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We Own This City (2022)

2022 · Biography,Crime,Drama · dramatized-true-crime, political-drama, crime-procedural

We Own This City poster

We Own This City is a taut, six-episode HBO miniseries from David Simon chronicling the real-life collapse of Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force — an elite unit that devolved into armed robbery, extortion, and systemic criminality under Sgt. Wayne Jenkins. Anchored by a career-best performance from Jon Bernthal, the show operates in the tradition of Simon's best work: morally complex, institutionally savvy, and deeply embedded in Baltimore's geography and political dysfunction. It uses a non-linear structure to trace how a culture of impunity metastasizes, set against the backdrop of the Freddie Gray killing and the erosion of public trust. The tone is relentlessly grim, the writing precise, and the ambition explicitly sociological rather than procedural.

From the reviewers

The real standout in this show is the incredibly talented Jon Bernthal. He should be nominated for an Emmy for his work in this.
This has that same realistic, gritty feel as those shows did.
The writing and acting are what makes this show so good. The fact that this based off a true story makes the show that more exciting.
View this show as its own entity - despite it being as ambitious and involved as The Wire. The writing is spectacularly good and thankfully avoids cliches and so many other pitfalls that are the standard of network 'cop shows'
the editing and directing makes for a confusing story. It is very hard to follow. They flashback to 5 years ago, then ten years ago, than 20 years ago, and the timeline very hard to follow.

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