History Series / HomicideLifeOnTheStreet

* TheCameo:

** The more common example of reheating recent news stories was not deployed as much as some other procedurals, but occasionally made an appearance. 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.

* 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 after being reassigned (off-screen) to Auto theft in Season five.

-->'''Det Bayliss''': ...I'm not gonna stop until I put this case down.\\

* FallenHero: Kellerman

** Felton is a subversion: he obviously has a deep friendship with Howard and Russert, after his alcoholism starts to affect his job, most of the other characters turn on him. Even before then though, the others had treated him with hostility or indifference prior to his shooting.

** Alfre Woodard appears in the Season 6 episode "Mercy," as Dr. Roxanne Turner, the character she portrayed on ''Series/StElsewhere''.

* HustlingtheMark: In "All Through the House," Bayliss tries to rope in the detectives for a "friendly" game of hearts. Pembleton calls him out on hustling, while Giardello opts to instead take him to school.

* {{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).

** Played straight with Officer Gharty, who was a DirtyCoward who let two of his fellow police officers get shot and spent the remainder of the episode [[NeverMyFault trying to hedge responsibility for his actions.]] When he later became detective, while nevet popular, he wasn't actively hated, either.

* GenreSavvy: Or possibly just pessimism. In the TrueCrime book on which the series is based, in cases where someone has been attacked with intent to kill but isn't dead when the homicide unit gets involved, the RealLife cops take it as a given that, ''if'' there's enough evidence to convict someone's attacker, the wounded victim will survive and the perp will get off with a lighter sentence. If there ''isn't'' sufficient evidence for a conviction, the wounded victim will die, ensuring the case will never be closed.

* {{Expy}}: The original cast were based on the Detectives from David Simon's book, but with names, genders and nationalities/race completely changed (examined in further detail [[http://www.litesrc.com/lemp/homicide/show/people.shtml here]]). Also notably the Baltimore police unit as depicted in the book had at least twenty detectives all told, and four Detective Sergeants. The series has eight detectives (although they're not the only people who work in the unit) and, until Howard passes her Sergeant's exam in Season 4, no Detective Sergeants.

* ShownTheirWork: One of the most realistic cop shows during its time. Detectives almost never use their weapons or go to an arrest without backup.

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: [[spoiler: Giardello appears to be on the road to recovery, but a few scenes later, Brodie informs everyone that he died.]]

* TakingYouWithMe: One of two options that Gee offers to Kellerman once the details of the Luther Mahoney shooting become known. He can face a criminal trial and possibly win, but the false reports that he, Lewis, and Stivers wrote on the incident will inevitably come to light, giving Gee grounds to fire all three of them. If Kellerman [[TurnInYourBadge quits]] instead, the matter will be closed and the other two can keep their jobs.

** "The Subway" takes place in a subway station and only 4 of the 9 regular actors make an appearance.

* TheBigBoard: One of the things that made the series unique. Each shift used one side o a giant two-sided dry-erase board to keep track of its cases, listed by number and the victim's last name. Open cases would be in red and closed cases would be in black (or blue, if a cold case had been solved), and any cases determined not to be a homicide were erased. A similarly designed board was used by the real-life Baltimore Police Department[[note]]The show actually caused the Baltimore PD to stop using the board because commanders felt that it led to a public perception that detectives were keeping score. The board was reinstated after detective outcry.[[/note]] and in Series/TheWire.

** The real-life shooting of Officer Gene Cassidy and the subsequent uphill struggle to secure a conviction for his attacker, Butchie Frazier, are the basis of a season 4 plotline for Crosetti.
** The death of a Mr John Randolph Scott in suspicious circumstances likely involving BPD officers in the book is recreated in the TV series. [[spoiler: Unlike in real life, the killer is brought to justice.]]

** The Law & Order crossovers tend, probably due to RuleOfDrama, to prioritize JurisdictionFriction over solving cases Ed Danvers and Jack [=McCoy=] had to almost be forced to work together at times.

