This City Is Ours

I'll cut to the chase: I don't know why so few people have realised it, but this series is a (very loose) adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It's so loose that after 8 hours we're basically up to the end of act 2, but it's still Macbeth in spirit. My guess is that the series' creator Stephen Butchard originally wrote an adaptation of Macbeth set in his native Liverpool, but somewhere along the line it got expanded into a whole epic drama about Scouse gangsters and their families.

And you know what? It's all the better for that. Lots of people have done modern adaptations of Shakespeare plots, but mixing them up with really believable modern characters and situations is a lot harder, and We Own This City mostly pulls it off.

Thanks to some unfortunate family connections I've spent some time around the fringes of Liverpool criminals, and this seems pretty true to their weird subculture. My only criticisms would be that the series doesn't fully represent the extreme poverty a lot of Scouse gangsters come from. The reason some of these people will hurt and even kill people for money is that they grew up without any and were exposed to enormous suffering as a result. There are some scenes filmed in poor areas, but the show never really dives into how grim things are for a lot of people. It would really help develop the characters if we saw more of where they came from.

It also sort of underplays the insane drinking culture in Liverpool. A lot of violence happens because people are off their faces much of the time. A couple of characters are criticised for drinking too much, but it's not really explained how normalised the excessive drinking is to a lot of people.

Anyway, this is a really good British gangster drama, and much more realistic and better written than most contributions to the genre. I think I know how it'll all pan out because... I've read Macbeth (duh). But I know that season 2 will be enjoyable whether or not it conforms to my expectations.

While everyone is wetting their knickers and being nudged over 'Adolescence', this gem is the real eye opener to watch.

I can't understand how this one is going under the radar while Adolescence gets all the unjustified talking about, because This city is ours absolutely destroys Adolescence in both the acting and the story.

This is real, this goes on all the time, having lived on the La costa del sol in Spain I know exactly what goes on down there. The story is fantastic the acting is top notch it is a really gritty scary drama played by some brilliant actors, one or two were of the pace but Michael Kavanagh was riveting, absolute smashed it.

This really is the must watch, not the other one, I came away thinking why would someone want to get involved in that kind of life, why? I guess the lure of money is too strong.

It's a series where every episode is brilliant, they even have mustard the art in how to end the series on a high and not make you feel disappointed in a weak ending, this is gritty, it's violent, it's aggressive, it's realistic, it's brilliant!

Professionally put together, none of the OTT scouse kidda la la acting.

Really nicely done, some top heavy actors involved, exactly how you'd expect businessmen to conduct themselves, it's about time someone made a decent Liverpool based mob film as this is where the majority of the big players operate.

Absolutely gripping from start to finish, the plot isn't easily sussed out.

Stephen Butchard take a bow son!

James Nelson-Joyce is a diamond level actor, Hannah Onslow is a classy, sophisticated Gangsters Mol with a hidden past.

The cast has been very well selected, I hope to see much more from this series, I can't get enough!

This is a must watch!

There was not much hype surrounding this shows release as far as I could tell, so, my surprise binge made it all the more pleasurable. Here is the Gist...Liverpool drug kingpins Ronnie and Michael are always looking to broaden their margins, money wise. Enter the Columbians, located in Spain. This is just an aside to all the other drama. Michael ( a fantastic James Nelson-Joyce) and his girlfriend Diana are trying to conceive. Jamie, the son of Ronnie ( Sean Bean), is like AJ Soprano ( Tony's son), but more useless and way more volatile. After an incident, Jamie wants more power. He also has his own little Band of Thieves, who are as useless and more dangerous than him. While Jamie's fiance wants to live in Dubai (?!) with their baby. Shout out to A very scary Bobby Shofield, as Bonehead, crazy excellent.

Drama really stretches across these 8 episodes...Including a great side plot with, Saoirse-Monica Jackson from " Derry Girls". It's not just drugs and Mobsters here. It's a really great series written/ created by Stephen Butchard. Foreshadow, Episode 8 at the 43 minute mark, is insanely brilliant.

Not at all what I expected. Refreshing that the city in the title is Liverpool and not London. I have not given this series 10 stars simply because there are some gaping holes in the plot. Otherwise it is compelling viewing which I viewed in two sittings.

What I feel is different about this crime drama is that it is told from the point of view of gang members who carry out violent acts. The writers have skilfully shown us that men and women who carry out or condone violence are also capable of being in love and feeling vulnerable.

I like the fact that the action is set in Liverpool but warn that if one is not familiar with the scouse accent the plot may be hard to follow.

I cannot give any spoiler away only to say I wish Sean Bean appeared more.