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"The Subway" became the most celebrated episode of the sixth season of Homicide: Life on the Street. A showcase for Andre Braugher's Frank Pembleton, the squad's tetchy, intense, brilliant detective, it takes place almost entirely in the subway and focuses on the relationship between Pembleton and the dying victim of a gruesome subway platform accident (guest star Vincent D'Onofrio), who's not expected to live out the hour. It garnered lavish praise from TV critics across the U.S., earned two Emmy nominations (including one for D'Onofrio), and won the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. Little did documentary director Theodore Bogosian know what was in store when he began his made-for-public TV special Anatomy of a Homicide, a detailed look at the creation of the episode from idea through script and production to broadcast. You get it all: script conferences, location scouting, special-effects challenges (how do you portray a man convincingly trapped by a tram and twisted like taffy?), the clip from the HBO series Taxicab Confessions that inspired the story, and a privileged look at network politics. It's an inspired pairing for the video debut of the series, a fine introduction for new viewers, and the equivalent of a coffee-table video album for the faithful. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Television drama at its very best!
If you're reading this, chances are you're already a fan of Homicide to some degree. Some early fans of the show became disenchanted with the program as its run on NBC progressed, feeling that it became more conventional. While it's true that the show's later seasons used less of the stirring camera-work which was the show's visual trademark in the early episode, the stories told were no less compelling.

A case in point is season six's "The Accident" or as it's commonly known "the subway episode." When a commuter becomes pinned between a subway train and the platform, detectives Tim Bayliss and Frank Pembleton are called in, because the accident victim is alsmost certainly going to die. As Bayliss tries to determine what caused the accident, Pembleton (as played by Emmy-winner Andre Braugher) forms an uneasy bond with the victim (played by Vincent D'Onofrio). With Homicide, the focus was always less on what the detectives revealed about their cases and more on what the detectives revealed about themselves as human beings.

Of all Homicide's detectives none showed us more of what was good and bad about human beings than Frank Pembleton. In the context of the show, Pembleton was not only the best investigator in the squad, he was also the moral center, a good man whose sense of right and wrong never fails, soemone who will always remain on the right side of that line even if it means offending those who care about him. As he tries to comfort the victim whom he knows is about to die, Pembleton confronts his own beliefs and notions of faith and goodness. The interplay between the two characters is as insightful, gripping and well-written as anything committed to film in years, and more than anything this is probably the episode which earned Andre Braugher his Emmy award.

This episode also went on to win the Peabody award and was the subject of a fascinating documentary called "Anatomy of a Homicide." In addition to focusing on the specifics of writing and producing "the subway episode," it is also an intriguing window into the politics of television network programming. That documentary is available on this tape along with the full episode. Homicide never quite got its due during its network run, but the availability of these two productions may help redress that balance.

A phenomenal study in human behavour
This episode alone is the best HOMICIDE I've ever seen. Barring the undeniably brilliant perfomances by Vincent D'Onofrio and Andre Braugher, the story is captivating and the tensions sweet torture! The difficulty of knowing a man is going to die and the struggle to do his job as a cop and so much more... What an episode! That aside, as I said, the documentary is a real view of the politics of network television and the complete bliss of getting what you want. They had a great guest star, a script that worked, and a producer/writer determined to get what he wanted! Just great, a MUST for HOMICIDE or D'Onofrio fans!

Stunning Work!
This is extraordinary acting - vincent D'Onofrio, Andre Braugher (always fabulous in this series) and the other great "Homicide" cast - but this story is amazing. Seemed almost more like a stage production than film/television. I saw the story as a metaphor - life, death, the meaning, the randomness versus design of it all, responsibility/lack thereof, the train....all of it. Extremely powerful in every way. Original, powerful, brilliant work.

An episode worthy of inclusion in anyone's video library!
"Homicide: Life on the Streets" was always a favorite of the critics, but it never garnered the ratings success that it so fittingly deserved. Featuring one of the most gifted ensemble casts ever put together (especially the brilliant Andre Braugher with exemplary support from Yaphet Kotto, Kyle Secor and Clark Johnson), "Homicide" should still be on NBC's schedule, right there with the respective "Law & Order's" and "ER".

If one episode clearly exemplifies the intensity and the quality of the series' writing, as well as the skills of the actors, it is "Subway". Braugher gets to run the gamut of his emotions as he deals with the hopeless situation of guest star Vincent D'onofrio, also giving an award winning turn as the trapped commuter.

The episode is a nail-biter and a prime example of what television should be.

Most compelling dramatic anything I've ever seen
I have never had such a visceral reaction to any piece of drama, live or on big screen or small.

I'd long been a Homicide fan, so I was well aware of Andre Braugher's skill, but Vincent D'Onofrio's performance was a revelation. His character is Everyschmuck, the Bud Lite-swilling blowhard found in any bar on any Saturday night, under-tipping the bartender and copping a feel from the cocktail waitress.

But as he slowly discovers his fate, he strips away his schmuckness in layers, like an onion, with Braugher's Pembleton as Father Confessor and keeper of the knowledge that he is doomed. Together they reveal the character's essential humanity and vulnerability.

Pembleton is our surrogate, I think, because he doesn't like this guy much either, but goes in to do his job, and is eventually touched by him, as we are.

My words are feeble. Just see it. ... Read more