Homicide: The Movie

“Too much red,” intones former Detective Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher), returning to his old Baltimore squadroom and spying the whiteboard. Red ink means open cases; black, solved. That is, red means lack of closure, as when NBC iced this humanistic cop drama unceremoniously last spring. Pembleton, Detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and most of the series’ diasporic crew investigate the shooting of Lieut. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto), now a mayoral candidate. The case is mostly pro forma, but its powerful yet tender epilogue writes Homicide’s epitaph in emotionally satisfying black ink.

–By James Poniewozik