The Documentary
Directed By: Barbara Kopple
Story By: Tom Fontana, Eric Overmyer, and James Yoshimura
Teleplay By: Eric Overmyer
As the Homicide Unit celebrates New Year's Eve, Brodie finally shows them the documentary he's been working on.
This episode contains examples of:
- Blatant Lies: Two In-Universe examples:
- Bayliss and Pembleton had told Giardello what happened to their car was a result of someone rear-ending them in a parking lot, when Brodie's documentary shows Pembleton actually rear-ended a woman because he wasn't paying attention while he was driving. Not only that, but we see him bragging in the documentary how he was able to sweet talk the woman into letting him just leave some money to pay for whatever damage, instead of following the procedure of exchanging insurance information.
- When the detectives are demonstrating on the documentary what they do in the box while interrogating a suspect (which is straight from a section in David Simon's book), one technique is tricking suspects to give up their right to remain silent - even telling suspects the only way the detectives can help them is if they talk - when it's clearly not in the suspect's best interest to talk.
- Call-Back: Too many to list, but the highlights include Howard's secret boyfriend (whom Kellerman recognizes), Brodie rooming with different members of the Homicide Unit, and the identity of the "Lunch Bandit".
- Clip Show: Part of Brodie's documentary includes clips from many episodes from Seasons 4 and 5. Russert even appears in a couple of clips from Season 4.
- Continuity Nod: Dr. Cox and Kellerman are still interested in each other (they make out with each other during a break from watching Brodie's documentary) and decide to go out on a date.
- Creator Cameo: Executive producer Barry Levinson appears as the director of a movie Kellerman and Lewis stumble on when they're chasing a suspect (see Real Life Writes the Plot below).
- Diegetic Switch: The Iguanas' "Boom Boom Boom" is used diegetically as the soundtrack to the first Hard Work Montage in Brodie's documentary, and then non-diegetically in the second one at the end of the episode.
- Hard-Work Montage: In-Universe - included in the documentary is a montage of the detectives at various crime scenes. The episode ends on a similar montage of the first cases of the new year.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While watching the documentary, the detectives (along with Dr. Cox, who comes in to join them) make remarks about how the documentary repeats scenes over and over, has scenes that don't make immediate sense, and doesn't have enough action, which are all comments NBC executives made when they complained about the show. The final scene, where Giardello criticizes Brodie for submitting the documentary to PBS because he sees it as an invasion of the detectives' privacy, and Brodie arguing the documentary was made for the greater good to show how police work, also is similar to the arguments the police made against David Simon's wish to follow the Homicide Unit around for a year in order to research his book, and Simon's arguments justifying that wish.
- Miranda Rights: Part of the documentary shows the detectives illustrating how while the detectives acknowledge the Miranda rights are there, they are still going to work around those rights to get a confession.
- Mood Whiplash: Except for the Hard-Work Montage, which everyone looks at somberly, the detectives all have a good time watching, and then they find out Brodie has sold the documentary to PBS, which makes them upset. Then New Year's Day arrives, followed by the phones ringing.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: This turns out to be the motive for Bennett Jackson (Melvin Van Peebles) murdering his neighbors - they found out he took corpses from the mortuary he worked at and brought them over so he could pretend they were his dinner guests. It's not clear if he had sex with them, however.
- Orphaned Punchline: Another example of Lewis (this time as he walks with Kellerman into the Waterfront) telling the joke with the punchline, "So the bear says, 'You didn't come here to hunt, did you?'"
- Real Life Writes the Plot: At one point in the documentary, Kellerman and Lewis are chasing a suspect when they stumble onto a movie set for a movie being shot by Barry Levinson (see Creator Cameo above). This mirrors a Real Life incident when a robbery suspect was running away from the police when he stumbled onto the Homicide set, saw what he thought were real police officers, and surrendered to them (only when the suspect recognized Richard Belzer and yelled out, "Munch!" did he realize what he'd done).
- The Reveal: Gaffney is the "Lunch Bandit".
- Series Continuity Error: Many of the corpses seen in the first montage sequence are murder scenes from earlier in the season that Brodie wasn't present at.
- Take That!: When Brodie mentions he made the documentary In the Style of, among others, Ken Burns, Munch calls Burns the only he knows who could make baseball even more boring than it already is.
- Titled After the Song: Brodie's documentary is called Back Page News after a lyric in the Iguanas' "Boom Boom Boom", which he used as a soundtrack.
