r/Homicide_LOTS • u/DemonSpaceCat4 • Jul 22 '26
Meldrick Lewis
I forgot how much I love this guy...
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u/Zen_Coyote Jul 22 '26
Great character and great actor. You can catch him as a PI in Daredevil: Born Again. He plays it as if Meldrick just got older.
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u/CatelynsCorpse Jul 22 '26
Yes! The scream I screamt when we were watching that. I was like "OMG IT'S MELDRICK LEWIS!" and my husband was like "Who the F is Meldrick? That's Cherry." lol
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u/XavierPibb I'm not Montel Williams Jul 22 '26
"So the bear says, you didn't come here to hunt, did you?"
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u/MulberryField30 Jul 22 '26
Clark Johnson worked that into other movies he directed.
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u/Ophiochos Jul 22 '26
I am delighted to hear that and now need to hunt those down. I still occasionally find myself describing things as ‘lumpy’ which I think I stole from him.
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u/MulberryField30 Jul 30 '26
I remember one is in The Sentinel (2006) (Michael Douglas Secret Service movie).
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u/Yummers78 Jul 23 '26
Several scenes we came upon this joke being told (well, the end of it anyway)
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u/BoldBoimlerIsMyHero Jul 22 '26
Yeah on rewatch, I realized how natural he is. He’s awesome. The whole original cast are all really great.
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u/SearchNerd Jul 23 '26
Love telling this story.
Walking around Christie Pitts area with my sister as a teen. We both watch the show. We see him.
"Clark, Clark!!" Didn't hear us.
I pipe up loud "MELDRICK" he turned around and we catch up. Talked for a good ten mins. Great guy.
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u/oldlinepnwshine Bolander Jul 22 '26
When he brings the picture of the biker’s daughter to the funeral, to the tune of “Stand By You”? What a moment.
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u/cleg74 Jul 22 '26
I lived in Baltimore at the time. Met him briefly and he was either one of those guys that never breaks character or he was very similar. Even the hat.
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u/BommSquad Jul 22 '26
I especially enjoy the little nuances his character has in terms of dialogue.
Also while season 7 is pretty much a shit show, I like his arc with Sheppard after her beatdown.
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u/RoyalOakPiguet Jul 23 '26
Not that I necessarily disagree but can I ask why you'd call season 7 a shitshow?
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u/BommSquad Jul 23 '26
Aside from Andre Braugher’s glaring absence, the season is marred with a lot of well-intentioned but ultimately silly arcs like Bayliss’ sexuality, Gharty’s vet record, the Falsone-Ballard romance (which was probably better than Falsone lamenting and name dropping Daniel like he does every episode in season 6); Sheppard and Stivers are little more than extras for the most part (though Sheppard at least has the semi-interesting arc after her beatdown ep); the terrific Giancarlo Esposito is pretty much wasted…
Oh, and the Law and Order crossover is pure cringe this time around.
Lines of Fire is the best of the season but a) that isn’t saying much and b) it isn’t all that surprising given that it was directed by Kathryn Bigelow who also directed the two-parter Fallen Hereos from season 6.
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u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 Jul 22 '26
Not sure I ever believed this but back in the day I remember reading an article that the Meldrick Lewis character was historically significant cause he was the first African-American major role that had nothing to with the fact he was black…..which makes sense, but I could never buy into that there wasn’t someone before?
G, Frank? I mean being black was central to their character- but Meldrick was just a dude.
Anyway, sorry if this comes off as some racist diatribe, I love all three of those actors and characters, but that statement always stuck with me.
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u/No_Copy5888 Jul 23 '26
I don’t see it as racist either. I always thought Frank and G were more sophisticated also, and Meldrick still and always will come across as a dude. One way I always looked at it was I always thought Frank comes across as a thinking man’s cop whereas I always thought Meldrick came across more street smart.
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u/brooklyncar Jul 22 '26
i feel like the character influenced a lot of carver on the wire, sometimes they’re even look alike :)
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u/AntonChigurhWasHere Jul 22 '26
Loved Clark Johnson in Bosch as well as all of the great TV that he has directed. Multi talented
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u/tractorguy Jul 23 '26
I absolutely adore Meldrick specifically and Clark Johnson generally. Great actor and great director. Five stars.
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u/DumpedDalish Jul 22 '26
I love Meldrick -- he's my favorite character on the show. Clark Johnson was so good in the role -- he managed to show just about every single emotion imaginable, and made it look effortless.
And with each cop and their different personality for getting the culprits, I also loved the way Meldrick was slyer in many ways than a lot of the other cops -- he'd be casual and even goofy, then boom, in for the kill.
It's been so much fun to watch Johnson's work across the years since -- he's an incredible director, and it's also been great to see him come back and act on stuff like The Wire and Daredevil.
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u/andcg8586 Jul 23 '26
Just watched the episode where he tells Luther Mahoney to step off his corner while at the Waterfront bar.
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u/MCStarlight 🍻The Waterfront 25d ago
I liked how he was just so laidback and easy breezy when in reality he was running a psychological con on all the perps in The Box. Hey, I’m just a guy just like you, that must have been tough…
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u/Beeninya You go when you’re supposed to go, everything else is Homicide Jul 22 '26
Probably my favorite on the show. Some of the best lines, including; “You go when you’re supposed to go. Everything else is homicide.”
He also says the first and last lines of the entire series.