We Own This City

We Own This City is an American crime drama miniseries based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton. The miniseries was developed by George Pelecanos and David Simon and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. The six-episode series premiered on HBO on April 25, 2022.

Premise
The miniseries details the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force, and the corruption surrounding it. The story centers on Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, one of eight officers who were convicted on various corruption charges in 2018 and 2019. Its nonlinear narrative frequently includes flashbacks.

Baltimore Police Department

 * Jamie Hector as Sean Suiter, a BPD homicide detective caught up in the GTTF case
 * Delaney Williams as Kevin Davis, the BPD police commissioner
 * Don Harvey as John Sieracki, a BPD officer assigned to the public corruption task force who aided the FBI
 * Larry Mitchell as Scott Kilpatrick, a veteran investigator with the Baltimore County Police Narcotics Unit
 * Jermaine Crawford as Jaquan Dixon, a young BPD patrolman
 * Chris Clanton as Brian Hairston, a BPD officer
 * Christopher R. Anderson as Dean Palmere, Deputy Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department

Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF)

 * Jon Bernthal as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the central figure in the Baltimore Police Department's (BPD) Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF)
 * Josh Charles as Daniel Hersl, a BPD officer involved in the GTTF
 * McKinley Belcher III as Momodu "G Money" Gondo, a BPD veteran and member of the GTTF
 * Darrell Britt-Gibson as Jemell Rayam, a BPD officer involved in the GTTF
 * Rob Brown as Maurice Ward, a plainclothes officer involved in the GTTF
 * Ham Mukasa as Evodio Hendrix, a BPD officer involved in the GTTF
 * Bobby J. Brown as Sgt. Thomas Allers, a BPD officer involved in the GTTF and Jenkins' predecessor
 * Robert Harley as Marcus Taylor, a BPD officer involved in the GTTF

Federal law enforcement

 * Wunmi Mosaku as Nicole Steele, an attorney assigned to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice
 * Dagmara Domińczyk as Erika Jensen, an FBI agent who investigated the GTTF
 * Ian Duff as Ahmed Jackson, a former Department of Justice trial attorney who is now working for the Office of Civil Rights
 * Lucas Van Engen as Leo Wise, the lead federal prosecutor assigned to the GTTF case
 * Gabrielle Carteris as Andrea Smith, the head of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force

Maryland law enforcement

 * David Corenswet as David McDougall, a veteran investigator with the Harford County Narcotics Task Force
 * Treat Williams as Brian Grabler, a retired Baltimore detective now teaching at the police academy
 * Tray Chaney as Gordon Hawk, a recent addition to the Harford County Narcotics Task Force
 * Domenick Lombardozzi as Stephen Brady, the president of the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police

Civilians

 * Thaddeus Street as James Otis, a Baltimore resident and HVAC repairman
 * Nathan E. Corbett as Tariq Touré, a West Baltimore author and community activist
 * Paige Carter as Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the Mayor of Baltimore

Production
In March 2021, HBO ordered a six-episode series based on the book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption by Baltimore Sun investigative journalist Justin Fenton, to be written by David Simon and George Pelecanos.

Filming
In May 2021, it was confirmed that Reinaldo Marcus Green would direct the series. Production was reported to begin in July 2021 with filming occurring in Baltimore. Production was temporarily halted for a week in September 2021 due to a "COVID-19 event".

Casting
In May 2021, Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles and Jamie Hector were announced to have been cast in leading roles. Darrell Britt-Gibson, Rob Brown, McKinley Belcher III, Larry Mitchell and Wunmi Mosaku were cast in June. In August, several castings were announced, including Dagmara Domińczyk, Don Harvey, Delaney Williams, David Corenswet, Ian Duff, Lucas Van Engen, Gabrielle Carteris, Treat Williams and Domenick Lombardozzi. In September, several recurring and guest roles were announced, including Thaddeus Street, Tray Chaney, Chris Clanton, Jermaine Crawford and Nathan E. Corbett.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 8.3/10, based on 56 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "A spiritual successor to The Wire with an even more pessimistic outlook on law enforcement, We Own This City deftly explores compromised individuals to paint an overall picture of systemic corruption." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 83 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Andy Greenwald of The Ringer said Jon Bernthal gave "one of the great TV performances of this century."