particularly acclaimed; it was named one of the ten best episodes of the series by The Baltimore Sun, and the Star Tribune called Williams' performance one of the ten best guest star moments in television history. The performance of Andre Braugher was also particularly praised, especially for his scene in "Black and Blue", in which Pembleton persuades a suspect to confess to a murder he did not commit. Gail Pennington of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the second season was an improvement over the first, which she said was excellent but "tended to demand an awful lot from viewers". Pennington said the toned down visual style and stronger emphasis on single stories better focused the show, adding: "Homicide is great TV, and NBC believes in it enough to give it what may be the network's best time slot." Bob Langford of The News & Observer called Homicide "absolutely brilliant" and praised it for focusing not on the crimes but on the effects of it, as well as the realistic themes regarding race, such as concerns in "Bop Gun" that the murder would deter white tourists from visiting Baltimore. Langford said it was occasionally preachy, but said, "Sometimes, a good sermon is what we need. Amazing that one this powerful can come from a TV show." Rick Kogan, television critic with the Chicago Tribune, called the show "wholly original" and an example of how good television entertainment can be. He praised the ensemble cast and interesting characters, and said the show would be renewed "if there's any justice in TV". Ray Richmond of the Los Angeles Daily News praised NBC for giving Homicide a second chance, comparing it to the days when NBC stuck with the comedy series Cheers even though it ranked last in the ratings during its first season. Richmond said of Homicide: "This is also one of the final opportunities to see a television network stick with a struggling show for no better reason than it deserves to be stuck with. In the bottom line-driven 1990s, that's become as rare as quality itself. " Steven Cole Smith with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said of the evaluation period during Homicide's second season: "If you don't watch it, you may lose your right to complain that there's never anything good on TV." He called it "a gritty, atmospheric police series" and complimented it for showing not only gratuitous violence but