January 1, 2025
by Carla Hay
Culture Representation: The documentary series “Homicide Squad New Orleans” features a group of African American and white people involved in murder cases in New Orleans.
Culture Clash: The police detectives on these cases often have to deal with witnesses who are untruthful or refuse to cooperate.
Culture Audience: “Homicide Squad New Orleans” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of cheaply made true crime documentaries that follow a TV procedural format.
Ever since the documentary series “Cops” premiered in 1989, there’s been a growing number of docuseries or reality shows that showcase law enforcement officers doing their jobs. Most of these shows copy each other and don’t do anything that’s considered award-worthy. “Homicide Squad New Orleans,” which follow homicide investigators who work for the New Orleans Police Department, is one of these generic shows.
The homicide squad’s hard-working people are commendable in how they solve cases. They deserve better than this inferior imitation of “The First 48.” This sluggish show’s format is too formulaic and perpetuates racial stereotypes of New Orleans murders. “Homicide Squad New Orleans” is produced by Wolf Entertainment and 44 Blue Productions for A&E. “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf is one of the executive producers of “Homicide Squad New Orleans,” which is probably why every “Homicide Squad New Orleans” episode looks like a predictable procedural with the same expected outcome.
Only the first two episode of “Homicide Squad New Orleans” were available to review before the series premiered. Although each episode focuses on a different murder case, there are alarming similarities that raise some questions about how much stereotyping this series is going to continue to have in choosing which murder cases will be featured. This series makes it look like certain people in New Orleans are most likely to commit murders and be murder victims.
Both episodes feature African Americans being murdered by gun violence for no apparent reason than a petty argument. The murder suspects are young African Americans. In a city as diverse as New Orleans, it’s hard to believe that these are the only homicides that take place in the city. You get the feeling that these are mostly the types of homicides that will be featured in this dreadfully tedious series.
Each episode has narration from the lead detectives for each case. Unfortunately, the detectives read their narration stiffly. And it’s not their fault. They are not professional actors. Still, viewers of “Homicide Squad New Orleans” have to sit through the monotonous tone of the show’s scripted portions, which are basically exposition dumps.
Episode 1, titled “My Sister’s Keeper,” is about the murder of 15-year-old Raynard Williams, who was gunned down on a residential street on March 18, 2024, after defending his younger sister Ray’Anna in a verbal argument with other teens. Raynard’s mother Anndrea describes Raynard as a “intelligent, outstanding and hilarious” and a good kid who wasn’t involved in crimes. Raynard’s grandmother describes him as a “loving child, He would give you the shirt of off his back.”
Detective Maurice Stewart is the lead investigator on the case. He mostly gets assistance from Detective Tianay Marshall. Stewart’s background is mentioned briefly in the episode: When he was 8 years old, he witnessed his father being murdered by gun violence. And in a bizarre twist of fate, the family of murder victim Raynard Williams lives the same home where Stewart lived when Stewart’s father was murdererd.
Stewart shows compassion for the family members and a persistent determination to solve the case. However, “charismatic” is not the first word that comes to mind when seeing Stewart talk on screen. The only other thing he’ll say about himself is that he’s “an honorary ‘hood member” when describing how he can relate to the people in the community that he serves. As for how his father’s murder affects him as a cop, Stewart comments: “We can’t let it affect our jobs.”
Episode 2, titled “In Cold Blood,” shows the investigation of two murder victims who were both shot to death on the streets on January 6, 2024. Based on the gunshot evidence and surveillance videos, police believe that both victims were killed four hours apart by the same person. The lead investigator on the case is Detective Walter Edmond, who mostly get assistance from Detective James Fyfe.
One of the murder victims is a beautician in her 20s named Cayla Kelley. Almost nothing is told about her in the episode except that she had no history of criminal activity. The other murder victim is a homeless man whose name and age are not mentioned in this episode.
Edmond has a more passionate personality than most of his peers. (One of the best scenes in the episode is when he interrogates the murder suspect). But the episode falls very short of telling any meaningful information about the murder victims. There are no epilogues with updates on what happened to the arrested supsects. Instead, each episode has a disclaimer stating that suspects are innocent until proven guilty, and charges could be reduced or dropped.
If you’ve seen enough of these types of shows, then you can easily predict how the police catch most of these murder suspects who are eventually arrested for the murders—collecting evidence at the crimes scenes, interviews with witnesses, surveillance videos, searches of homes and property, and checking phone records. Considering the plethora of other “cops on the job” docuseries that already exist, there isn’t enough in “Homicide Squad New Orleans” that stands out from the rest of the pack to make it a “must see” show.
A&E premiered “Homicide Squad New Orleans” on January 1, 2025.