r/TheWire • u/Desperate-Cream-6723 • 3d ago
Thoughts on We Own This City
Going through a little The Wire withdrawal after watching the entire series. I've heard We Own This City is the same vibe and somewhat of a sequel of sorts to the Wire... just curious what you all think of this series and if it holds a candle to the Wire?
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u/BanjoTCat 3d ago
Compared to We Own This City, the The Wire is almost utopian. Police in The Wire are by and large depicted as well-meaning but dysfunctional and their brutality as a symptom of the pressure to keep crime down. In We Own This City, the dysfunction is out of petty greed and loathing to admit mistakes. The GTTF was committing state sanctioned robbery on a city-wide scale.
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u/HamroveUTD 2d ago edited 2d ago
the wire just didn’t depict average beat cops doing their shit. The wire shows the corrupt higher ups who enable the shit in we own the city. The focus was just elsewhere but the two go together.
The wire touched on it a bit mainly with Walker but also with herc and carver being assholes always happy to fuck people up. You see more of this when they had their own district under Colvin, being shit cops and beating up on kids.
Edit: Also prez blinding another kid
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u/Low_Football_2445 1d ago
I would argue the dysfunction in WOTC is a combo of forcing the cops to get arrest numbers and a few bad cops corrupting a bunch of others.
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u/General-Zombie5075 3d ago
You'll be chasing that Wire high your whole life.
SOURCE: Watched most of The Wire as it aired.
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u/Melodic-Army-6776 3d ago
Woah. I'd say that's the TV equivalent of having known about and bought bitcoin in 2010. There should be an OG watchers thread.
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u/General-Zombie5075 3d ago
It would be a lot of griping about the wait between Season 3 and 4. Audiences today are much more used to long waits between seasons (lol Stranger Things lol Severance) but back in the aughts we all grew up on TV that appeared dutifully like clockwork.
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u/Capn26 3d ago
Stranger things? Pppfffftttttt. I’m still waiting on Taboo season 2. 😂
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u/keegtraw Damn Calvin, you know I got the bingo tonight. 3d ago
Eventually, they have to make a second season of Firefly, right guys? Right??
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u/EGB_Chi 3d ago
I also watched it as it aired (I first watched S1 E3 the week it aired then watched the first 3 back to back to back that weekend when they re-aired then in order).
The benefit of the episodes coming out a week at a time was I watched each episode 2-3 additional times during the week (it would first play Sunday night on HBO East then I might watch it again 3 hours later on HBO West; then it would be replayed on HBO 2 in the middle of the week and again on one of the channels either Friday or Saturday). So some of the things you catch on a full rewatch I might catch on my 2nd or 3rd watch that week before the next one aired.
Then they would usually replay the previous season - week by week - leading up to the premier of a new season. So I might do a rewatch while jonesing for the new season.
And yeah that almost 2 years between S3 and S4 was rough. But there was also speculation that it was cancelled right after S3 aired because S4 wasn't announced right away and the way S3 ended.
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u/Natural_Return_4650 3d ago
I couldn't imagine waiting week to week for this show. I didn't see it until after it had all aired
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u/General-Zombie5075 3d ago
Week to week has its benefits. Conversations about the show are better because everyone's all on the same part. You can actually speculate about the fates of characters or about what's going to happen because... nobody knows how it ends.
Even here on the Wire subreddit, conversation goes down two paths:
1) Assuming everyone has COMPLETELY finished the show.
2) The ol' "what part are you on?" and we all do some mental rewinds to figure out if we can talk about the funny thing Bunk did... or was that a different season or... shit... nevermind. We'll just say it's good.
So yeah, week to week the conversation can be a lot more speculative, which just doesn't exist when the show ends. There's a reason why "Lost" was, like, king of online discourse for the better part of a decade and now that it's all done... crickets.
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u/AwwwNiceMarmot 3d ago
lol it’s like when Game of Thrones was airing. That’s all anyone talked about, both online and in person. But now it’s like everyone just forgot it existed even though it was a cultural phenomenon at the time. Even die hard fans have almost completely lost interest in the whenever the next book comes out, if it ever does.
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u/General-Zombie5075 3d ago
A lot of Game of Thrones's problem is that they failed to stick the landing. It's like recommending a masseuse who gives the best massages and then at the end of the session they kick you in the balls. It really doesn't matter how good the rest of the massage was, you probably won't be going back.
Your Breaking Bads, your Sopranos, your Star Trek the Next Generations... those all have had long shelf lives. Partly because they all can be recommended without reservation and when you go and rewatch them you know you'll have a good time of it until the end.
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u/Samule310 3d ago
I didn't have anyone to talk about it with when it was on. I was the only person I know who watched it at the time.
