As hard as it is to believe, there are still plenty of highly esteemed shows that have never been available on streaming. NBC’s police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street is one such show, but starting next month, you’ll finally be able to watch it on Peacock.
On Monday, Peacock announced that all seven seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street, as well as Homicide: The Movie, have been remastered in HD and 4K. They both make their streaming debuts in the US on Peacock on August 19, 2024.
As Peacock describes the police drama, Homicide: Life on the Street “examines the calculating and exacting detective work of the often confrontational, passionate, and opinionated homicide department in Baltimore. With a determined cast of characters that never let up in their quest for truth and justice, this gripping hourlong series remains the standard bearer of how police handle the job both professionally and personally.”
That determined cast includes Andre Braugher, who starred as Detective Frank Pemberton for the whole run and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the role in 1998. Sadly, Braugher died last year to cancer at the age of 61, but now a new generation of viewers is going to have a chance to see him in one of his most notable and celebrated roles.
The series is based on David Simon’s 1991 book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which also inspired Simon’s HBO series The Wire. In addition to Braugher, the series stars Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Giancarlo Esposito, Daniel Baldwin, Jon Polito, Clark Johnson, Kyle Secor, Reed Diamond, Michelle Forbes, Peter Gerety, Isabella Hofmann, Michael Michele, Toni Lewis, Max Perlich, Jon Seda, and Callie Thorn.
According to Simon, music rights played a major role in the long delay in bringing the series to a streaming platform. NBC apparently secured those rights just weeks ago, as Simon revealed on X/Twitter on June 17 in one of his many missives about the show:
Up until now, Homicide has basically been lost media for anyone unwilling to buy the complete series on DVD (and then find a DVD player to watch it). Now, Peacock subscribers are going to get 122 episodes of one of the best police shows ever to air on television. Between this and the Olympics, the next few weeks are shaping up to be big for NBCUniversal’s streamer.
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