History YMMV / HomicideLifeOnTheStreet

** In [[Recap/HomicideLifeOnTheStreetS5E8TheTrueTest "The True Test"]], [=McPhee=] Broadman is a vicious, sociopathic teenager who commits repugnant acts of cruelty to animals and other boys and takes advantage of his wealthy background and family connections to avoid any consequences. He sadistically abuses three younger boys at his boarding school until they view him as a virtual cult leader, persuading them that he's [[TrainingFromHell breaking them down to build them up]]. When he's questioned about how one of the three came to kill one of the others, he finally admits, or rather boasts, that he ordered it because the dead boy repeatedly refused to carry out his final task for him... murdering [=McPhee's=] own mother. He openly and happily gloats about his various crimes, experiencing nothing but sadistic pleasure about them.

** In [[Recap/HomicideLifeOnTheStreetS5E8TheTrueTest "The True Test"]], [=McPhee=] Broadman is a vicious, sociopathic school bully who commits repugnant acts of cruelty to animals and other boys and takes advantage of his wealthy background and family connections to avoid any consequences. He sadistically abuses three younger boys until they view him as a virtual cult leader, persuading them that he's [[TrainingFromHell breaking them down to build them up]]. When he's questioned about how one of the three came to kill one of the others, he finally admits, or rather boasts, that he ordered it because the dead boy repeatedly refused to carry out his final task for him... murdering [=McPhee's=] own mother. He openly and happily gloats about his various crimes, experiencing nothing but sadistic pleasure about them.

* CompleteMonster: {{Crossover}} between ''Series/LawAndOrder'' [[labelnote:Episode]]Season 6's "[[Recap/LawAndOrderS6E13CharmCity Charm City]]"[[/labelnote]] & ''Homicide's''' season 4's "For God and Country": [[WesternTerrorists Colonel Alexander Rausch]] is a former intelligence officer turned [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist killer]]. He [[ManipulativeBastard manipulates the recently-laid-off Brian Egan]] into setting off a gas bomb of [[DeadlyGas silver arsenic]] on the New York Subway, killing 20 black people and injuring others. Several years earlier, he had Egan commit a similar attack on a Baltimore church, resulting in six fatalities, all black people. Once Egan is captured, Rausch [[MakeAnExampleOfThem kills Egan's wife]] to prevent him from talking, with Egan's teenage son surviving due to hiding. When captured, Rausch admits that his goal is to provoke a race war, claiming he wants "the mongrels to stop feeding on the hard work and good faith of the rest of us", and that when "you have a cancer, you cut it out".

** Bayliss. After surviving an Abusive Childhood, he becomes a cop and joins homicide, only for everyone to treat him like shit because of his lack of experience from investigation. Then his first case is a murdered eleven-year-old girl which becomes high profile very quickly. The case is fucked from the get go with the scene contaminated, the lack of evidence and the superior detectives moving the body too soon, all of which he is blamed for. The case remains open and Bayliss is forever haunted. Then he has three years of being treated badly by his partner Pembleton whom he seems to idolise. After Pembleton has a stroke, he starts treating him better until Bayliss is shot which convinces Pembleton to retire. In the finale, he murders a released killer and is driven insane by guilt.

** Sheppard's gun-taking fiasco from season seven, which made her look weak, incompetent and untrustworthy. Lewis, regardless if he were justified in doing so or not, looked like an even bigger {{Jerkass}} who alienated the others against her and even the [[DesignatedHero "good"]] female detectives turned on her for making ''them'' look bad. Even worse, this ended up being one of the seasons' ''main storylines.''

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The show was produced when smoking was still widely acceptable and indoor smoking bans were exceedingly rare. In fact, Gee rails about how unfair it would be to the smokers on the squad when Bayliss and Howard ask him to ban smoking in the squad room.

* HilariousInHindsight: It can be very difficult to watch this series without thinking of ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' as both star Andre Braugher as hypercompetent police officers.
** In the third season premiere, Bolander is disgusted with what's playing on the TV in the break room, and says, "I wish they'd bring back ''Series/HawaiiFiveO''." [[Series/HawaiiFive0 16 years later]]...
** [[WesternAnimation/BluesClues Steve Burns]] playing a [[SympatheticMurderer Student who killed a bully in a neglectful school setting]] who Munch sees as similar to him during his youth becomes funny and a little heartwarming when in 2019 the first episode of WesternAnimation/BluesCluesAndYou reveals that after leaving the show to focus on his studies Steve has became a detective (because he likes to help people).

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Beth Felton is emotionally demanding, prone to mood swings and erratic behavior, and is violently paranoid of her husband cheating in her.

** [[WesternAnimation/BluesClues Steve Burns]] playing a [[SympatheticMurderer Student who killed a bully in a neglectful school setting]] who Munch sees as similar during his youth becomes funny and a little heartwarming when in 2019 the first episode of WesternAnimation/BluesCluesAndYou reveals that after leaving the show to focus on his studies Steve has became a detective (because he likes to help people).

** Bayliss' character switch towards the end of season five when he ended his partnership with Pembleton and became an IronWoobie and a {{Determinator}} and stopped allowing the other detectives, especially his former partner, to walk all over him. The writers, [[WhatAnIdiot for some reason]] or another, didn't like this and turned him back into the regular [[TheWoobie woobie]] that the audiences saw earlier.

** Kellerman. His wife cheated on him. His partner (and supposed friend) won't open up to him. He's accused of taking bribes even though he didn't. He has a somewhat abortive relationship with Julianna Cox which basically ends because he's such a mess he can't explicate his feelings for her. He kills a bastard drug dealer pretty much in defence of his supposed partner/friend (how was it going to look if Mahoney revealed Lewis beat him up? Plus, he lowered his gun but he didn't drop it) and what does Lewis do in response? Turn his back on him. He eventually gets kicked off of the Police force for killing a total bastard, and everyone he worked with thinks he's trash.

** The latter scene was facilitated by the former, which was such a moral event horizon that Kellerman, who previously quit, started smoking again and descended into bitterness. He somewhat redeemed himself during his guest appearance in season 7, however.

* ValuesResonance: Tim Bayliss' ComingOutStory as bisexual was unheard of when the series first began. And its significance is even greater in current times, when more and more people in {{Real Life}} are coming out.

** The disproportionate amount of focus on Bolander's love life in the first two seasons. Pretty much no one likes it, seeing as how none of the other detectives got nearly as much focus on their personal lives and how {{Narm}}y the writers' efforts to turn Creator/NedBeatty into a KavorkaMan were. Fortunately, the focus stopped in Season 3.

** Kellerman at least partially qualifies, being a younger, more attractive replacement for three older, fatter detectives. But unlike previously named examples, Kellerman fit perfectly into the cast and rhythm of the series.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Gee's [[DodgyToupee very bad, very obvious toupee]] seen in season three. This could double as {{Narm}}.

** While never specified, Crosetti was so unhappy he was driven to suicide.

* SeasonalRot: There's a lot of debate about this and really any point after the third season is up for consideration. It's unanimously agreed that it had set in at Season 7, which suffered from both the loss of [[BreakoutCharacter Pembleton]] and ExecutiveMeddling turning ''Homicide'' into a ''Series/LawAndOrder'' clone. There are some well-liked episodes, but the season was generally regarded as inferior to the seasons that came before.