Before Brooklyn Nine-Ninemade him the face of the NYPD, the late Andre Braugher took the airwaves by storm as Baltimore Detective Frank Pembleton in the critically acclaimed Homicide: Life on the Street. The ’90s police drama ran for seven seasons on NBC between 1993 and 1999, ultimately rounding out with a feature-length conclusion. For years, Peacock has been the streaming home of this powerhouse procedural, but if you thought it would be that way forever — think again. In less than a week, Homicide leaves the streaming platform on August 18, 2026. No big announcement was made, but eagle-eyed fans who’ve been binging through the ‘90s classic have noticed the sorry truth.
‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Reinvented the Network TV Police Procedural
Homicide: Life on the Street is one of the most cleverly written cop dramas out there. Inspired by the non-fiction book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon (who not only wrote several episodes of the show but would later create The Wire), the NBC program followed several homicide detectives as they investigate routine murders across Baltimore. But where Homicide elevated itself beyond the popular cop dramas of the time was that it always knew how to make both its detectives and those they find on the streets real people with real problems. Rather than spending entire episodes on melodramatic personal subplots, the series wove the personal struggles of Pembleton, Bayliss (Kyle Secor), Howard (Melissa Leo), Munch (Richard Belzer), Giardello (Yaphet Kotto), Lewis (Clark Johnson), Crossetti (Jon Polito), Bolander (Ned Beatty), and Felton (Daniel Baldwin) — the show’s original cast — into every major case, though as an accent that further enhanced the world rather than a soapy distraction from it.
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
While the program aired over 30 years ago on network television, it remains one of the most profound pieces of work on the subject. Homicide, especially those early seasons, captures the unsatisfying nature of detective work and how one cannot escape the physical and emotional demands of the job, with many cases left unresolved. “Three Men and Adena” is perhaps the best example of this, as Pembleton and Bayliss attempt to coax a confession out of a local arabber Risley Tucker (played by Moses Gunn in his final on-screen role), who was the last to see Adena Watson alive. Whether you believe Tucker did it or not, it’s the realistic ambiguity, the not knowing, that haunts the viewer when the credits roll. Rather than focus on car chases and gunplay, Homicide spent its energies entirely on the investigation itself, with characters like Braugher’s Pembleton wrestling with the philosophical (and sometimes religious) implications of what he sees every day. Baltimore as a city also becomes a major character, as the on-location shooting of Homicide makes the world feel breathable and lived-in rather than something filmed on a sound stage or back alley — frankly, it’s only improved with age.
‘Homicide’ Is Leaving Peacock in Less Than a Week, So Revisit Braugher At His Best
Magnetic and downright irresistible on the screen, Braugher carried the brunt of the series alongside his equally capable castmates, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become “prestige police television.” Like many of the initial characters created for the show, Frank Pembleton was based on a real-life Baltimore detective, though Braugher’s character departed from his off-screen counterpart over time. By the third season, Homicide began to reinvent itself, but staples like Pembleton and Munch — who would become a television icon — remained with the program for the majority of its run. Braugher left the show ahead of the final season, though he returned for Homicide: The Movie to help wrap things up.
There are plenty of reasons to revisit Homicide before Peacock axes the classic series. Aside from the exceptional work by Braugher himself, who put on a full theatrical display, guest appearances from stars like Robin Williams (among many, many others) result in some exceptionally meaty material. If you’re tired of cop shows and roll your eyes whenever CSI, NCIS, or Law & Order is on, this is the procedural you’re going to want to tune in for instead. Sure, it technically exists in the same world as the latter franchise, but Homicide was always a program that ran on a different level.
Homicide: Life on the Street (and Homicide: The Movie) is available for streaming on Peacock through August 18, 2026.
