We Own This City

We Own This City is an American crime drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton. The miniseries was developed by George Pelecanos and David Simon and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green.

The six-episode series premiered on HBO on April 25, 2022. It tells the story of real events that took place in Baltimore, focusing on the actions of police officers and the challenges they faced in their work. The show explores important themes about fairness, responsibility, and the difficulties of keeping communities safe.

Premise

The miniseries tells the story of a group of police officers in Baltimore and the problems that happened because of bad actions. It focuses on a police officer named Wayne Jenkins, who was one of several officers who faced serious trouble for their behavior in 2018 and 2019. The story moves back and forth in time to show different parts of what happened.

Cast

The show features many actors playing important roles in the story. Some work for the police department in Baltimore, like Jamie Hector as Sean Suiter, a detective, and Delaney Williams as Kevin Davis, the police commissioner. Others are part of a special police team called the Gun Trace Task Force, including Jon Bernthal as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the main character in this team.

There are also actors playing people from federal law enforcement, such as Wunmi Mosaku as Nicole Steele, a lawyer, and Dagmara Domińczyk as Erika Jensen, an agent investigating 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 of the same name by Baltimore Sun reporter 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 six-episode 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. For one week in September 2021, filming stopped 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 for a living liked We Own This City. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of the reviews were positive, giving 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, which means almost everyone liked it.

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