** Meg Russert, when demoted TWICE by an angry Barnfather for not kissing his butt, simply pouts a bit and doesn't fight it, instead of going to her famous reporter cousin (Tim Russert had a cameo prior as himself, establishing this) and making massive media headlines over how corrupt the BPD was.

** The episode ''Every Mother's Son'' features a fourteen-year old perp who shot a similarly aged victim in a bowling alley. Most of the characters highlight how he's too young to be killing people.

* 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.

* AccuseTheWitness: Given the nature of the show, getting the wrong guy initially is relatively common. Going after one of the witness is always the next step.

** Eventually played straight with Kellerman. After [[DirtyCoward Lewis and Stivers]] let him take all the blame for the Luther Mahoney shooting and [[TurnInYourBadge getting fired for it]], his fellow detectives treated him like trash over both it and that he was now [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets working as a private detective]], even with him helping the solve the case of the episode arc he had returned in.[[note]]It also may have been the reason that he had worked exclusively with Mike Giardello in the ''Homicide'' movie; he was there with Kellerman's fellow, previous detectives upon his return, but wasn't around to let his past actions color his perceptions of him[[/note]]

* TheBigBoard: One of the things that made the series unique. Cases would be tracked by use of a giant dry erase whiteboard. Open cases would be in red and closed cases would be in black, with reopened cold cases in blue. They used a similar (but not exactly the same) board in the actual Baltimore Police Department[[note]]The show actually caused the Baltimore PD to stop using the board because commanders felt that it led to a public perception that detectives were keeping score. The board was reinstated after detective outcry.[[/note]] and in Series/TheWire.

* IconicItem: The Board, used to keep track of each detective's caseload. When a case is opened, its number and the victim's last name are written in red under the primary detective's column. Unidentified victims are listed as "Doe," then changed to the actual names once they are known. After a case is closed, the entry is erased and rewritten in black (or blue, if it's a cold case from a previous year). Cases that turn out not to be homicides are erased. The Board was based on a giant laminated sheet of paper hung up in the actual BPD homicide squad room for this same purpose.

* BuriedAlive: ''Heartbeat'', which contains multiple references to Creator/EdgarAllanPoe.

* NiceHat: Lewis is rarely seen outside the station house without his really rather cool trilby. Pembleton was also given to wearing a pretty sweet fedora at times.

* GenreSavvy [or possibly just pessimism] -- In the TrueCrime book on which the series is based, in cases where someone has been attacked with intent to kill but isn't dead when the homicide unit gets involved, the RealLife cops take it as a given that, ''if'' there's enough evidence to convict someone's attacker, the wounded victim will survive and the perp will get off with a lighter sentence. If there ''isn't'' sufficient evidence for a conviction, the wounded victim will die, ensuring the case will never be closed.

* SpecialGuest: Among those who made guest appearances were Creator/SteveAllen, Creator/LewisBlack, Creator/WilfordBrimley, Creator/SteveBuscemi, Creator/BruceCampbell, Creator/JoanChen, Creator/VincentDOnofrio, Creator/JeffreyDonovan, Creator/TateDonovan, Creator/CharlesDurning, Creator/CharlesSDutton, Creator/KathrynErbe, Creator/EdieFalco, Creator/PeterGallagher, Creator/PaulGiamatti, Creator/JohnGlover, Creator/LuisGuzman, Creator/JakeGyllenhaal, Creator/MarciaGayHarden, Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, Creator/PatHingle, Creator/JamesEarlJones, Creator/TerryKinney, Creator/BrunoKirby, Creator/JuliannaMargulies, Creator/JenaMalone, Creator/AnneMeara, Creator/DavidMorse, Creator/TerryOQuinn, [[Music/{{Aerosmith}} Joe Perry]], Creator/ChrisRock, Creator/JKSimmons, Creator/FisherStevens, Creator/JerryStiller (in a different season from wife Anne Meara), Creator/EricStoltz, Creator/TonyTodd, Creator/LilyTomlin, Creator/KateWalsh, Creator/IsaiahWashington, Creator/RobinWilliams, Creator/DeanWinters, and Creator/ElijahWood.

* MoralDissonance: Lewis' behavior after his involvement in the Mahoney shooting is a fine example of this trope.