Like so many other people I watched Homicide as and when TV decided to broadcast it and it should have been primetime. This cop drama broke the mould and reshaped it. It is with thanks to this series we have the likes of The Shield and The Wire (also set in Baltimore) and any fans of those series should be watching Homicide.

This is true to life drama following complex characters while they try and solve murders in the City. It shows the determination and tenacity of the Detectives and they do not always get their man and not all have a happy ending just like real life. The acting is superb, the characters are equally likeable and unlikeable but you always have respect for them and the work they do and also how the crimes affect the individual. There are some black comedy moments which falls into line with what the programme tries to show.

Perfect cop drama, buy it and love it.

For those in the UK that missed it, i.e. people without insomnia and the patience to second guess C4's astonishingly evil/random scheduling in order to record it, this is one of the best programmes ever made - period.

One of the first (to me anyway) shows that allowed characters to develop over the entire series it allowed all to shine and is a far cry from the shiny CSI nonsense...

It requires work on behalf of the viewer as the dialogue is real and it assumes that you have intelligence enough to follow it.

As for extras, maybe a few would have been nice, but I personally am not fussed and you wont be bothered as the programme itself rocks...

Homicide is an excellent show, far removed from the car chases and gun battles of the 70s and 80s or the flashly filming and graphics of modern shows. Normally I'd love to give it five stars, but whilst the programmes are excellent the presentation on the discs is somewhat shoddy, with the R2 discs having no extras at all compared to the extra laden R1 versions, another case of us Brits getting a second rate release....