'We Own This City' Is the First Great True Crime Series of the Year
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Two decades ago, in June 2002, HBO premiered The Wire, a crime drama that would go on to include four more seasons, introduce TV audiences to some of today’s biggest actors (Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, to name a couple), and later be considered by many to be the greatest television show of all time.
Ahead of the 20th anniversary, HBO is once again returning to Baltimore—a coincidence, though, likely due to disruptions during Covid-19 than any nostalgic play by the network—with The Wire alumni David Simon (writer and creator) and George Pelecanos (writer and producer).
Based on the book “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption” by former Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, We Own This City finds a more modernized Baltimore police force than its fictional predecessor—a force now replete with all kinds of digital surveillance equipment—but one still facing the same administrative burdens, the same flawed policing tactics, the same incentives for everything less than superb police work. Whereas The Wire suggested police might overcome and improve these unhelpful strategies imposed by city-level decision makers, We Own the City comes away with a more cynical conclusion—that the system is itself so broken that it practically encourages exploitation; why work to improve the system when you can use it for your own ends?
The story unspools the corruption located in one particular unit, Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) lead by Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal). In 2017, several officers in the unit, including Jenkins, were arrested and later charged with racketeering. We Own This City tracks the unit between 2015 and 2017, during which time many of their crimes took place.
Unlike The Wire, We Own This City will have a shorter run time, with only six episodes. Like its predecessor, however, the episodes will release weekly.
Here’s how to watch We Own This City.
When Does We Own This City Air on HBO?
Unlike recent HBO releases in the crime genre—like HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice, which followed a multiple episode release schedule—We Own This City will take HBO's classic one episode per week format.
The series will air on traditional HBO on Mondays at 9 P.M. and will be available to watch on HBO Max at the same time.
Here’s the Complete Release Schedule for We Own This City
Episode 1 – April 25
Episode 2 – May 2
Episode 3 – May 9
Episode 4 – May 16
Episode 5 – May 23
Episode 6 – May 30
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