Wow. Really disappointing. I was excited for this series for two promised attractions: "The Boston Miracle" of 1990s fame; and Kevin Bacon. There is nothing at all related to the Harvard based research and problem-oriented policing project, also known as Operation Ceasefire or Boston Gun Project, that reduced group youth related gun homicides by as much as 40% in large cities across America in the 1990s—and cleaning up corruption.
While I can never completely hate Kevin Bacon, in City on a Hill his wit and talent are wasted, although not completely unwatchable. The Jackie Rohr role has Bacon riding the anti-hero wave of so-called "golden age of television" ushered in by Breaking Bad's Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Yet most characters in City are witless rehashes of old era television stereotypes, making Bacon's charmingly charmless Rohr comes off merely as an SNLish cartoon sketch.
Btw, who is Chuck MacLean (creator)—he doesn't even rate a wikipedia page? City on a Hill has all the hallmarks of the worst of Ben Affleck (story/producer).. which is a shame because one out of every ten Affleck projects is really gorgeous for all the right reasons. The other nine come across like they were made on a bender between dry outs.
In the end City on a Hill is just a middling crime serial with dumbed down talent.
With storylines familiar to The Wire this show is a complicated web of characters.
Apart from being quite slow, the storyline in the first season was OK but Kevin Bacon's character really began to grate to the point I stopped watching halfway through the first episode of season 2.
I'll keep it on my list and will give it another go but only when I'm truly desperate for something to kill the time!
"I'm gonna tell you what my father told me the night our house burned down. Life is all about finding happiness in unhappy endings."
"Fuck you."
"... you'll be fine."
Maybe it's because I'm more used to watching shows with more action and less dialogue, dialogue that can be tough to follow along with, but this show was tough for me to have a decent-sized paragraph of what I thought of each episode for each episode. It could also be because I'm slowly but surely starting to write decent-sized paragraphs for each episode of a show containing what I thought of it more and more. Because I'm not used it yet. It feels kinda pointless to watch something and not construct thoughts and an opinion on it whether in written form or said aloud. For me, if I don't do either or not manage to do either whether it's due to some sort of mental or awareness issue, I'm just watching something for no apparent reason. Despite that occurring problem of mine, I was still entertained watching the show.
This was a really good show it s shame to see it go. I gave it a 8 but I wouldn't say a great show.
Another good show cancelled....why?
Kevin Bacon playing an aspirational character.
Why can I not add this to my watchlist?
Mark O'Brien is excellent!
Good acting, and although Kevin Bacon gets most of the good lines, there are some great moments in the script all round.
First episodes do tend to try to much to establish characters - this one did to a certain extent but the show has not overly. Kevin Bacon is his usual excellent self. Looking forward to a long life for this one.
Shout by PrisonMikeBlockedParent2019-08-15T02:19:48Z
Surprisingly boring.... lots of waiting for something climatic to happen. A big let down.