Critics and viewers often look to the late 1990s and the rise of HBO when tracking the birth of prestige television. The premium cable channel launched “Sex and the City” in 1998 and the mafia crime drama “The Sopranos” in 1999. Although both series ushered in a new wave of television and brought a cinematic feel to the small screen, it would be dishonest to say those shows lit the fire first. Five years before Carrie and Big began their epic (and exhausting) love saga, “The Wire” creator David Simon’s first novel, “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” was adapted for television. More than three decades after its debut on NBC in 1993, all seven seasons of “Homicide: Life on the Street” and its accompanying TV movie are finally available to stream on Peacock.

Created by Paul Attanasio, Homicide is an intense, gripping and hyper-realistic investigation into the Baltimore Police Department’s homicide unit. While many police dramas of the era presented audiences with a standardized path, robotically breaking down cases and offering simplistic character analysis, Homicide does something different. Attanasio, showrunner Tom Fontana and Simon, who served as a writer and producer on the series, valued their audience more, which is evident in the unique choices made throughout the show.

As the pilot, “Gone For Goode,” begins, viewers are catapulted into the streets of Baltimore. Under the cover of darkness, detectives Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson) and Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito) discuss a book while searching for clues at a crime scene. As the shot continues, a dead man is seen lying on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head. As the scene ends without the needed evidence, Crosetti casually quips, “That’s the problem with this job; it has nothing to do with life.”

Although the series has been remastered in high definition and 4K, it has a roughness that is lost in the highly polished nature of digital recordings. Even though the show is somewhat serialized, each episode acts as a puzzle piece for the next. The homicide squad color codes cases on a giant white board, with black representing closed and red representing open. The cases revolve around each other and are eventually solved (or not).

Viewers who haven’t seen the show will recognize some familiar faces once they get into the world. There’s Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher, who won his first Emmy for the role in 1998), a no-nonsense and meticulous detective known for his excellence and dislike of teamwork. Fans of “Law & Order: SVU” will recognize Richard Belzer’s John Munch, who originated the character in “Homicide” long before the New York City-set “SVU.”

The characters make “Homicide” what it is. Attanasio and Fontana have gone to great lengths to transport their audience to the specific Baltimore of the 1990s. The series is structured in such a way that you can almost touch the sticky coating on the break room floor or feel the biting cold in the precinct when the heat goes out in the middle of winter. Some of the discussions about Michael Jordan vs. Scottie Pippen and the merits of disgraced Vice President Spiro Agnew are very timely. However, other themes, including dating after divorce, race and gun violence, are still relevant 31 years later.

Death and murder are not easy subjects, but many of the crimes in “Homicide” are particularly vicious. Season 1 follows young detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) as he is haunted by his first case, the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson, who is disemboweled and sexually assaulted. The murder was based on the real-life death of Latonya Wallace, which Simon wrote about in his book. Since “Homicide” was a network series, it’s shocking to see how much of it is portrayed visually on screen, including Adena’s lifeless body. The case plays out over several episodes, tormenting Pembleton and climaxing in episode 5, “Three Men and Adena.” The episode was shot almost entirely in the interrogation room, and the suspect even uses the N-word several times.

The stresses of the job are also exaggerated in the series. Differing personalities crammed together in a cesspool of death and destruction do not exactly make for harmony in the workplace. Because the characters in Homicide are portrayed in their full humanity, the dysfunctionality of the profession is portrayed in childish squabbles, angry phone calls and snide remarks. Partnerships like that of Detective Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) and Beau Felton (Billy Baldwin) have their ups and downs, sometimes functioning like a well-oiled machine and sometimes boiling over. Still, crabs and mugs of beer at the Waterfront Bar end up being balm for the detectives until they are called to a new crime scene.

Of course, Homicide isn’t all grim. The series also has a few small moments of lightheartedness. Around the more disturbing crimes, cases are woven with a touch of lightheartedness. The first season involves an elderly woman who pushes her husband down the stairs when she discovers he’s not as dead as she first thought. There’s even a witness to another murder who tries to hide from the police by taking refuge in a doghouse. Mostly, though, there’s just violence.

Today, after the era of peak TV, there is a disillusionment with what network television has to offer. While streaming services and cable channels offer edgier programming, the four major networks focus on safer shows. But Homicide: Life on the Street reminds us that it wasn’t always this way. After all, viewers have a taste for authenticity. In fact, we crave it.

All seven seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street are now available to stream on Peacock.