We Own This City

David Simon's swaggering new series might remind you of The Wire, but We Own This City is based on a true case of mass police corruption in Baltimore ...

What Jenkins considers the job to be only becomes plain in slow motion, but by the end of this first episode, it is clear that he isn’t some friendly bobby on the beat. In the controversial podcast The Trojan Horse Affair, the reporters talk jokily about the need for a “murder wall” to keep track of their investigation – that TV-trope pinboard with photographs and notes linked by red string. Or is the line so scuffed and faded it is no longer possible to tell? If this is a spiritual heir to The Wire, then it’s good to be back. Is it the cops or the criminals? It is inevitable that We Own This City (Sky Atlantic) will be compared to The Wire. Developed by David Simon and George Pelecanos, starring several actors who also appeared in The Wire and also set in Baltimore, it is deeply immersed in the same world, and takes a similar stylistic approach.

HBO's new series, based on a true story, follows Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force as it bends the law supposedly in the name of it.

In a city once described as “a poster child for the basic failure to stop lawlessness”, another character explains: “If we’re going to police the right way, we’re not going to police at all.” The Wire was often referred to as being Dickensian in detail and scope, whereas We Own This City focuses on one story and boils the characters down to their essence. Journalist Justin Fenton chronicled their rise and fall in the book on which this series is based; our review said that it made The Wire “look tame by comparison”.

It is also a drama in which Jon Bernthal (Wayne Jenkins) fits right in, as the morally questionable central protagonist amongst a multitude of possibilities. As ...

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Jon Bernthal gave a force-of-nature turn here as real-life corrupt officer Sgt Wayne Jenkins. He played him as a charismatic anti-hero who had carved out an ...

Between a rock and a hard place, Baltimore was caught in an institutional death grip. The case sparked civil rights protests in Baltimore and brought renewed scrutiny on the police system. But though routinely held up as one of the greatest TV dramas ever, I found it self-important and rather dull.

“This six-parter is a sinewy true story of police corruption that drops you right into the thick of the action. If this is a spiritual heir to The Wire, ...

But We Own This Citywas more measured, leaving it to the viewer to reach their own conclusions as we flashed back and forward across the timeline of Jenkins’ career. It’s TV with a cruel edge.” Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail It’s an endearing coming-of-age portrait, where change is both scary and thrilling.” Anita Singh, The Telegraph The Wire was often referred to as being Dickensian in detail and scope, whereas We Own This City focuses on one story and boils the characters down to their essence. While The Wire had a broad canvas and a carefully controlled anger, here it feels as if David Simon is so furious at how little progress his city has made since that show started 20 years ago that he has climbed the steps of a pulpit. But this horrifying story will more than reward you, once you tune in to its beat.” Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

Jon Bernthal gave a force-of-nature turn here as real-life corrupt officer Sgt Wayne Jenkins. He played him as a charismatic anti-hero who had carved out an ...

Between a rock and a hard place, Baltimore was caught in an institutional death grip. The case sparked civil rights protests in Baltimore and brought renewed scrutiny on the police system. But though routinely held up as one of the greatest TV dramas ever, I found it self-important and rather dull.

On this week's episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason Magazine) discuss why Top Gun: ...

Gruelling saga of institutionalised police corruption. TV review by Adam Sweeting.

In the sinister looking-glass world of Baltimore policing, a known thug like officer Daniel Hersl (Josh Charles, unrecognisable from his days in The Good Wife) is allowed to continue on the beat merely because he “gets out of his car and makes arrests”. The full extent of his crimes and misdemeanours is yet to be revealed. Overshadowing the action is the real-life death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in 2015 of injuries sustained while he was being transported in a police van. This is not going to be a relaxing or easy watch, and flopping out on the sofa with a large glass of something mellow is not the ideal way to keep up with the fine detail of the plot, or plots. For a start, it jumps between multiple time-frames, with the opening episode bouncing between 2017 and 2015, while episode two opens in the long-ago year of 2003. Yet it seems he couldn’t let it lie, because he’s back on the Baltimore beat with We Own This City (made by HBO, showing on Sky Atlantic).