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u/Emotional-Farm8831 3d ago
One of the seasons I can’t remember which was HEAVILY pirated prior to its air date. It was crazy.
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u/Desperate-Cream-6723 3d ago
I literally didnt watch any other show while streaming the Wire. Dont think ive ever done that before, or ever will again.
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u/General-Zombie5075 3d ago
The bad news is it'll also basically ruin other good TV for you going forward.
I come from my TV appreciation from a writing standpoint. I just know a lot about that side of it from a craft standpoint. The stuff they pull off in The Wire is just mind-boggling. There are no unimportant moments in The Wire. Every detail matters and not in some gimmicky murder mystery sort of way. It manages to be both intimate and expansive which is as hard as it sounds. Its tragedies are personal and world-spanning.
It makes other legitimately brilliant TV shows seem amateurish and lazy.
If you ask me what is the best BLANK I've seen or experienced in all areas of media, either I'll struggle with the answer or my answer will change as my exposure to more things grows with time. My answer for "what's the best TV show ever" has remained startlingly consistent for almost 20 years.
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u/wetsprockit 3d ago
Would you mind ranking the Simon output according to how close each work comes to scratching that Wire Itch?
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u/General-Zombie5075 3d ago
Most to least, of what I've seen. This is not a ranking of quality, just Wire-ishness
The Corner (first by a lot), We Own This City, Treme, Homicide: Life on the Street (It's based on his book and I think he wrote a few episodes of it), The Deuce, Show Me a Hero, Generation Kill
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u/swigs77 3d ago
I doesn't hold a candle to the wire. It does have an unforgetteble performance by John Bernthal as Wayne Jenkins. Its definately worth watching just don't expect the same cohesion in story.
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u/SneakyPolyester 3d ago
"And a mother fuckin' brick!" Take stolen from The Rewatchables - A scene with Wayne Jenkins would make any movie ever instantly better.
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u/The_Chef_Raekwon 3d ago
This is the truth. It’s a good watch but ultimately it’s a retread of some of the topics and ideas already put forward in The Wire but overall much less interesting.
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 3d ago
I watched it last year and then read the book. And it was crazy that the show was based on things that actually happened. And some of the cops in that show make Herc look like Barney Fife or something.
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u/DudleyAndStephens 2d ago
And some of the cops in that show make Herc look like Barney Fife or something.
The GTTF was arguably the worst police corruption case in the US since the Rampart scandal in LA. So yes, it's no surprise that the cops involved made guys like Herc seem good by comparison!
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u/SpezMechman 3d ago
Didn’t realize until after I watched it that it was based on real people. The acting is good though. I found myself hoping to see a character from the Wire turn up but didn’t happen. At least we got to see some of the actors from the Wire in roles. Almost like a different dimension in the same universe? Hope that makes sense.
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u/LowerAd9859 3d ago
I love it. It's good, dark, and cynical. I put it in the David Simon pantheon, right about on the same ranking as The Plot Against America and Show Me a Hero. Still below The Wire
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u/jonatton______yeah 3d ago
Really benefits from a second watch. The way it's organized, jumping forward and backward, can be confusing as the amount of time between "eras" (so to speak) isn't enough to make it obvious. A second watch also helps with the sort of subtleties The Wire was so good at.
The book is also very good. But I recommend going for the hard cover. The soft back font is impossibly small. My eyesight isn't great but it's not that bad.
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u/Easton1234 3d ago edited 3d ago
Two very different shows.. it’s definitely not a sequel of the wire, they don’t really have anything to do with each other, other than them both taking place in Baltimore.. I didn’t read the whole thread so not sure if it’s been mentioned, but we own this city is a true story.. it’s definitely worth watching but also not in the best show ever tier
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u/Consistent_Ad_8656 3d ago
The Wire is superior in every way, but this show is solid. Bernthal’s Baltimore accent is a bit much but he gets a pass because he’s just so good at playing a charismatic jackoff
I literally started rewatching The Wire because of it
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u/BooksAndBooks1022 3d ago
If you haven’t yet…watch The Corner or read the book. It’s basically a prequel to The Wire. We Own This City was fine but not even close to the level of The Corner or The Wire.
I think Jamie Hector, though a brilliant actor was missed casted as Suiter but the rest of the cast did a great job especially Bernthal.
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u/notthegoatseguy 3d ago
Its a good show. But I think The Wire and WOTC are both written for their specific eras. I personally like The Wire more because the show (mostly) doesn't beat you over the head with its message. WOTC is very specific in its message, there's no mistaking it at all.
