Homicide: Life on The Street - finally streaming in Australia

I’ve had this one under my hat for a bit now, but here’s some really great news. Homicide: Life on The Street will be available to stream in Australia this January.

Streaming via SBS On Demand, the first three seasons will be available from January 16, with season 4 on January 23, and season 5 on January 30. Seasons 6, 7, and the TV movie that wraps the series up will be available in February.

As per the SBS blurb:

Winner of four Emmy awards, Homicide: Life On The Street is one of the most innovative and influential dramas of all time, remastered in stunning UHD andavailable as a box set for the first time on SBS On Demand. Created by Paul Attanasio (Donnie Brasco) and executive produced by Tom Fontana (Oz) and Barry Levinson (Dopesick). Built on an ensemble cast, including major guest stars including Robin Williams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Steve Buscemi and Juliann [sic] Margulies, with a career-defining performance by Andre Baugher as Detective Frank Pembleton

This fast-paced police drama portrays the gritty detective work of a homicide inspired by real murder cases in 1990s Baltimore. A unit of homicide detectives battle an overload of cases in the brutal struggle to keep law and order, all the while wrestling with the toll their difficult work takes on their lives and relationships.

What I would highlight is that this is a TV series that redefined the medium. In the same way that Hill Street Blues and St Elsewhere elevated the TV drama in the 80s, Homicide did the same in the 90s alongside ER, Twin Peaks, Oz, and The Sopranos.

It’s an incredible show that boasts a cast of heavy-hitting character actors including Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Men of a Certain Age), Ned Beatty (Deliverance, Superman: The Movie), Jon Polito (Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink), Melissa Leo (Frozen River, The Fighter), and Yaphet Kotto (Alien, Live & Let Die).

Before going on to create The Wire, David Simon was a Baltimore journalist who took time off from his newspaper crime beat job to write the book Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets. That book was quickly optioned for the TV show, with David Simon joining the writing team on the show midway through. Homicide is where he learned to make TV.

I talk about Homicide a lot in this newsletter, in part because it really is incredible TV that still holds up very well (especially the first three seasons). But also, in part it is because absence made the heart grow fonder. The show just hasn’t been available on streaming until recently.

The show had been available on DVD sets, but only just got remastered for streaming where it is now available in the US on Peacock. The remastered video looks gorgeous. I loved the darkness and grit that the original versions had, but if you’re a normal person, you will be very happy with just how modern and contemporary the show looks now.

Just a few weeks ago I was beyond excited to interview

Kyle Secor

from the show. He played Detective Tim Bayliss on the show and it is through his eyes that we enter the world of the show. He’s crucial to the series and is one of the very few cast members to see the show through from the first to the last episode. You can read that EXTENSIVE interview here:

It’s exciting to see Homicide: Life on The Street back on screen in Australia. This is a show that was formative to me as a TV viewer. I first watched it with regularity from the third season onwards in the 90s and it was one of my very first proper adult TV dramas. I didn’t know better and assumed that grown-up TV was generally this good and have found myself chasing that belief mistakenly for the 25+ years since.

Since airing originally on Channel 7 in Australia, it was found for a while on Foxtel channel Arena, and, just a few years back, was playing mid-afternoons on one of Seven’s digital channels.

For a lot of viewers, this will be the first time they get to watch Homicide and it is exciting to see that SBS have licensed the show in Australia.