Twenty years ago, with the series The wire, David Simon composed a rich and engaging fresco of the city of Baltimore, starting from the work of a team of drug cops, but expanding his gaze to the politics, social dynamics, school and information world of the capital of Maryland. In addition to his qualities as a writer, Simon took advantage of his twelve years in the editorial office of the Baltimore Sun. For a couple of years this historic local newspaper has not been doing very well. The publication was in fact bought by an investment fund whose purpose seems to be precisely to strip away the local US newspapers and then quickly get rid of their leftovers. But this is another story, told by McKay Coppins in the monthly The Atlantic, and republished by Internazionale in issue 1435.
Instead, in his new series created for Hbo, We own this city, Simon returns to his hometown starting from an investigation by a Baltimore Sun reporter. The six-episode miniseries is based on Justin Fenton’s book which reconstructs one of the biggest corruption scandals ever seen in the Baltimore police department ( Bpd). Fenton now works for the Baltimore Banner (a media outlet that, as McKay always says, tries to take up the legacy of the Sun), but for years he has followed the work of the police, coming one step away from Pulitzer in 2016 to news coverage of the killing of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American boy who died in April 2015 following his injuries after being illegally arrested. Another bad story involving the BPD, which has not found peace since the early 2000s.
Just in the years in which The wire told the desperate struggle of a group of policemen against drug trafficking, the newly elected mayor of Baltimore Martin O’Malley renewed the leadership of the BPD with the aim of drastically reducing the numbers of crime, following the example of what had happened in New York in the the nineties. Among the consequences of this new course was the creation of special units of plainclothes agents who had to target specific objectives, relying on a certain autonomy. One such unit was the Gun Trace Task Force (Gttf). Born in 2007 to clear the streets of firearms, it quickly developed into a team of unscrupulous and corrupt cops who amassed a long line of crimes. In 2017, the GTTF was at the center of an FBI investigation that led to the arrest of nine officers accused of, among other things, conspiracy, robbery, extortion and theft. We own this city tells his story.
The cast of the series, created by Simon together with the faithful George Pelecanos (The wire, Treme, Deuce) and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the director of A winning family. King Richard. Jon Bernthal (Show me a hero, The walking dead, The Wolf of Wall street, A winning family) plays Sergeant Wayne Jankins, a key figure of the GTTF. Josh Charles (The fleeting moment, The good wife) who is originally from Baltimore, plays detective Daniel Hersl, also involved in the scandal. British actress Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country, Loki, His house) is the prosecutor investigating the abuse of the Gttf together with the FBI agent Erika Jensen, played by Dagmara Domińczyk (Succession). We will also find some interpreters of The wirelike Jamie Hector (the unforgettable Marlo Stanfield), Delaney Williams, Domenick Lombardozzi and Tray Chaney. We own this city will debut on April 25 on Hbo and therefore we expect to see it in a reasonable time on Sky. The wire instead it can be found on demand on Sky and Now Tv.