Back on the Beat for One More Case

Reunions rarely work in television, and NBC’s “Homicide: The Movie” is no exception Sunday when briefly extending the life of one of prime time’s finest.

The sequel comes five months after “Homicide: Life on the Street” checked out after six distinguished years of telling smart, moving, at times profound stories about police detectives traveling the meanest streets of Baltimore.

When we last saw their boss, imposing Lt. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto), it was 1999, and ever complex, he was turning down the captain’s promotion that he wanted. Written by executive producer Tom Fontana, Eric Overmeyer and James Yoshimura, Sunday’s story opens with Giardello running for mayor on a platform that includes legalizing drugs.

“We want Al!” cry supporters at a campaign stop, an affection likely shared by millions of viewers. Then comes a series of gunshots, and soon the critically wounded Giardello is on his back in a hospital, where he stays throughout the movie as his charges from past seasons speed back to pick up their cameos and join 1999 cast members in the investigation.

Back comes Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) from his classroom. Back comes Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) from a fishing trip. Back comes John Munch (Richard Belzer) from NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Back comes Megan Russert (Isabella Hofmann) from Showtime’s “Beggars and Choosers.” Back come Kay Howard (Melissa Leo), James Brodie (Max Perlich), Julianna Cox (Michelle Forbes) and Mike Kellerman (Reed Diamond). And “the big man,” Stan Bolander (Ned Beatty), climbs out of his bottle.

Although director Jean de Segonzac’s stylish patina of fluid cameras and jump cuts will be familiar to fans of the series, Lt. Stuart Gharty (Peter Gerety) is now running the squad, and despotic Capt. Gaffney (Walt MacPherson) has them all in a chokehold.

Meanwhile, this convergence of former cast members--returning like dogs answering a whistle whose high pitch only they can hear--is so lacking in credibility that their presence is a reminder only of the show’s better days. Talk about being too crowded for the room.

Add to that a dispensable appearance by Jason Priestley as a brutal cop and some over-the-top business with Giardello’s son, Mike (Giancarlo Esposito), repeatedly going berserk, and you have something mediocre, well below the greatness of the series it tries to emulate.

What does work, as the movie winds down, is about 15 minutes of discourse between Pembleton and Bayliss--always the show’s most intriguing pair of detectives--in which the latter affirms that his eggs are as scrambled as ever while making a startling disclosure that has his former partner reeling.

Masterfully played by Braugher and Secor, these two remain great together, and their transfixing psychological tension would have made a fitting conclusion. But unlike the series that preceded it, “Homicide: The Movie” doesn’t know where to end, and instead plods on toward artificial crescendos until ultimately sinking in its own sogginess.

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* “Homicide: The Movie” can be seen Sunday at 9 p.m. on NBC. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).