REVIEW: HBO’s We Own This City Is A Gritty Reminder Of How Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
HBO is set to drop their new drama series, We Own This City, tonight, April 25. Brought to you by the masterminds behind HBO’s hit series, The Wire, We Own This City takes an investigative look into the corruption surrounding the Baltimore Police Department; more specifically the city’s Gun Trace Task Force in 2017.
Based on the nonfiction novel of the same name by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, creators David Simon and George Pelecanos return to the streets of Baltimore to, this time, place the men and women in blue under the microscope. After the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, the show opens up with the Baltimore Police Department still in the midst of trying to rebuild what little trust they had with the people of their city. It is here the audience is introduced to Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal), the head of the Gun Trace Task Force. He opens the premiere with a dialogue focused on being a police officer, how they have managed to shape and change the community, and the reasons for why they need to continue fighting the good fight. As the episode progresses, viewers are continuously introduced to other key players of the series, but at this point in time, don’t know why or how they really play a part in the story. It isn’t until the final moments of the episode, when everything begins to make sense.
It’s this type of storytelling that will bring viewers back to the show. Simon and Pelecanos do a wonderful job of laying just enough foundation to keep the story interesting and thrilling without the feeling of being too overwhelmed. In the premiere episode alone, viewers meet the Gun Trace Task Force, a police unit in Hartford County, MD, and the FBI unit investigating the corruption. It’s a lot of characters, that are all important to the overall plot, but viewers don’t know it yet. They have yet to establish the connections between the groups. The only thing the viewers know is that they are all involved in one way or another with this case. They opt to forgo a true chorological timeline to instead take viewers to key moments in the case as they are being typed up into the police department’s log database.
Jon Bernthal is absolutely wonderful as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins. His ability to transform from a clean cut cop to a seedy, vile human being is completely mesmerizing. Jamie Hector’s performance is another one to applaud. As Detective Sean M. Suiter, Hector brings a sense of calm to the chaos that can be found in abundance throughout this series. Other notable performances go to McKinley Belcher III (Momodu ‘G Money’ Gondo), Darrell Britt-Gibson (Jemell Rayam), and Josh Charles (Daniel Hersl), fellow officers in the Gun Trace Task Force. All three give beautiful performances that are engaging and yet, troubling at the same time. Their performances truly beg the question about how three individuals could go so widely wrong in a span of a few years.
We Own This City is a stark reminder of how it takes just a few bad apples to ruin everything. It truly showcases how easy it was for people who are suppose to be the definitions of the law, to take those very laws and mold them into their liking.