We Own This City

I was interested in the topic, Jon Bernthal was brilliant, it's just that the creators couldn't handle it to my complete satisfaction. / Lesson learned: Don't push too hard, or you'll break it. (11/28/2022)

The Wire's spiritual successor tries its best to outline the complexity of Baltimore's current problems, but the path it chooses is a very circuitous one. It criticizes good cops, it criticizes bad cops, it criticizes councilmen, it pokes regular jabs at the Trump administration... All of this would be relatively fine if the series decided if it wanted to be a documentary or an actual crime drama. Personally, I lean towards the latter, because any "story" scene with the traditionally perfect Bernthal shows us that everything could have gone without a single stumble. Unfortunately, those passages are few and far between, and the filmmakers spend far more time on no-name investigators or flat characters like Wunmi Mosaku, whose only purpose is to have an astonished look on her face at all times . (06/05/2022)

The Wire inside out. But I had trouble with the inconsistent and often confusing narration which jumps from one incident involving the main suspects to another completely with complete disregard for chronology. A gradual transformation would have come across better. Green didn’t get that right. What remains in the head is the very good, but rather rushed final episode. Bernthal does far too much oscillation between good cop and bad cop, but still he carries the entire series on his shoulders. The way Treat Williams sums up the situation regarding drug wars, loss of trust and the senseless quest for growth should be carved into stone. It applies everywhere. And there’s no money for things that make sense. The final explanatory texts listing the sentences that those involved received, ending with a dry statement saying that after the case was concluded and after reorganization of the police department (replacing white officers with black), the crime rate rose sharply just says it all. Baltimore is one of the most dangerous cities on Earth. (06/09/2022)

Lots of data, facts, and talking heads. But it's not a documentary, it's a crime drama that has cut a lot of branches out from under itself. With the exception of the fourth act, it is a non-dramatic and worn-out paraphrase of everything that has ever been seen about dirty cops. The only thing that made me happy, but also brought me to the miniseries, is unsurprisingly Jon Bernthal. In the role of a tough guy with a soft spot, but that doesn't stop him from being slapped most of the time, he is cast so precisely that it borders on cliché. Unfortunately, his behavior, like that of most of his buddies, goes from one extreme to another. Three times as a thief, racist, or just a jerk, and then once as a repentant good guy. It is precisely because of this inconsistency and unnecessary non-linearity of key events that I remain negative in my assessment. Nothing new is said about corruption, Black Lives Matter, or the hierarchy of overlooked offenses. (08/03/2022)