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 – which makes it all the more disturbing
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. Anyone expecting to have their hand held as they are walked through this multi-faceted story may be disappointed. Instead, 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, then it’s good to be back. No doubt, no doubt.
Who owns this city? Is it the cops or the criminals? Or is the line so scuffed and faded it is no longer possible to tell? Adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name by Justin Fenton, We Own This City begins in 2017, nearly two years after the death in custody of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, and the acquittal of, or dropped charges against, the six police officers involved. Baltimore is “a poster child for the basic failure to stop lawlessness”, and a vast network of angles on what exactly has gone wrong with policing there takes in the FBI, Department of Justice, elected politicians and law enforcement officers from a number of regions.
