Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993 TAG: 9303020094
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
`HOMICIDE' TAKES YOU INTO `THE BOX'
Andre Braugher would just hate what we're about to do.He knows when someone tells him a certain TV show's terrific, and he tunes in, of course it's a letdown. Why, this is a guy who's watched almost nothing but news and sports since 1979, never even seen "The Cosby Show" or "Hill Street Blues."
So why would Braugher, a star on that terrific new show "Homicide" (airing Wednesdays at 9 on WSLS-Channel 10), want a buildup like we're about to give?
Why would he want some troublemaker to tell everybody that not only is the series terrific, but that this week's episode, in which he is showcased, is more than terrific television, it's a dramatic gem. That it's not to be missed. That it's -
Sorry, Andre, but that's the truth.
It is seldom that episodic TV, even a series of the caliber of "Homicide," moves beyond cinematic technique to luxuriate in drama's fundamentals: good acting and good writing.
Gloriously, that happens this week. On what is usually a free-wheeling ensemble show about Baltimore homicide detectives, this week's episode puts three characters in a box, clamps on the lid and lets the pressure build.
At the beginning of the program two detectives, Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Braugher), take a murder suspect into the interrogation room, which happens to be called "the box." They have 12 hours to get him to confess to murdering an 11-year-old schoolgirl.
And, oh, how they try.
"The interrogation room is where mind games are brought to fruition," says Braugher, chatting with a reporter last week. "In 12 hours I will make you doubt your own senses. That's my job. To create a sense of disorientation: I'm your friend, I'm not your friend.
"My character is a master of interrogation, and he will play any game, any role, to get a confession."
This three-pointed encounter session becomes a war of wills waged in every direction. Sometimes Bayliss and Pembleton work in perfect synch. But other times they're out of step, or even in conflict.
And at times, the suspect (played with haunting precision by Moses Gunn) turns the table, and begins to play his own games in their heads.
The script, by "Homicide" executive producer, Tom Fontana, is an actor's dream - and puts Detective Pembleton, a brilliant but arrogant loner, right where he wants to be.
"When I get a suspect in the box," says Braugher, speaking for himself as much as for his character, "this is where I live. I hate being in that squad room beyond all comprehension.
"Out on the road or in the squad room, your character has a job to do," he goes on. "But when you sit in the squad room, the writers want to get your warm and fuzzy side out to the audience: `Buck up, Bunko, you're the best, you can do it, I'm sorry, you were right, let's be friends.' "
Braugher laughs heartily, but he's not kidding.
"I really fight against the warm-and-fuzzy Frank Pembleton."
And he guards against the warm-and-fuzzy Braugher, too, ever since his sensitive portrayal of the bookish, frightened Union soldier in the 1989 feature "Glory."
"I conceived that character as heroic, but I got a lot of scripts after that where I'm constantly crying."
It is doubtful that Pembleton will ever cry. He is too driven, too hardened, too wily.
"Tell me what happened," he urges his suspect during one extraordinary three-minute take. He speaks in a soothing near-whisper: "I have no pen in my hand . . . nothing up my sleeve. Please don't look at me as a cop. Look at me as a friend."
This week "Homicide" offers you a brilliant hour of television. Sure, Braugher won't be watching. But you should.
Elsewhere in television
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY - There's another ampersand show on the schedule, this one from producer Dick ("Law & Order") Wolf. "Crime & Punishment," a police drama that probes the criminal mind, debuts on WSLS (Channel 10) on Wednesday at 10 p.m., & is back at the same time Thursday for another episode. Jon Tenney & Rachel Ticotin star.