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.

The first season was good. I thought the second season wouldn't be as good because J. Tucker wasn't coming back, but Kevin Bacon is superb.

He is so good as Jackie Rohr that I will forever see him as this character.

He makes the show fun to watch.

The rest of the cast is great, but he steals the show.

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.

City on a Hill is a gritty cop show that takes place in Boston in the early 90's. I love the way the storyline unfolds throughout each season. It has a feel of The Wire only that it takes place in Boston. The writing, directing, acting, cast, cinematography, etc are all top notch in this show. 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. Aldis Hodge also breaks out to show himself as a fine actor who holds his own here. 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. If your looking for a good gritty cop show then give this a try. You won't be disappointed.

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.