We Own this City - HBO - (***Spoilers***) David Simon

Agent Coulson

Starts April 25th

Based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, We Own This City chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.

Cast includes Jon Bernthal, Wunmi Mosaku, Jamie Hector, McKinley Belcher III, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Josh Charles, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rob Brown, Don Harvey, David Corenswet, Larry Mitchell, Ian Duff, Delaney Williams, and Lucas Van Engen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tOz3dn3vuU&t=1s&ab_channel=HBO

EarWig

Looks good....

JP Liz V1

David Simon and Jon Bernthal, I am sold

den87

Sold. HBO has a lot of good stuff coming. Pity HBO Max isn’t available here as Sky isn’t picking up all of the shows.

DrZeuss

Getting very much "The Wire" vibe there from the description, and then same producer in the video....that's me sold too!

Agent Coulson

Full trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig9BcW7gXvE

Slydice

lot of recognisable faces there

Agent Coulson

Exactly what you would expect from David Simon and his team a top class opening episode.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118918233#Comment_118918233

Marlo and Poot from the Wire. Also recognised the Beat cop from the Deuce was playing a detective in the interview room at the start. Bernthal is fantastic

EDIT: Just seen Slim Charles from the Wire is in it too, and Jay Landsmann

Sleepy

David Simon doing a show about the Baltimore PD with a load of alumni from The Wire? This should be brilliant!

steve_r

Watched the first episode and it felt very like The Wire, which is a good thing for me

DrZeuss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118987814#Comment_118987814

Whoa, did not realise this was out yet. Fantastic!

yabadabado

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118986588#Comment_118986588

Slim was the guy with his kid in the car.Cop hassled him and throw away cards from wallet.

Landsman is the police chief .

Looking at the cast list there is a few more familiar faces dye to pop up over the course of the show.

billyhead

A good opening episode. Great to see some of the former wire cast involved.

Gusser09

Looks good. Probably the closest we will ever get to a season 6 of the wire.

Slydice

Soo.. does it feel weekly.. or bingeable?

I got my Wire in binge format.. like.. consuming all the seasons in rapid succession.. that was good! Followed by rewatching with the commentary.. which was fantastic.

DrZeuss

Decent first episode (albeit confusing) but it doesn't feel like the usual polished HBO production, the acting felt a bit off at times for me. Also doesn't feel anything like The Wire and having some characters swap roles between The Wire and this felt a bit distracting.

The pronunciation of Shropshire is really grating too, it may well be correct in the context but it just sounds so wrong.

yabadabado

Kinda off topic but I'd highly recommend the book the series is based on.It was only about £3 on Kindle store.

Its scary the stuff they were getting up to.

CastorTroy

The jumping about can be confusing.

Seems to be at least 3 main timelines: Jenkins early days on the force, the timeline being talked about in the interviews and the timeline where the woman from DoJ is interviewing. Are the guys with the wire up in that timeline as well?

Then have the random ones like Jenkins and his crew getting taken in.

steve_r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119038978#Comment_119038978

That's my take on it too - Jenkins early days and how he became corrupt, the investigation into the corruption, and then the aftermath of the arrests.

The aftermath piece I feel would have been better left to the last episode - I don't think jumping around in the timelines helps to tell the story.

Maybe because it's six episodes in they've decided to do things differently.

At the risk of appearing dense, I don't see how Jamie Hector's murder investigation ties in with the bigger story.

CastorTroy

Have to watch this week's episode but it might be the case that somehow brings down Hersl, since I don't think he's in prison with the others?

yabadabado

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119040027#Comment_119040027

I was wondering the same thing about the murder case and I'd guess it comes back on the cops being involved .

2smiggy

could Hersl be the good guy all along ??

have not seen episode 3 yet myself

CastorTroy

And was wrong about the murder case. Though we did see that detective's earlier days.

BruteStock

Jon Bernthal looks like Burt from Sesame Street in this.

Agent Coulson

Scary that this is all based on real events.

Did you smash it

Creator of the wire David Simon’s latest, true story of the Gun trace task force; a very very dirty unit within the Baltimore police department.

I’m 4 episodes in. It’ll pop up on sky Atlantic next month.

it’s good stuff. Not as good as the wire, mind. Anyone else watching?

CastorTroy

Thread here:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058237685/we-own-this-city-hbo-spoilers-david-simon

But yeah it's good so far. Timelines are getting less confusing.

2smiggy

watched episode 4 last night. Wayne Jenkins is not such a nice guy after all haha. Really enjoying the series thou.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118987593#Comment_118987593

Oh yes. Count me in. Is it confirmed for Sky Atlantic ? Any start date ?

Sleepy

I downloaded the first episode, need to finish a few other things before we really get stuck in.

JP Liz V1

It is on Sky Atlantic on Tuesday June 7th at 9pm

youcancallmeal

Finished watching and I thought it was mostly excellent. It's a fascinating and grim true story, astounding what they were up to for years and from what I've read they actually toned it down a bit for this show. The civil rights part of the story was making some important points but felt a bit shoehorned in. Also the time jumps got to be a bit much, especially in the last couple of episodes when you spent the first few moments of a scene trying to figure out what time period it was.

Agent Coulson

Why would anyone want to be a cop in America let alone Baltimore.

Sugarlumps

Grand series nothing special. Jon Bernthal has zero depth as a actor, rinse and repeat. Came across the same way on a podcast, high strung, sounds coked up all the time.

De Bhál

good stuff, finished it last night. Watched episode one and gave up, went back last week and rewatched it and followed through with the rest. Timelines are confusing at times but not too much.

Some crooks, scary to think they were planting guns and drugs on innocent people and these people would end up in jail.

Probably could have fleshed it out a bit with maybe 4 more episodes. Marlo from the Wire, that was tough.

yabadabado

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119139946#Comment_119139946

Not too difficult to get into most PDs and on patrol (earning) usually in 6 months.

Baltimore PD:Above average wage,benefits and retire on 30 years service .

For plenty of people they may not have a lot of options especially when you consider how expensive 3es level education is in US.