History Series / HomicideLifeOnTheStreet

* TheCoroner: Julianna Cox, as well as Dr.Blythe, Dr.Dyer, Dr.Scheiner and Cox's replacemtn Dr. Griscom.

* {{Handguns}}: Very rarely used in the early seasons. In fact, there wasn't a fatal cop-on-criminal shooting until season five.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The day shift.

* JerkAss: Felton, Gharty (both accused racists), Pembleton and, after a long character arc, Kellerman.

* NiceGuy: Lewis... until season 6.

* NobleBigotWithABadge: Gharty was supposed to be this.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Despite most of the characters being Baltimore natives, none of the cast were from there with only Lewis, played by Philadelphia native Clark Johnson, having the accent. Braugher's New York native Pembleton has a Chicago accent and Reed Diamond sounds more Brooklyn than "Bawlmer". Probably for the best as the Baltimore accent is very difficult to grasp and can be off-putting if done poorly (As ''[[TheWire Dominic West showed]])

* RetCon: In Season 1, Howard is the primary investigator on a double-homicide committed by a drug dealer named Pony Johnson. In Season 6, Johnson is the prime mover behind another murder. Because the actress playing Howard, Melissa Leo, had left the show by that time, the case was retconned to make JohnMunch the primary, so he could get the detectives up to speed on Johnson.

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Roger Gaffney. Giardello is not happy about Gaffney's promotion.

* YouLookFamiliar: The actor who played Gaffney, Walt [=MacPherson=], had previously appeared in the second season as an unidentified beat cop who finds an earring at a crime scene and offers it to Bayliss as possible evidence.

** Generally speaking the show received a lot of creative freedom and leniency from the network, who always renewed the show despite its low ratings. Beatty and Baldwin left over contract disputes. The addition of Callie Thorne as Laura Ballard and Michael Michelle as Rene Sheppherd was obviously executively mandated however.

* JerkAss: Felton, Gharty, Pembleton (arguably only in the first three seasons) and, after a long character arc, Kellerman.

* TheCoroner: Julianna Cox, as well as Dr.Blythe, Dr.Dyer and Dr.Scheiner.

The character of Det JohnMunch proved so popular that the character - always played by actor Richard Belzer - went on to make guest appearances in every ''Series/LawAndOrder'' series (including a French spin-off), ''TheXFiles'', ''The Beat'', ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', ''TheWire'' and even ''SesameStreet''. He is currently a regular character in ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''.

* TheCoroner: Julianna Cox.

** Stivers and, for female viewers, Kellerman and Falsone weren't too shabby, either.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Despite most of the characters being Baltimore natives, none of the cast were from there with only Lewis, played by Philadelphia native Clark Johnson, having the accent. Braugher's New York native Pembleton has a Chicago accent and Reed Diamond sounds more Brooklyn than "Bawlmer". Probably for the best as the Baltimore accent is very difficult to grasp and can be off-putting if done poorly.

* ShownTheirWork: One of the most realistic cop shows around and one of the first to make Realism important to its centre. If You watch closely, You'll see that detectives almost never use Their weapons or go to an arrest without backup.

* AwesomeMusic: Many examples. The soundtrack fits in the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Collective Soul, Tori Amos, Suzanne Vega and Jimi Hendrix and it is awesome.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: In ''Kaddish'' Brodie demonstrates his knowledge of Jewish burial rites and Yiddish, but his ethnicity is never stated directly. Munch also somewhat fits this trope - his name does not sound Jewish.

The character of Det JohnMunch proved so popular that the character - always played by actor Richard Belzer - went on to make guest appearances in every ''Series/LawAndOrder'' series (including a French spin-off), ''TheXFiles'', ''The Beat'', ''ArrestedDevelopment'', ''TheWire'' and even ''SesameStreet''. He is currently a regular character in ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''.

* ActorAllusion -- In ''Heartbeat'', Dr.Dyer tells Dr.Cox she's done dating homicide detectives after her break-up with Munch, and is now seeing a stand-up comic. She is played by Harlee McBride, Richard Belzer's wife.
* AlternateRealityGame -- ''Homicide: Second Shift'', a web-based mini show.
* AmbiguouslyJewish -- In ''Kaddish'' Brodie demonstrates his knowledge of Jewish burial rites and Yiddish, but his ethnicity is never stated directly. Munch also somewhat fits this trope - his name does not sound Jewish.
* BeardOfSorrow -- Tim Bayliss during the latter half of Season Four, and then again in the movie.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness -- Subverted in the first seasons, when the cast members ranged from ordinary looking to downright ugly.
* BerserkButton -- While usually very kind and pleasant, Gee's deep voice and imposing frame will haunt your nightmares if you even think of hurting a child.
* BiTheWay -- Tim Bayliss. One of the first American TV examples, in fact.

