Con-CENTRIC Circles

In April, BET launched the CENTRIC Network to cater to mid-
dle-aged blacks (I resemble that demographic). Anyhoo, CEN-
TRIC is currently airing reruns of Homicide: Life on the
Streets.

Recently I had the pleasure of watching an episode titled "The
City that Bleeds, Part 1." The first five minutes of this episode
encapsulates everything I loved about the late, great series:

Detective Mike Logan (Chris Noth) is delivering a suspect (John
Waters) who has been extradited from New York to Baltimore for
a murder he committed. Logan's disdain for "Charm City" is
palpable and that irritates Det. Pembleton's (a shockingly
"emaciated" Andre Braugher) prickly pride. He, Logan and the
unctuously smarmy Waters trade barbed bon mots about Dorothy

Parker, Edgar Allen Poe (who found their final resting places in

Baltimore) and Babe Ruth (who found fame and fortune in New

York).

As Pembleton is leading the handcuffed Waters away he informs

him: "You're going to jail for this murder but thank your lucky

stars its not in New York City."

"Why do you think I didn't fight extradition," Waters says in his

inimitable delivery, "I may be guilty, but I'm no fool!"

I love the swagger, the trench coats and the stingy brims of
"Homicide: Life on the Streets."

And I love the actors:

Richard Belzer, as Det. Munch (and currently wasted on L&O:
SVU), has an amusing subplot where an artist ex-girlfriend ex-
hibits nude photos of him taken duirng his sane and not-so-sober
youth: "I'm naked! My dingle is blowing in the wind!"

Andre Braugher, as Det. Frank Pembleton, is still angry, still
chain smokes and still does not suffer fools gladly while Clark
Johnson, as Det. Medrick Lewis, with his laconic lope, is still as
cool as the other side of the pillow.

(In the above mentioned episode, Pembleton and Lewis are
partnered and engage in an increasingly heated "salt and pepper"
conversation about whether or not it is okay for a white witness
to assume the shooter in a murder was black. Given the venue,
the dark-skinned Pembleton sees validity in this argument while
the lighter-skinned Lewis is offended by the assumption).

Yaphett Kotto as Lt. Al Giardello is still wearing that horrible
hairpiece and Ned Beatty, as Det. Stanley, is still a grumpy old
man.

~rave!