvino portrays the Yankee manager who fulfilled a life’s dream of winning a World Series. He did it as his brother Frank (Robert Loggia) battled for his life while awaiting a heart transplant.