* BuriedAlive -- ''Heartbeat'', which contains multiple references to EdgarAllanPoe.
* BusCrash -- At the start of season three, Steve Crosetti goes missing after returning from a holiday; he is found in the bay after committing suicide. In season four, Det Beau Felton is suspended, but is subsequently shot and killed.
* BusmansHoliday -- Howard ends up having to solve a murder on her holiday in "Last of the Watermen".
* ButtMonkey -- Brodie.
* TheCameo -- Famous Baltimore native JohnWaters, first as a bartender and then as a perp being extradited from New York by [[Series/LawAndOrder Detective Logan]]. It's unclear whether or not they're the same character
* CastTheExpert ---Gary D'Addario, a retired police commander, inspired the character Al Giardello, and played a recurring role as [=QRT=] head Lt. Jasper.

* CharacterDepth -- Often remarkable.
* ChristianityIsCatholic -- Lt Giardello, Det Crosetti, Det Pembleton, Det Felton. Partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Maryland has traditionally had a larger-than-normal Catholic population. Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic refugee from Great Britain, who served as its first governor for 42 years in the seventeenth century. Predictably, Maryland became a haven for other British Catholic refugees. Baltimore also named his colony after Queen Mary, also known as Blood Mary, the last Catholic British monarch.

* ConspiracyTheorist -- Munch, Crosetti.
* CrossOver -- With ''Series/LawAndOrder'' and ''StElsewhere'' (see also the [[http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers.html Tommy Westphall crossover chart]] for some FridgeBrilliance examining the resulting JohnMunch IntercontinuityCrossover.)
* DaChief -- Lt Giardello though it should be noted that Lt Giardello also has a rebellious streak and is often at odds with his own 'DaChief'.
* DeadpanSnarker -- Munch.
* {{Determinator}} -- Bayliss, especially in his obsession with the Adena Watson case.

* DefectiveDetective -- Bayliss
* DependingOnTheWriter -- Not a real problem, but definitely shows in "Bop Gun." This was written by David Simon, and used a lot of the lingo ("humble," "yo," etc.) that was in the book and was later featured in ''TheWire''. For most of the run, the show tended to use standard language, or included explanations with police jargon.
* DeusAngstMachina -- Bayliss [[spoiler: was molested as a child, had a terrible relationship with his father, gets some of the shift's worst cases, has a complicated and mostly unhappy social life, has health problems, takes a bullet for his best friend who later quits the job leaving him alone, and is eventually haunted by the VigilanteExecution he commits]].
* DirtyCop -- Kellerman; in a mundane but unsettling example of {{Self Fulfilling Prophecy}}, as a consequence of being unjustly accused of being a Dirty Cop, he eventually does become one.

* DocumentaryEpisode -- In the fifth season episode "The Documentary".
* DoNotPassGo -- In the movie:

* DownerEnding -- Many of them, but the ending of the final movie takes the cake, with [[spoiler: Giardello dying and Bayliss either going to jail or killing himself]].
* DroppedABridgeOnHim -- Bolander was unceremoniously written off after the third season. Unlike Felton and Crosetti, however, he did avoid a {{Bus Crash}}.
* DuelingShows -- With ''NYPDBlue''.
* EvilIsDumb -- Plenty of them.
** A prime example would be in the season 4 episode Stakeout, when a young man picked up on a solicitation charge attempts to bargain his way out by admitting complicity in a series of serial murders.

* ExecutiveMeddling -- Jon Polito's Det Crosetti was cut to make way for a younger, attractive female character, as was Ned Beatty's Det Bolander. Even handsome Daniel Baldwin's Felton was given the chop for younger cast members. The show also had its scheduling messed around with a lot.

* FairCop -- Laura Ballard and Rene Sheppard were [[MsFanService blatant]] attempts to get viewing figures up, after ExecutiveMeddling.

* FallenHero -- Kellerman
* FatalFlaw -- Bayliss' inability to keep himself emotionally distant from his job.
* AFatherToHisMen -- Gee.
* FauxAffablyEvil -- Luther Mahoney, at least until his VillainousBreakdown.
* {{Foreshadowing}} -- In "Fallen Heroes" part one, Pembleton has the chance to shoot [[spoiler: Junior Bunks during his killing spree in the police station]], but he hesitates. In part two, [[spoiler: he freezes in front of an armed suspect and Bayliss takes a bullet for him]]. In general, Frank being a NonActionGuy prone to making mistakes in dangerous situations had been foreshadowed several times (see also: first episode of season four).

