I miss Homicide: Life on the Street every day. Andre Braugher, Kyle Secor, Reed Diamond, Clark Johnson—it's like they stole a little piece of my heart, and a slightly larger piece of my groin. Rowr!

But enough about the fantabulous guys. It's the storylines that made this show something unique. The cops acted like men and not like heroes; not all the victims were innocent; and the streets of Baltimore—its drug culture, its racial issues—seemed like a whole other character. I feel like I know what happens in a real police station because of this show.

Which puts me in a fantastic position to watch A&E's The First 48, a reality-type show that follows police during the first 48 hours of murder investigations. It's just like watching an episode of Homicide; you care about the detectives and really want to see them bring their men to justice. There's family drama (one Miami detective took the cameras home with him only to discover his fiancée had left him); shakedowns with perps; awkward conversations with the victims' families. You get to follow the same detectives from murder to murder, identifying their strategies and interrigation styles. It's like having Bayliss or Lewis back for an hour a week.

It's not at all like having a Falsone, thank Christ.

The First 48 on A&E.
The Homicide: Life on the Street pages on the new tv.com
The hottest man on earth. Except, perhaps, for him.