As a somewhat newfound Jon Bernthal fan, I was really excited to get to watch this six-part miniseries, We Own This City, based off of actual events that happened within the Baltimore Police Department over the better part of two decades. I was even more excited because I knew it was written by the same people who were responsible for the critically acclaimed, The Wire, and that it was going to be directed by King Richard‘s Reinaldo Marcus Green.
Sadly though, this show never quite landed with me. It never managed to really pull me in, and honestly, it took a lot of effort not to fall asleep while watching! I feel horrible saying that, but the delivery of this story was just kind of an unexciting one. I found that surprising given hoe much insanity the Baltimore Police Department got away with. Like holy crap! While the show mainly focused on the transgression of Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, there really didn’t seem to be a totally clean guy in the bunch!
What was even more surprising was how long these gross corruptions went on with nothing happening. The amount of people that ended up getting involved to take the core group down was kind of incredible. And really, they were lucky that some current and former BPD guys grew a bit of a conscious and decided to own up to what they did. Now, of course their cooperation resulted in reduced sentences and charges against them, but still. I suppose it counts for something.
Really, the opposite seemed to happen for Jenkins, who appeared to have gotten into law enforcement to really make a positive impact. Instead, his first day on the job had veterans teaching him to either phone it in or meet a quota. As time went on though, Jenkins took things further with drugs, stealing money, cheating, and even getting innocent people killed. What was most upsetting to see was that he never even really flinched during these horrible things, and felt like he was so untouchable that he was actually shocked when he finally got arrested and ultimately convicted.
This was a real guy that caused real horrors, and although I never really saw much of this story in the news personally, I can’t imagine the lifelong damage he’s caused people. And not just people – the justice system, as well. The BPD was so corrupt that it was almost impossible to get a unbiased jury. They just didn’t trust the police, and I can’t blame them for that. Bernthal, regardless of my overall opinion of the show, did a great job adopting this perverted swagger topped off with a New England accent. He’ll always shine, but this show just didn’t hit the mark for me. If crime is your thing and you liked The Wire though, I’d say give this a shot.