Jon Bernthal and Wunmi Mosaku star in the trailer for We Own This City, an HBO series from The Wire creator David Simon and George Pelecanos.
Jon Bernthal leads the charge in We Own This City, an upcoming crime-drama series from The Wire creator David Simon. Consisting of six episodes, We Own This City is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by reporter Justin Fenton. The book looks at the corruption and moral ruin that occurred in Baltimore when the city’s law enforcement championed drug prohibition and mass arrests at the cost of doing other forms of police work.
Co-created by Simon and George Pelecanos with Reinaldo Marcus Green, the series will tell this story through the character of Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (Bernthal), the head of a plainclothes unit that went completely rogue and began to hunt down criminals. The unit robbed citizens and drug dealers alike, with decades of relentlessly cruel drug wars and mass incarceration policies spinning out of control. In addition to Bernthal, We Own This City stars Wunmi Mosaku, known for her roles in Loki and Lovecraft Country. The cast also includes Jamie Hector, McKinley Belcher III, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Josh Charles, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rob Brown, Don Harvey, David Corenswet, Larry Mitchell, Ian Duff, Delaney Williams, and Lucas Van Engen.
With the premiere set for April 25, HBO has released a teaser trailer for We Own This City. Bernthal’s Wayne Jenkins gets the spotlight, but so does Mosaku, who plays Nicole Steele. As an attorney assigned to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, Steele grows frustrated at what she finds. At one point, Steele is asked whether she’s angry. Steele can only scoff in response. You can check out the trailer below.
Click here to watch the trailer on YouTube.
Given the talent involved behind the camera, there will be a lot of attention on We Own This City. Along with Breaking Bad and Mad Men, two seminal dramas, The Wire is credited with helping to usher in a new era of television. The Wire, in particular, was praised for its exploration of policing and of the broader way the American working class has been mistreated by capitalist structures. In this way, We Own This City looks to bring Simon back to the familiar subject matter in more than one sense, as Simon worked as a journalist and police reporter before writing for TV.
We Own This City is also a fresh take on the familiar for Bernthal, who is known to a lot of fans as the Punisher. The actor has also worked within the crime-drama genre for other roles, most recently The Many Saints of Newark. The upcoming HBO show promises to continue in that general direction, while still clearing its own path for a clear examination of how an unjust policing system ruined the lives of so many individuals.
Source: HBO
