We Own This City Breaks The Wire's Most Important Rule
The characters in We Own This City betray The Wire’s overarching themes of morality in crime. More than 14 years after the ending of the popular HBO crime series, creator and former police reporter David Simon has returned to the platform with another Baltimore-based story of institutional rot. Although the setting and tone of both series are largely the same, the antagonists of We Own This City differ greatly from The Wire's, operating under a looser set of morals despite their elevated social status.
We Own This City is based on the 2021 nonfiction book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton. Much like The Wire, We Own This City explores the impact that one person’s choices can have on their surroundings, this time scrutinizing the real-life actions of the Baltimore Police and its now-defunct Gun Trace Task Force. The story was adapted for HBO by David Simon and frequent collaborator George Pelecanos and stars The Punisher's Jon Bernthal as the notorious Wayne Jenkins.
Related: Every The Wire Actor Who Returned For We Own This City
We Own This City is more of a spiritual successor to The Wire than a direct sequel, sharing similar themes and tone with its predecessor while telling a true story with a cast of characters based on real people. However, We Own This City flips the script, turning legitimate businesspeople into criminals due to wanton greed and a lust for power. While the show is a timely contemplation of the potential for corruption in law enforcement, the moral degradation of a legitimate business such as the Baltimore Police feels like a perverse twist on the desires of The Wire’s Stringer Bell and Omar Little, whose criminal dealings served a
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