Kevin Smith (kvnsmith@colba.net)
Thu, 16 Sep 1999 05:34:59 -0400
Teri wrote:
>I'm not sure Homicide qualifies as noir, but
it
>certainly is one of the most hard-boiled shows
ever
>to be on network television, not to mention one
of
>the very best. Sure, it declined the last
couple
>of years, but there were still moments of
brilliance.
Well, it varied for sure, but the last season's two-parter
with the disgraced Kellerman's return as a window-peeping
private eye, working for a defense lawyer, against his former
colleagues, was noir of the finest kind. Kellerman's
complexities, divided loyalties and moral ambiguities were
right out of Hammett.
The thing about HOMICIDE was that when an episode was over,
you knew you'd seen something. We'd all be lucky if Mosley's
Easy Rawlins could be brought to the boob tube with even half
as much savvy and style and true grit as Homicide was, but I
wouldn't hold my breath. This is network television right
outta Hollywood, after all. I'll be considering it a major
triumph if they don't cast Urkel as Easy.
But speaking of TV noir, does anyone remember DIE KINDER (The
Children)? It aired on PBS as part of MYSTERY several years
ago, I think, but it was a long way off from the usual Lord
Limpnoodle and Detective Inspector Forthwright-Upright
twitchfest, or the multi-part frothed-up gothic stuff. It was
a bleak, dark, rather nasty tale about an expatriate American
eye butting heads with a gang of German terrorists who'd been
accused of a department store bombing (not sure if it was a
missing daughter job or what).
Yeah, I hardly believe it, either. But I saw it. Does anyone
else remember it?
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
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