City on a Hill

Kevin Bacon channels James Woods circa 1988 (Cop/Boost) and purloins some of Bogie's sidemouthed wisecracks to deliver his best performance since Footloose. This is a hardboiled, true to Southie kind of show. I love that dirty water. Bravura performances from Mark O' Brien, Aldis Hodge (I'm King Kong!), and the luminously intoxicating Jill Hennessy (I love her just on a titular level) too. In fact, the entire cast of characters is well scripted, directed and developed. This show has a gritty, blue collar blues feel that will make you want to bathe in tomato juice after watching it to get all of the stink off of you. A tone poem of corruption, hard booze, harder floozies, booger sugar, bullet wounds, and paradoxical tenderness. It reminds me of something Bukowski would write.

Aldis Hodge was in Leverage and I was wondering when we'd get to see him again. Hodge and Bacon are excellent actors and play really well off each other. But all the characters in this show really pop. The show follows the efforts of a DA (Hodge) and crusty jaded FBI agent (Bacon) to clean up Boston in the 1990s of the ridiculous levels of crime.

There's a real nuance of layers in the story line. You tend to feel sorry for the criminals too, such a way of life has been ingrained in them and passed down in generations.

As the series has progressed, the unlikely relationship between completely opposite backgrounds of Bacon's and Hodge's characters has meshed with Rohr seemingly seeking some sort of redemption after a corrupt past, and assistant district attorney Ward bending away from the pure by the book straight arrow, has focused on finding justice in Boston's police problems of the 90's. The chemistry between the two main characters is the best part of the series.

I think this show has a low profile because it doesn't have the insanity of shows like Ray Donovan or Ozark. It's more down to earth, more likely to actually occur in real life kinda stuff. Starts with heist going wrong and from there is built around the legal gymnastics of building a trail. There's little side stories and a lot of family drama thrown on top but very little action. Normally I wouldn't like this format but what makes it work is having the main character a villain, and on top of that, Kevin Bacon looking more like Gary Oldman does as amazing job playing a shady FBI agent. Supporting actors are great too. Gets a bit "wordy" at times but worth watching to the end. Keen for season 2.

City on a Hill is a gritty cop show that takes place in Boston. I love these type of shows/movies so I was really looking forward to it and it did not disappoint! The real stand out here is Kevin Bacon, he's been a wonderful actor most of his career but this is easily one of his best performances. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are executive producers and they grew up in Boston so they add so much authenticity to the city of Boston.