* GoodCopBadCop -- Often, but not always, played respectively by Pembleton and Bayliss (see the episode ''Three Men and Adena''); inverted in ''Double Blind''.
* GunsAkimbo -- In "The City That Bleeds".

* {{Handguns}} -- Very rarely used in the early seasons. In fact, there wasn't a fatal cop-on-criminal shooting until season five.
* HeroOfAnotherStory -- The day shift.
* HeteronormativeCrusader -- Bayliss starts out as one, but comes to embrace his darker side as the show progresses.
* HollywoodPoliceDrivingAcademy -- Lewis must have been an honor student.
* IdiotBall -- The Sniper episodes: The detectives couldn't figure out that "EROMITLAB" is "BALTIMORE" backwards?
* INeverSaidItWasPoison -- Subverted in the episode "Bad Medicine."
* IntercontinuityCrossover -- As of 2008, Munch will have appeared in no less than 10 TV series.
* InternalAffairs -- Ironically, Kellerman is initially persecuted by IA for being unjustly accused of taking bribes; later, his execution of a suspect is never properly investigated.
* InternalHomage -- The first scene of the first episode is repeated with the exact same dialogue in the last scene of the last episode. Also, in "Nearer, My God, To Thee" (episode 14), Munch issues a cynical monologue about TV and technocracy; in "Kaddish" (episode 73), a WholeEpisodeFlashback, a younger John Munch delivers the same monologue, but with a hopeful tone.
* InterruptedSuicide -- Lewis talks Kellerman out of suicide.
* IronicNurseryTune -- The ending of "Requiem for Adena", with "Twinkle twinkle little star" playing as we see the soon-to-be-father Pembleton looking at the empty cradle and a burnout Bayliss trying to forget about his first case, the murder of a young girl, tossing the portrait of the victim (which he kept framed on his desk) in the garbage bin.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique -- Very much averted as hitting suspects is illegal and most detectives can't be bothered with the risk. Only about three examples come up: all involving Bayliss and all ending with him being stopped and/or swiftly reprimanded.

* JerkAss -- Felton, Gharty, Pembleton (arguably only in the first three seasons) and, after a long character arc, Kellerman.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold -- Munch.
* JurisdictionFriction -- In on episode, Kellerman is disgruntled by the fact that the F.B.I are ''not'' interested in the matter of a corrupt judge that he's bringing to them. [[spoiler: One of the agents later tracks him down and, off-the-record, admits that they're already investigating the judge but official policy is not to discuss corruption investigations with local authorities.]]
* KarmaHoudini -- A realistically terrifying number of them.
* LieDetector -- Munch and Bolander trick a stupid perp into thinking that a photocopier is actually a dangerous, radioactive lie detector.

* MedleyExit -- Very frequent - and memorable.
* MoralDissonance -- Lewis' behavior after his involvement in the Mahoney shooting is a fine example of this trope.
* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable -- In "The Documentary", a lonely mortuary worker borrows corpses so he can host dinner parties by himself.
* MurderDotCom -- "Homicide.com".
* MyGreatestFailure -- Bayliss eventually became a competent detective, but was always haunted by his inability to solve his first case, the murder of a young girl.

* MysteryOfTheWeek -- In later seasons.
* NiceGuy -- Lewis... until season 6.
* NiceHat -- Lewis is rarely seen outside the station house without his really rather cool trilby.

* NoBisexuals -- Averted; Tim Bayliss is bisexual.
* NoExportForYou -- Try to find a copy of ''Homicide: The Movie'' outside of the U.S.
* NobleBigotWithABadge -- Gharty was supposed to be this.
* NonActionGuy -- Pembleton, one of best investigators of the squad, hates firearms and is a terrible shot.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat -- Col. Barnfather was essentially this though later episodes were far more sympathetic to his predicaments.

* OutOfFocus -- Howard and Munch from season 4 on.
* PayEvilUntoEvil -- Mostly subverted.

* PlanBFromOuterSpace -- Subverted.
* PointyHairedBoss -- Detective - later Captain - Gaffney.

* RabidCop -- Usually Pembleton.
* ReadingYourRights -- Mostly accurate.
* RedOniBlueOni -- Bayliss and Pembleton, respectively.

