City on a Hill (TV series)


City on a Hill is an American crime drama series created by Charlie MacLean, based on an original idea by Ben Affleck and MacLean. The series stars Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, Amanda Clayton, Cathy Moriarty, Kevin Dunn, and Jill Hennessy. The series premiered on June 7, 2019 and June 16, 2019. On August 2, 2019, Showtime renewed the series for a second season.

Plot

The series is set in Boston in the early 1990s when the city was rife with violent criminals, emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption, tribalism, and "taking it to the street" were the norm—until it all suddenly changed. This is a fictional account of what was called the "Boston Miracle". The change agent is District Attorney Decourcy Ward, who comes from Brooklyn and forms an unlikely alliance with Jackie Rohr, a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran who is deeply invested in maintaining the status quo. Together they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to encompass Boston's citywide criminal justice system.

Cast

Main

Development

The show was picked up by Showtime in May 2018.

Release

The series premiered on June 16, 2019.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 73% approval rating with an average score of 6.8/10, based on 30 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though City on a Hill's meandering story can't quite match its ambitions, it's entertaining -- and even occasionally riveting -- to watch Kevin Bacon and company take on bureaucracy." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 64 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings