10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Watch Homicide Life On The Street

We did not follow Giardello, Munch, Bayliss, Pembleton, Lewis, and Howard because they were necessarily always doing the right thing. We followed them because we identified with them as ordinary but complex human beings. We could identify with their emotional journeys and how they reacted to the world around them.

Pembleton was an extraordinary detective but at times he was blinded by his own pride. Still, we cared for him. After a near-fatal stroke, Pembleton returned to his duties but was met with skepticism because of his newly developed stutter and his memory losses.

Det. Mike Kellerman (played by Reed Diamond) went from being the idealistic new member of the squad to actually committing murder, when he killed the defenseless (although greatly immoral) drug lord Luther Mahoney. His actions affected the show's direction on the whole and proved that a happy ending was far from guaranteed.