In a country where police are considered the most corrupt and inefficient of the security services, makers of the weekly drama hope their hero can rescue the real-life force from the brink of disaster.
Training effective police is critical to the West's strategy of creating Afghan forces capable of assuming responsibility for national security by the end of 2014, allowing NATO to end a costly war.
But Afghan police have a rotten reputation. The International Crisis Group think-tank last month painted them as "corrupt, brutal and predatory".
Literacy is a problem. Desertion and a shortage of trainers are others. There are growing fears about Taliban-led insurgents infiltrating the ranks after a border policeman shot dead six American soldiers on November 29.
US and NATO forces are facing an uphill struggle to meet an October 2011 target of 134,000 police officers, up from the current 80,000.
The actor who plays Homayun says he wants to give a voice to all those Afghans who want to see a better, less corrupt country.
"Every Afghan has the same feeling that Homayun has in this show," he says.
"Now, in Afghan society, people think the police are thieves. We are showing people that the police are not thieves, but they are the real servants of society."
"Saper", which means The Shield in Dari, began broadcasting on Afghan channel RTA in October and plays for 30 minutes every Saturday.
Kabul citizen Yama Noori is an avid fan, glued to the show each week.
"Afghans do not trust the police now. This TV drama teaches the police how to gain the trust of the people," he says.
The project is funded by Canada and the European Union and made by Awaz, an Afghan production company set up by French expatriate Christian Marie.
"One of the main aims of this project was to build some kind of confidence in relations between the Afghan police and Afghan citizens," says Marie.
"And we wanted to show that the police are not just about guns, not only about fighting. The police are also about investigating, the police are also about serving the people, the police also have a crucial role in society."
Afghan police collect an average wage of 120 dollars per month. For so little, "the police recruit duds" says Frederic Doncieux, an adviser to the television project.
"But when the wages rise and the police have a better reputation, better recruits will come," he says.
Wearing the blue-badged Afghan uniform that has come to represent brutal force instead of law and order, Homayun in one early episode discovers an antiques trafficker and arrests him. But the corrupt commander is unimpressed and banishes Homayun to languish in a remote rural outpost.
In another episode, a police chief is seen enjoying a hashish cigarette while his men attempt to contact him in an emergency.
When shown the early episodes, real-life police thought the serial too critical, portraying too much corruption.
Although it is too early to see if there has been a knock-on effect on recruitment, painting a realistic picture of security forces is seen as a way to win over viewers and potential recruits.
"It's a good way to educate people, to entertain. Afghanistan is a very illiterate society and there is no tradition of Afghan policing," says Vygaudas Usackas, the EU ambassador to Afghanistan.
So far 26 episodes are rolling out from the first series, but the show's makers say a second series is already in planning.
A team of 40 Afghans make the programme, helped by an Indian scriptwriter, and influenced, they say, by Iranian cinema as well as Hollywood and Bollywood.
So far, there has been no mention in any of the programmes of the nine-year Taliban insurgency wracking the country.
The scriptwriters instead focus on the criminal issues of drugs and corruption, and kidnappings -- a growing phenomenon in Afghanistan's cities.
Since "Saper" began to air, other police TV projects have emerged.
Private television channel Tolo made "Eagle Four", which shows the daily life of an elite police unit and is funded by the United States.
Next spring, a reality television show "Birth of an Army" will follow Afghan recruits as they are put through their paces in their first battles against Taliban insurgents.
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