SHOW: HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET
TIME: JAN. 31, AFTER THE SUPER BOWL, NBC
THE BOTTOM LINE: Hollywood heavyweight Barry Levinson tries a cop show. It's good, but it's still a cop show.
In the besieged Metropolis of network television, mild-mannered shows are too often expected to be Superman. Barry Levinson, the acclaimed director of the films Diner and Rain Man, was commissioned by NBC some time ago to develop a TV series based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, an account of real-life Baltimore homicide detectives. With a Hollywood heavyweight taking a crack at one...