* RetCon -- In Season 1, Howard is the primary investigator on a double-homicide committed by a drug dealer named Pony Johnson. In Season 6, Johnson is the prime mover behind another murder. Because the actress playing Howard, Melissa Leo, had left the show by that time, the case was retconned to make JohnMunch the primary, so he could get the detectives up to speed on Johnson.
* ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma -- When Munch and Kellerman work on a case involving a suicide jumper killed by a stray shotgun blast on the way down from a tall building, Munch describes it as "a riddle, surrounded by a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma, and stuffed inside a body bag."
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: not as much as some procedurals, but occasionally. In particular, the episode "Colors" is based on the real case of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Hattori Yoshihiro Hattori]], a Japanese exchange student who was shot dead by a paranoid householder in Baton Rouge while looking for a fancy-dress party.
* SerialKiller -- A couple of them, but only after the sober minimalism of the first two seasons.
* ShoutOut -- The non-plot names on the murder board are taken from the show's crew and their friends and family.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism -- ''Definitely'' on the cynical side.

* SmugSnake -- Luther Mahoney. Also, Roger Gaffney.
** And Independent Counsel William Dell. All the worse because [[spoiler:he wins in the end]].
* SoBeautifulItsACurse -- Sheppard in the last season.
* SoulBrotha -- Lewis.
* SpotlightStealingSquad -- Falsone and Ballard in the sixth season.
* TookALevelInJerkass -- Kellerman.
* TragicHero -- If we consider the final movie, Bayliss.
* {{Transplant}} -- Munch joining ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''.
* TrashTheSet -- The shootout at the end of the sixth season.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm -- Roger Gaffney. Giardello is not happy about Gaffney's promotion.
* VigilanteExecution -- At least two of them, involving respectively [[spoiler:Kellerman and Bayliss]]. In each case, the killers are eventually broken by the consequences of their actions.
-->'''Det Kellerman''': ''(shooting Luther Mahoney in cold blood)'' You have the right to remain silent.

* VillainEpisode -- Third-season finale "The Gas Man" was almost a pure example, but the heroes ended up with dialogue anyway.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity -- Luther Mahoney.
* VitriolicBestBuds - Munch and Bolander, of Type 2.

* YouDidntAsk -- In "In Search of Crimes Past".
* YouFailLawForever -- Mostly averted.
* YouLookFamiliar -- The actor who played Gaffney, Walt [=MacPherson=], had previously appeared in the second season as an unidentified beat cop who finds an earring at a crime scene and offers it to Bayliss as possible evidence.

* AmbiguouslyJewish -- In ''Kaddish'' Brodie demonstrates his knowledge of Jewish burial rites and Yiddish, but his ethnicity is never stated directly. Munch also somewhat fits this trope - his name does not sound Jewish, and until ''Kaddish'', neither his ethnicity nor religion were mentioned at all.

** Actually, he's implied to be a crack shot. After his stroke, he is chained to his desk until he passes his firearms proficiency test. He fails it by one point and begs [[DaChief Al]] to reinstate him anyway as he failed because he couldn't remember what the word "magasine" meant and didn't reload his firearm. The [[{{Pun}} admission of omission]] chains him to the desk even worse. But you gotta admit that coming one point short of qualifying with half the alloted ammo implies [[LethalWeapon he could draw smileys on the targets]] and fails to use his firearms on the lethal occasions on the show because of [[ActualPacifist his belief]] in the sanctity of human life.

** Many of the detectives on the squad when Simon did his research were not from Baltimore and most of the characters in the series weren't described as Baltimore natives, so not so much, actually.

* ChristianityIsCatholic -- Lt Giardello, Det Crosetti, Det Pembleton, Det Felton. Partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Maryland has traditionally had a larger-than-normal Catholic population.

* DaChief -- Lt Giardello.

[[caption-width-right:300:The season three cast, clockwise from far left: detectives [[TheWoobie Bayliss]], [[LawfulNeutral Pembleton]], [[SoulBrotha Lewis]], and [[TheAlcoholic Felton]]; Lt [[HotMom Russert]], Det [[CoolOldGuy Bolander]], Lt [[DaChief Giardello]], detectives [[NeutralGood Howard]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Munch]] ]]

* FallenHero -- Kellerman, whose long parable arguably brought him from {{Neutral Good}} to {{Chaotic Good}}, then to {{Chaotic Neutral}} and eventually even to {{Neutral Evil}}, only to be redeemed in his last appearance as {{Chaotic Good}} again.

* HollywoodPolicedrivingAcademy -- Lewis must have been an honor student.

* HeteronormativeCrusader - Bayliss starts out as one, but comes to embrace his darker side as the show progresses.