HBOhas revealed the first trailer for the upcoming limited seriesWe Own This City. Created by David Simon and George Pelecanos, and based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton,We Own This Cityis a six-hour limited series chronicling the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force.
The trailer forHBO’sWe Own This Cityopens on an ominous image ofactor Jon Bernthal, who plays Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, spinning his baton as he walks the streets of Baltimore. He then begins to ask one of his fellow officers, posing the question as a “hypothetical,” about whether he would take money found during a raid. We then see Sgt. Jenkins and his men doing this exact thing, busting into someone’s home and lining their pockets with drug money.
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TheWeOwn This Citytrailer then features a character played by actor Treat Williams who tells us that “everything changed when they came up with that expression:The war on drugs.” He highlights the themes of the series,explaining that with a war comes “police militarization” and “a complete gutting of the fourth amendment.” Then another cop in the task force played by actor Darrell Britt-Gibson explains that he’s stuck in a unit with some of the most corrupt officers in the department, saying, “there’s all this money to be made, and now I’m supposed to play by the book?” From there we see more of Bernthal and his task force taking scores and descending into further corruption before ending on Nicole Steele (Wunmi Mosaku), the civil rights attorney tasked with taking on these corrupt cops.
We Own This Cityis executive produced and written by Simon and Pelecanos. Simon previously worked as a Baltimore Police Journalist, before turning to television and creatingThe Wire,which is widely considered to be one of thebest TV showsof all time. Pelecanos was a writer onThe Wireand also co-created the HBO seriesThe Deucewith Simon. He’s also an accomplished novelist and essayist and is currently developing a series for HBO based on his one of his characters, an Ex-cop turned Private Investigator named Derek Strange. The first season of the show will be based on the novelHard Revolution, which takes place during the 1968 Washington DC riots.
All six episodes ofWe Own This Cityare directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, who also directed the Academy Award nominated 2021 filmKing Richardstarringactor Will Smithas Venus and Serena Williams' father, Richard Williams.King Richardalso stars Bernthal as real-life tennis coach Rick Macci. Bernthal seems right at home in this role, as he’s known for playing tough, rule-breaking characters such asThe Punisherin the Marvel Netflix series and Tony Soprano’s father Johnny Boy inThe Many Saints of Newark.
We Own This Cityis set to premiere on HBO and HBO Max on April 25th, 2022.
