City on a Hill

The whole cast is good. Writing is good. Story is good. Direction and editing are good. But Kevin Bacon steals the show. He pulls off a ridiculous over the top character and does it well. Maybe his best.

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.

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.

Im no damn hollywood critic so you really should watch yourself. I just came across this show last night and binged season 1. Great acting by everyone. Im just a few years younger then Kevin Bacon and have seen much of his work and he is so good at playing a sleazy FBI agent, yet he makes me actually like him. I see that season 2 starts next weekend and ill be watching and so should everyone.