The Documentary (3 Jan. 1997)

Director:

Barbara Kopple

Writers:

Paul Attanasio (creator), Tom Fontana (story),

Stars:

Richard Belzer, Andre Braugher, Reed Diamond

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Richard Belzer	...	Det. John Munch
Andre Braugher	...	Det. Frank Pembleton
Reed Diamond	...	Det. Mike Kellerman
Michelle Forbes	...	Dr. Julianna Cox
Clark Johnson	...	Det. Meldrick Lewis
Yaphet Kotto	...	Lt. Al Giardello
Melissa Leo	...	Det. Sgt. Kay Howard
Max Perlich	...	J.H. Brodie
Kyle Secor	...	Det. Tim Bayliss
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zite Bidanie	...	Motorist (as Zité Bidanie)
Tim Carr	...	Police Cadet
La Kisha Davis	...	Alice Duncan
Rich Gordon	...	Stan Rogan
Europe Harmon	...	Levon Carter
Isabella Hofmann	...	Megan Russert (archive footage)

Storyline

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Release Date:

3 January 1997 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Trivia

The dialogue used in the mock interrogations is almost an exact match for the writing of similar introductions to the interrogation process in the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Each speech is crafted from paragraphs in the book where David Simon illustrates the detective's method for getting someone to confess in "The Box".

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Goofs

Many of the shots in Brodie's "documentary" are of scenes where Brodie (and therefore his camera) were not present.

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Quotes

Det. Tim Bayliss: Come on Frank, one neighbor murders another and you don't want to know what it means?
Det. Frank Pembleton: I know exactly what it means: 10 hours of overtime, and if Mr. Jackson is willing to take it to trial, another 20 hours of court pay!

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Connections

References Baseball (1994)

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Soundtracks

"Boom Boom Boom"
Written by Rod Hodges
Performed by The Iguanas

User Reviews

Not your ordinary "Flashback"episode

This episode breaks just a tiny bit to watch the compilation of film footage(some of which doesn't actually jibe with the continuity,as per what was pointed out on an IMDb on the "Goofs" pinpoint on this ep)accumulated by unofficial squad documentarian Brodie(MAx Perlich,superb here). Weaving a previously undocumented investigation with previous cases,squad down time and even some artistic "flourishes",the video elicits a variety of reactions from everyone watching and creates yet another very human story to this show's cannon.After this season,I feel like the show would pull even further away from these kind of eps,so this show has a sort of bittersweet quality to it upon re-watching it some time after the show's run.