East Oregonian : E.O., June 12, 2019, Page 2, Image 2

cover story
Boston’s darkest hour
‘City on a Hill’ tells a story of crime and redemption
By Joy Doonan
TV Media
H
ollywood mogul Ben Af-
fleck is no stranger to the
subgenre of Boston crime
dramas. The Academy Award
winner grew up just outside of
Boston, and his rise to directo-
rial acclaim is marked by films
about his hometown’s criminal
underworld. “Gone Baby Gone”
(2007), a drama about a local
private eye’s hunt for a child
abductor, displays the working-
class realities of a Boston neigh-
borhood ridden with drugs and
violence; 2010’s “The Town”
follows the real-life events of
a large-scale bank robbery in
Fenway Park.
Now, Affleck has teamed
up with childhood friend and
co-Oscar winner Matt Damon
(“The Departed,” 2006) to
co-executive produce his lat-
est brainchild, “City on a Hill.”
The series, with a debut season
consisting of 10 episodes, is a
fictionalized account of “Opera-
tion Ceasefire,” a project now
more commonly known as the
Boston Miracle. Starring Kevin
Bacon (“Footloose,” 1984) and
Aldis Hodge (“Straight Outta
Compton,” 2015) in lead roles,
“City on a Hill” premieres Sun-
day, June 16, on Showtime.
The Boston Miracle occurred
in the ‘90s, when the city’s po-
lice department implemented a
program, designed by criminol-
ogy professor David M. Ken-
nedy, to combat the rampant
youth gun violence of the time.
The program, dubbed Operation
Ceasefire, was groundbreaking
in that it employed research
tactics to help law enforcement
understand and effectively
target the main sources of gun
trafficking and gang crimes.
The project was such a
sweeping success that Bos-
ton’s youth homicide rate
fell by 63 percent, and it was
the inspiration behind Group
Violence Intervention projects
that are still being employed
throughout New York and oth-
er states today. Contemplating
how the historic event of the
2 | Screentime
Aldis Hodge and Kevin Bacon star in “City on a Hill”
on a family of armored car rob-
Boston Miracle shook the
bers in a case that grows to
city’s entire law enforcement
involve, and ultimately subvert,
to its core, “City on a Hill”
the entire criminal justice sys-
writer Chuck MacLean said,
“Everything had been one way tem of Boston.” The series also
stars Jonathan Tucker (“King-
for such a long time, it seemed
dom”), Mark O’Brien (“Repub-
impossible to change, and it
lic of Doyle”), Amanda Clayton
did, very quickly.”
(“If Loving You Is Wrong”)
The show depicts Boston as
and Jill Hennessy (“Crossing
it was in the 1990s, a world in
Jordan”).
which rampant crime and gang
Bacon’s Rohr is smug and
violence is propped up by a
cesspool of corrupt law enforce- dismissive, a man well practiced
at tampering with local justice
ment officials who are invested
to his own ends. As comfortable
in the status quo of a crime-
with partaking in the city’s illicit
driven economy, and a culture
underworld as he is with polic-
of unchecked racism. Bacon
ing it, he oversees corruption
stars as corrupt-but-respected
in dealings with Boston street
FBI agent Jackie Rohr, while
Hodge portrays Decourcy Ward, gangs. He is not pleased with
the prospect of an “affirmative
a newly appointed assistant
action hire,” as he calls Ward,
district attorney from Brooklyn.
stepping in to crack down on
According to Showtime, the
local crime.
tension-fraught pairing “take
June 12, 2019 | East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald
Ward shakes up the en-
trenched status quo when he
comes to town, dealing first-
hand with the racism of local
cops and driving hard for a ma-
jor upheaval of the current gun
policing. “I want to rip out the
machinery in this city,” he says.
First, however, he needs to walk
the line between maintaining
his integrity and getting his
hands dirty in order to operate
within Boston’s tight-knit net-
work of corruption.
When Rohr and Ward wind
up working together on the
Charlestown car robber case,
their pairing sparks a more rev-
olutionary change than either
of them could have imagined.
The relationship between the
two leads isn’t just an unlikely
investigative duo; “City on a
Hill” attempts to delve into the
complicated humanity of the
players involved, to tell a story
of struggling communities
and determination to affect
change.
In an interview with Show-
time, actress Clayton explained
the other side of the coin when
it comes to the success of Op-
eration Ceasefire: “What we
don’t acknowledge is that it
broke apart a community doing
their best,” she said. The cost
of the Boston Miracle was that
the police force bore down on
poor inner-city neighborhoods
that were already struggling.
Clayton’s character is a tough
inner-city mom whose husband,
Frankie (Tucker), is a gang
kingpin. She holds her family
together and tries to arm them
emotionally for survival in a
world where they are caught
between the rival forces of gang
violence and crooked cops.
Bacon has expressed his
excitement about the upcoming
show. “It’s just down-and-dirty
crime and politics. I don’t see
too much of that on television
now. It’s a refreshing show
in that way,” Bacon said in a
behind-the-scenes featurette.
Bacon is a co-executive pro-
ducer on the show along with
Affleck and Damon.
“City on a Hill” is expected to
be a gritty and complex picture
of an era when Boston’s crime
rate was at its highest in history,
and the surrounding culture of
debauched law enforcement
added yet another layer of vio-
lence and chaos. Watch the first
episode of the candid drama
when the series premieres Sun-
day, June 16, on Showtime.