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u/Haunting-Detail2025 3d ago
Yeah the DOJ attorney being the conscience of the show was a bit over the top in explaining how the audience is supposed to feel. The Wire lets you come to conclusions by yourself, WOTC makes it very clear exactly how they want you to feel at all times and the narrative is anything but subtle
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u/Last_Blackfyre 3d ago
You can see how officers were fairly comfortable taking money from criminals or suspects.
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u/rankaistu_ilmalaiva 3d ago
it’s a much more condemced narrative, in many ways. It has to get to the point faster, they kinda have to say the obvious out loud, and they use more flash backs and and do more stylistic elements than the naturalistic feel of The Wire.
But I did like it, and I specifically liked how it was atrue story with real names and events, it made it more straightforward to go ”see? all the stuff in The Wire? it was real, we just had to cover our ass legally”
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u/myflesh 3d ago
Of all the things I think it a great example of the decline of television because of shitty choices made by higher ups to save money.. The show is clearly made to have far more then 6 episodes. It has great writing, cast, cinematography....everything. But putting such a complex story to only 6 episodes strip it of so much.
Imagine the wire if every season was 6 episodes. You would of not felt connected to clients; thing of how they would have to change the story to cram everything in.
We Own The City instead feels hollow. It has so much potential. I wanted to fall in love with the characters but there was no time. I wanted to fall in love with the story, but it was to shallow.
So many things just happened.
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u/BaronZhiro "Life just be that way I guess." 3d ago
I always push back against the ‘same vibe’ sentiment. It drastically lacks the levity that makes The Wire so compelling and durable for me. It’s so tonally different that it’s like someone else was hired to make a Wire sequel for Simon rather than doing it himself.
It’s totally worth watching, but it’s very different. Darker, grimmer, and with almost no characters to actually like. I might someday rewatch it once, but it’ll never be comfort food like The Wire (or The Deuce) is for me.
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u/ArchEast 3d ago
As Brian Grabler, Treat Williams seemed to channel Bunny Colvin (kind of a "what if he made it to retirement" scenario), and was amazing in his short screen time.
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u/ItsWine101 3d ago edited 3d ago
Awesome show, especially if you know anything about the real Wayne Jenkins. Bernthal's portrayal may seem like an exaggerated caricature, but it's pretty spot-on, and they only tell a fraction of the dirt he and his squad were into - could write a multi-season show on them alone.
Also, if you've got some time and like to read, dig up the expose David Simon wrote when he was crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun called "Anatomy of a Drug Empire" - it lays out the true story of Melvin Williams (character Avon is most based on, and who actually appears in the show as "Deacon" - Bunny's clergyman confidant). Reading that after going through The Wire is a trip!
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u/LEAGUEofHEXAGONS 3d ago
We own this city was good...it was very good.. I read the Time magazine article talking about the real task force team that they were investigating
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u/JeanVicquemare 3d ago
There's nothing like The Wire but I have enjoyed each of David Simon's other shows that I have watched. I really loved The Deuce
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u/Obwyn 3d ago
Well, a big difference with We Own This City is that it’s directly about a specific unit and specific named officers in the BPD. None of those guys were good guys at all. They were straight up robbing dealers and committing home invasions.
I would not call it a sequel or anything to The Wire.
Yea, a lot of the plots and characters in The Wire were inspired by actual people and events in Baltimore, but it’s still highly fictionalized.
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u/LeftHandStir I think you need a lot of context to seriously examine anything. 2d ago
The Wire is funny. All the characters, from the corner boys to the cops to the politicians to the journos are always bustin' balls and shootin' the shit. We Own This City is completely devoid of humor. Like, not a joke to be found. Wayne Jenkins is unintentionally funny, because he's such a clown, but it's not played that way between the characters.
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u/WredditSmark 1d ago
Give “Show me a hero” a try. It has similar wire vibes, also David Simon, but this time it’s Yonkers in the 1980s
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u/rosscowhoohaa 1d ago
It's decent and very watchable compared to most tv shows. But it's not in the wire's league. Treme and the deuce are better.
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u/Samule310 3d ago
It can't hold a candle because it's a 6 episode limited series based on a true story. But it's very good.
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u/Mtn_Man73 3d ago
We Own This City is a true story based almost entirely on eyewitness testimony, and it will convince you that truth is stranger than fiction. As bad as you think Baltimore is based on seeing The Wire, in truth it is actually much worse. As is the corruption in the police department and the government.
It's required watching IMO.
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u/raccooncitysg 3d ago
The Wire had a handful of references to the Ravens.
We Own This City had dozens, if not hundreds.
