r/TheWire • u/Desperate-Cream-6723 • 4d 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/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.