We Own This City Teaser: The Wire Creator Returns To Expose Police Corruption In New HBO Max Series

How many times have you seen "The Wire" listed among the ranks of the greatest television shows of all time? How many times have you heard fans of the show insist that it does actually deserve its sterling reputation, no matter how tempting it may be to dismiss it as "overrated" or something? Well, allow me to add to that number at least one more time because, yes, "The Wire" is absolutely cutting and ruthless in its takedown of systemic issues among the Baltimore police department, politicians, and even some members of the press that rots each of those institutions from the inside out. Looking back at the groundbreaking early 2000s series, it'd be a tough sell to claim that it was "prescient," given how relevant the subject matter continues to be to this day. Rather, it's more of a statement as to how little things have changed in the two decades since creator David Simon and his team of writers crafted 5 absolutely brilliant seasons.

That fact apparently hasn't been lost on Simon himself, as one brief look through his Twitter feed would quickly confirm. No, instead the longtime TV veteran (and former Baltimore journalist) has decided to come back to familiar territory and tell yet another story about his perspective on the so-called "War on Drugs" and, particularly, the many members of the police force who profited from it through underhanded means. HBO Max has gone ahead and released a new teaser for the series titled "We Own This City," which looks to be every bit as bracing and hard-hitting as Simon's previous shows, which include "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Wire," "The Deuce," and "The Plot Against America." Check it out below!

Racism, police militarization, police brutality, and nothing but bent cops as far as the eye can see. Yeah, it's not too difficult to see why "We Own This City" will likely be worth keeping an eye on once it debuts on HBO Max. The series is based on a book by newspaper reporter Justin Fenton titled "We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption," which tells the real-life story of massive policing issues and the scandal that erupted in the aftermath.

The series stars Jon Bernthal as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, a clear focal point in the teaser footage and described as "perhaps the central figure in the sprawling federal corruption case that centered on the agency's Gun Trace Task Force, a plainclothes unit that went completely rogue and began hunting and robbing citizens and drug dealers alike as decades of a relentless drug war and mass incarceration in Baltimore spun wildly out of control." 

He's joined by Wunmi Mosaku as attorney Nicole Steele, Jamie Hector as homicide detective Sean M. Suiter, McKinley Belcher III as corrupt cop Momodu "G Money" Gondo, Darrell Britt-Gibson as policeman Jemell Rayam, Josh Charles as particularly brutal cop Daniel Hersl, Dagmara Domińczyk as investigator Erika Jensen, Rob Brown as plainclothesman Maurice Ward, Don Harvey as cop John Sieracki, and more.

"We Own This City" premieres on HBO Max April 25, 2022.

Based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton, WE OWN THIS CITY chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.