Homicide: Life on the Street Review: Season 1, Episode 2 - "A Ghost of a Chance"

Yelling at Rats

The second episode of Homicide: Life on the Street begins with the camera staring down at the body of a murdered 11-year-old Black girl. It’s a shocking, upsetting moment, made worse by the way the handheld camera wanders around her body as if viewers were poking at her to make her come back to life.

A reverse shot shows Bayliss’s worried, wearied face as he tries to make sense of what he saw, but it’s a reaction from Crosetti — who stands outside the alley/crime scene with Munch and Lewis and waits for Bayliss to release the body — that gets the stylistic flourish. A bottle knocked over by a rat startles Crosetti, and frantic edits show several versions of him jumping back. Munch doubles down on Crosetti’s fear by letting loose with a torrent of insults at the rodent until Lewis interrupts.

“You’re yelling at a rat,” Lewis reminds his colleague.