We Own This City

Overview

We Own This City is an American crime drama television miniseries. It is based on a nonfiction book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton. The series was made by George Pelecanos and David Simon, and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green.

The show has six episodes. It began airing on HBO on April 25, 2022. It tells true stories from Baltimore. The stories focus on police officers and the problems they face in their jobs. The show looks at ideas about fairness, responsibility, and keeping communities safe.

Premise

The miniseries tells the story of police officers in Baltimore and the problems that happened because of bad actions. It focuses on a police officer named Wayne Jenkins, who faced trouble for his behavior. The story moves back and forth in time to show different parts of what happened.

Cast

The show has many actors who play important parts. Some work for the police in Baltimore, like Jamie Hector as Sean Suiter, a detective, and Delaney Williams as Kevin Davis, the police commissioner. Others are on a special police team called the Gun Trace Task Force, including Jon Bernthal as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the main character.

There are also actors who play people from federal law enforcement, such as Wunmi Mosaku as Nicole Steele, a lawyer, and Dagmara Domińczyk as Erika Jensen, an agent looking into the police team. Some actors play everyday people from Baltimore, like Thaddeus Street as James Otis, a local repairman.

Episodes

"We Own This City" is an American crime drama television miniseries. It is based on a nonfiction book by Justin Fenton. The miniseries was developed by George Pelecanos and David Simon and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. It has six episodes and premiered on HBO on April 25, 2022.

Production

In March 2021, HBO decided to make a TV series based on the book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton. The show was written by David Simon and George Pelecanos.

Filming

In May 2021, Reinaldo Marcus Green was chosen to direct the series. Filming started in July 2021 in Baltimore. Filming stopped for one week in September 2021 because of a COVID-19 case.

Casting

In May 2021, Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles, and Jamie Hector were picked to play the main characters. More actors, such as Darrell Britt-Gibson, Rob Brown, and McKinley Belcher III, joined in June. By August, even more actors were added, including Dagmara Domińczyk, Don Harvey, and Delaney Williams. In September, additional actors for smaller roles were also announced.

Reception

Critical response

People who review shows liked We Own This City. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of the reviews were positive. They gave the show an average rating of 8.3 out of 10, based on 56 reviews. Another website, Metacritic, gave the show a score of 83 out of 100. This means most people liked it.

A writer named Andy Greenwald from The Ringer said that Jon Bernthal did a great job acting in the show.