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u/kennyloftor 3d ago
not even close
but a great watch to help understand what Baltimore citizens have survived
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u/Werthead 3d ago
We Own This City and Show Me a Hero (both by David Simon for HBO, like The Wire) are both similar in vibes to The Wire, the former for the police/drug stuff and the latter more for the political side of things, but also showing an impact on everyday people. The former is set in Baltimore and they reuse a lot of Wire castmembers in different roles (Landsman as the police commissioner and Marlo as a detective are really good as well), so it's more obviously a point of comparison to The Wire. They're both mini-series so they don't have the time to set up and execute long-term character arcs like The Wire.
You can always go in the other direction and check out the shows Simon made before The Wire. Homicide: Life on the Street is basically The Wire if it was a more "standard" police procedural with a less sprawling cast and a tighter focus on just the cops. It's not as good as The Wire but it is still excellent, especially Andre Braugher. There's an episode with Robin Williams that's brilliant. Simon wasn't in charge of Homicide but he was a key advisor, then became a writer and producer and it's where he learned a lot of the skills he later used on The Wire. A few Wire castmembers do show up in very early roles.
The Corner was the first mini-series that Simon made for HBO and it's basically about the life of people living in the middle of the drug war in Baltimore, the civilians if you will. This is more like the Bubbles storyline if it was the whole show, and a fair bit bleaker (though IIRC some of the real-life people in The Corner did eventually escape the drug trap, and I think one of them ended up working on The Wire). There's a larger crossover of actors; Lance Reddick as a junkie is a definite change of pace. It's a tough watch but brilliantly acted.
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u/wandering_walnut 3d ago
Different shows. The Wire had more runway to tackle different themes. We Own This City is just one season and is more focused.
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u/Murky_Coyote_7737 3d ago
It’s a very good show definitely not as good as the wire. It has a level of cast reuse from the wire that I would almost call egregious.
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u/turbo_22222 3d ago
I had to watch it twice to get the full effect. There is a lot of timeline jumping that makes it a bit confusing on the initial watch. But it is short enough that it's easy to watch the whole thing twice. Great acting and typically great writing from David Simon. Nice to be back in that familiar setting as The Wire.
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u/Desperate-Cream-6723 3d ago
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Ill definitely be checking it out, especially since its only the 6 episodes. Hadn't realized that.
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u/greatwhite8 3d ago
The stuff based on true stories was really strong. The stuff they added, held the show back.
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u/therevolvinglVlonk 3d ago
Can tell a lot of people here need to watch Tremé. It's The Wire's more free-spirited, younger sibling. Different but still somewhat similar with a good mix of serious and light-hearted. Ton of great music too!
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u/Zealousideal_Draw_94 3d ago
WotC is a different time, different vibe. It’s good, but not at The Wire’s level.
While the Wire characters are based off of people Simon/Burns knew, WotC is based off of real cops, who lied, stole, and cheated the City and people of Baltimore. Even the ones they interviewed, likely told only what was already out there.
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u/freckleyfreckleson 3d ago
We own this city feels like a sequel to The Wire, but 20 years later when everyone else has retired. It’s all true though.
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u/SomethingClever70 She looked like one of Orlando's hoes 3d ago
It’s a great show, based on a true story.
I think this story basically gives us insight into Daniels’ backstory coming up in the eastern district, when he alluded to the shenanigans he was involved in with his unit.
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u/Emotional-Farm8831 3d ago
It was good and nostalgic and seeing some of the wire cast was nice but was also bad because it made them miscast by default, poot as a cop? Seriously Det. Marlo? O Dog is that you? Well done but some bad casting choices.
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u/Tomasulu 3d ago
I stopped at episode 4 of wotc. Clunky script and presentation. Timeline is all over the place I can't be bothered.
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u/alittledanger 3d ago
It was good but I would have dropped the consent decree storyline. It seemed like it distracted from the Wayne Jenkins storyline rather than adding to it. Feel free to disagree though.
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u/SCastleRelics 3d ago
The main story is pretty damn good. The fact that it happened irl is tragic. Bernthal is incredible in it. I really hated the very shoehorned trump shit in it. I'm not a fan of that POS but some of the writing around that in the show is going to age poorly and it felt extremely unnecessary.
I don't remember the exact quote but there's a part where a character is like "trump? Hes never gonna win" and it's such a fuckin eye roll. Some shit you'd see in much weaker television.
Good show all in all tho. 7/10.
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u/irate_alien 3d ago
my criticism is that it spent too much time telling/explaining instead of showing. i thought the wire trusted the audience to figure things out. we own this city was a lot more direct. it's why i didn't like the characters of the DOJ attorney and the poet (played by the actor who was Donut in the Wire). the DOJ attorney existed in the show mainly to ask other people to give detailed explanations of the problems in the city and BPD. and instead of just letting the poet perform, he explained his poems. sometimes i thought it was a little condescending.
