Homicide: Life on the Street - Season 1 Episode 4

"A Shot in the Dark" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 24, 1993. The teleplay was written Jorge Zamacona based on a story by executive director Tom Fontana, and the episode was directed by Bruce Paltrow. In the episode, Crosetti focuses his investigation into the shooting of Officer Thormann on one suspect, while Lewis continues to investigate. Meanwhile, Pembleton and Bayliss pursue different leads in the murder case of 11-year-old Adena Watson. The shooting of a police officer and the murder of young girl were both directly inspired by real-life events chronicled in David Simon's non-fiction book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, on which the series was based. "A Shot in the Dark" continued a string of guest appearances by actress Edie Falco as Eva Thormann, the wife of Officer Thormann. "A Shot in the Dark" was seen by 8.9 million households in its original broadcast. Although an improvement over the previous episode "Son of a Gun", the rating was considered a disappointment, continuing the show's downward trend in ratings. "A Shot in the Dark" suffered in particular due to direct competition from the 35th Grammy Awards. The episode, along with the rest of the first and second seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street was released on DVD in the United States on May 27, 2003.