Deja Reviewed

On October 28, 1994, I watched a TV show with my then-girlfriend, who'd studied acting, and we agreed that it was one of the most amazing performances of any sort of drama we'd ever seen. The show was titled "Extreme Unction," and it was an episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street." A serial killer was murdering women and dumping them at churches, naked except for white gloves. It developed that a witness, soon suspected to be a, well, suspect, might have been suffering from multiple personality disorder, and fairly soon into the show, Andre Braugher (as Det. Frank Pembleton) interrogates her. He cajoled, seduced, and bullied her toward a confession, and most importantly he navigated, with surpassing intelligence and trust in his abilities, the dark, twisting paths in the forest of this woman's psyche. Just amazing writing and acting. I saw it again tonight, 14 years later. It had the same effect. And you know what? That goddamned show never surpassed "Nash Bridges" in the ratings. JFK said it: Life is not fair. But check it out, if you like good drama. It really doesn't get better.