I thought Jaimie Hector was outstanding. amazingly subtle. Bernthal was really good too. not subtle at all.
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u/Fuzzy_Meringue5317 2d ago
It’s not the wire but it’s fantastic, I e watched it a couple times. Jon Bernthal is amazing and there’s lots of the same actors who were in the wire, and it’s good to see them again.
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u/Vast_Low_9949 2d ago
I thought it was pretty good, and it’s only 6 episodes, so it’s a quick watch.
The immediate, most noticeable difference is its use of nonlinear storytelling—it jumps back and forth through time a lot
This can be fun and interesting. But if you’re like me, whose just trying to learn the characters and what they’re doing, the temporal displacement can sometimes get confusing hahaha. But I’m sure this means there will be many rewarding moments upon rewatching.
And you will also see some familiar faces from The Wire, playing different types of characters, which is always fun.
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u/Independent-Drop3299 1d ago
I liked it a lot but after a rewatch I realise how little drama there actually is and it heavily relies on exposition. Obviously this is done very well through interviews, conversation but it is 80% someone telling you exactly what is happening. I think the nadir of this is when they literally cut to a nice house they're searching and the voiceover is "he had a very nice house". The scale and world also seems very limited. I think post COVID budgets were tight and they barely had the money for the short season as it was. However I just don't think WOTC is even worth considering in the same breath as Treme the Device and especially not the wire.
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u/Low_Football_2445 1d ago
We Own This City is, to me, the season The Wire didn’t do…. About corruption on the police force.
It would have been the quintessential capstone for The Wire and I think it’s just as good.
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u/ZealousidealCloud154 1d ago
Like every great novelist has ups and downs after their masterpieces, there’s usually one that’s a mini form of their greatest work. Dashiell Hammett or Delillo are examples
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u/dcbrownie84 7h ago
It’s great, but not as good as The Wire. The things made up for the series, specifically the scenes involving DOJ’s Civil Rights Division investigation and consent decree, including the character they invented to tell this part of the story, feels incredibly inorganic, preachy and overhanded. The characters and scenes of events that actually existed were incredibly well done. Many of the performances were great as well. Definitely worth the watch.
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u/Reddwheels Pawn Shop Unit 3d ago
It's from the creator of the Wire and deals with a corrupt police unit in Baltimore and features major star power in John Bernthal. Overall I really loved the show.
The major difference between it and The Wire is that WOTC is telling a true story, where the Wire was completely fictional, so the writers have a little less power in where they can take the storytelling plotwise.
They make up for this by taking some interesting turns in HOW they tell the true story, so I would give definitely watch it and enjoy it for what it is, but don't expect a sequel to The Wire really. Its doing its own thing but it definitely scratched that Wire itch.
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u/ShallazarTheWizard 3d ago edited 3d ago
We Own this City is a well below average show, and it's because of bad writing. One of the things they teach us all starting in middle school is that you have to SHOW your reader your point, not TELL them. In the five seasons of The Wire, there are like two scenes that violate this rule (Bunny's, "this ain't policing" speech to Carver comes to mind). We Own This City violates it all the time. The show is FULL of characters giving long exposition to the camera as to why things are wrong, as opposed to just showing us. The civil rights lawyer character in the show is in there just to explain to the audience why things are bad. It is not only boring, but it is also preachy, and it is not good writing.
If you want an example of the opposite, you can watch the newer Scorcese movie "Killers of the Flower Moon." There is no scene in that movie where a character explains to the audience that stealing and murdering the Native Americans is bad. It is self-evident why it is bad without having somebody explain that to the audience.
The Wire was really great because of the ability to show rather than tell. When what would otherwise be very good kids in season 4 all go in bad directions, it is obvious why things turned out that way. You don't need some social service character look into the camera and say "Michael ended up a hitman because of limited opportunities in urban Baltimore, poor parenting, and being surrounded by other hitmen and drug dealers." You are supposed to know that from watching the show. We Own This City does the opposite.
Seriously, screw that show. It was so disappointing.
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u/DudleyAndStephens 2d ago
Calling it a sequel is silly. It's set in the same city but it's a short series based on real-life events.
I was unimpressed by the show. I watched it because I live in Baltimore so the subject matter interests me but a lot of the writing was ham-handed.
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u/onlineRVS 3d ago
It’s a great show with a familiar cast and setting. It’s not the wire but it scratches the itch a little bit. Given that it’s a low commitment with only a few episodes, watching it is a no brainer for anyone who might be interested.