She arrives on OCS this April 26 eagerly awaited as the new precious baby of David Simon, back in Baltimore twenty years after the release of his flagship series The Wire. We Own This City deeply seduced American critics.
The showrunner, a former Baltimore Sun journalist, is continuing his fruitful collaboration with HBO with the adaptation of the book by reporter (also from the Baltimore Sun) Justin Fenton, published in France under the title The city belongs to us, and which meticulously traces the origins of of the corruption case that broke out in 2017 within the prestigious branch of the police called “Gun Trace Task Force” set up to contain the explosion of crime in the city just after the death of Freddie Gray, a young black man who died in Baltimore during his arrest in 2015.
Surrounded by his author sidekick George Pelecanos, former detective turned producer Ed Burns, as well as his favorite actors including Jamie Hector and Darrell Britt-Gibson (The Wire), Rob Brown (Treme), or Dagmara Domińczyk and Don Harvey (The Deuce), David Simon still pulls off a masterstroke with this eminently political punch series, which points the finger at the responsibilities of an entire institution and systemic racism.
“A masterpiece”
On the other side of the Atlantic, the press which was able to see the episodes in preview is full of praise. “We Own This City (…) is rooted in the energy and style of The Wire but with a story from the recent past that rings especially true in our current societal state. In short, We Own This City is a masterpiece”, dares Joblo. At only six episodes, this is a limited series but full of powerful moments,” reads the site.
For the New York Times, We Own this City is “a very good show, with a rough realism, and a fine sense of humor”. The result of an immersion work, the documentary bias of the series to examine the lackluster actions of the freewheeling police forces is therefore admired.
His way of juggling between two temporalities, one in the 2000s, the other at the end of the 2010s is also appreciated. “It’s easy to keep up,” the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “even if it’s hard to grasp the scale of police corruption depicted here, even though we know it all happened. is actually produced.
With a nervous camera that boosts the effect of reality, We own this City follows its protagonists as closely as possible, whether they are cops, their victims, drug dealers with a storefront or prosecutors. And the cast is also acclaimed. “There is no bad performance in We Own This City – it is in itself a real achievement in such an important cast, salutes the Hollywood Reporter who also notes that the indignation of Simon and Pelecanos is still well founded and documented at all levels”. Burrs, rackets, corruption, violence or even drug trafficking… The GTTF unit was indeed gangrenous to the bone.
While the serivores especially do not miss this new little gem which will be broadcast from this Tuesday, April 26 on OCS in US + 24.