But why? Who's behind this big lie? Doctors have a lobby chiropractors have a lobby - who lobbies for nothing? You do Munch in

"But why? Who's behind this big lie? Doctors have a lobby, chiropractors have a lobby - who lobbies for nothing?" "You do, Munch, in every day, in every way. You lobby for nothing."As much as anything else, what marks Levinson's programme out from the hand-held turbulence of ER and NYPD Blue is that Homicide is simply darker, a mood communicated immediately by the credit sequence. Compared to the lush Mike Post signature tunes of a Bochco show, Homicide wears its desolation on its sleeve: from the expressionistic opening credits to the obligatory final shot of the whiteboard with its names and numbers of victims. And the central paradox of Homicide's camerawork is that, while its random ubiquity gives the illusion of objectivity, its refusal to identify with any one character merely underlines the sense of human isolation.

Certainly the hand-held camera gives the viewer the pleasure of eavesdropping or spying as it dips voyeuristically in and out of conversations ranging from bizarre assassination theories to studies of back pain. If that were the case, we would surely have had EastEnders directed by Godard long before now. Now we've modified it a little."So the attraction of Homicide doesn't wholly lie in its disconcerting edits. Yaphet Kotto, who plays the benevolently prowling, leonine Lieutenant Giardello ("G"), admitted as much: "People didn't dig it that there were too many jump-cuts It jarred them around and they couldn't handle it ... If the agitated camera has become the sign of reality, Levinson is an epileptic of truth. Jump-cuts and double-takes pepper each episode to the extent that many people at first found it unwatchable.

An Altmanesque ensemble piece that follows a range of characters, it initially gained some notoriety because of its high-energy editing techniques. The casual channel-surfer coming across Homicide will probably either kick the telly trying to fix it, or think they are suffering a drug-induced flashback.Though Steven Bochco was a pioneer of shakily shot, multiple-narrative shows with Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue, it is Levinson's Homicide that stretches Bochco's format to the limit. With an array of awards and extravagant critical plaudits since its inception in 1993, Homicide has become a truly cult phenomenon. Created by Paul Attanasio, the writer of the myth-busting movie Quiz Show, Homicide is a nail in the coffin of another contemporary myth - that British TV is the best in the world. It has featured guest directors like Michael Lehmann, Peter Medak and John McNaughton and appearances by actors such as Steve Buscemi and Robin Williams.

It has its own Web sites devoted to the squad room's whiteboard of solved and unsolved cases, to its pop music (the programme uses songs as a soundtrack rather than ambient snippets) and to on-line interviews with its stars. But why should another cop show generate such enthusiasm from viewers and unembarrassed ardour from critics? Produced by Barry Levinson, this procedural cop show set in Baltimore is simply unlike any other. On the other hand, there is crime TV like NYPD Blue, the procedural cop drama of big city alienation in which the urban nightmare never looked so good, And then there is Homicide, the operatic incubus of American TV. It demonstrates the infantilism of the American psyche, where the loss of faith in a political vision has given way to an ingenuous belief in everything else - from little green men, to government and cosmic conspiracy, to scary rubber entities that slither around in your toilet plumbing. When the body politic has reneged on an alternative future, where better to turn than science fiction? The X-Files is the downside to this shift. On the one hand, there is the genre of science fiction, which Marxist critic Frederic Jameson suggests is an increasingly popular fantasy, symptomatic of the breakdown of older narratives of family, society and politics. Even if I - probably like him - will be cheering for Damon to win this weekend, and sew up his first world championship..