Television series
We Own This City
A six-episode dissection of Baltimore's real Gun Trace Task Force scandal, from the team behind The Wire. Jon Bernthal is magnetic and repulsive as the sergeant who turned his unit into a robbery crew with badges. It's less thriller than indictment — nonlinear, angry, more interested in systemic rot than cop-show catharsis. For viewers who want procedure without heroics.
If you liked this
The Wire2002
Same creator, same city, same argument about institutions eating good intentions alive — just spread across five seasons instead of six episodes, with far more patience for character.
But It's a slow burn across sixty hours; if you wanted this story tighter and angrier, the sprawl might test you.

Line of Duty2012
British anti-corruption detectives investigate bent cops with the same procedural rigor and moral exhaustion — a mirror structure that turns interrogation rooms into the real battlefield.
But Dense police jargon and a very British bureaucratic rhythm; the pace is deliberate, not pulpy.

The Shield2002
A corrupt strike team runs its own crimes under a badge, years before the GTTF made headlines — pulpier and more operatic, but asking the same question about power without oversight.
But It's louder and more soap-operatic than Simon's clinical style; less interested in policy, more in spectacle.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Serpico1973
It's the same story done first: a real whistleblower exposing institutional corruption, proving this isn't a new American disease but a recurring one, captured as a single feature rather than a sprawling series.
Al Pacino as the NYPD officer who blew the whistle on department-wide graft, decades before Baltimore's task force — the same rot, filmed with 1970s grit and fury.
But The pacing and style are of their era — slower, grainier, without the modern miniseries polish.

More like this (8)
True Detective2014
Institutional failure and moral rot seep through a murder investigation, with the same sense that the system itself is the real villain rather than any one bad actor.
But More atmosphere and philosophy than procedural detail; if you wanted grounded realism, this leans mythic and strange.

Boardwalk Empire2010
A different era's version of institutions and organized crime intertwining, with prohibition standing in for the drug war and corruption as the connective tissue of an entire city.
But It's a much bigger, more novelistic canvas — five seasons of empire-building rather than one tight indictment.

The Night Of2016
A slow, furious look at how the justice system actually processes a case, told with the same patience for procedure and refusal to give anyone easy heroism.
But It's a courtroom drama more than a cop drama — different machinery, same rot, but a slower emotional register.

Bosch2015
A working detective navigates a department riddled with old sins and internal politics, offering the procedural texture of real police work without the outright criminality.
But It's far more conventional and hero-driven; you're trading indictment for a more traditional detective show.

Show Me a Hero2015
Another David Simon miniseries about how policy — this time housing, not drug enforcement — grinds down individuals and institutions alike, with the same clear-eyed fury.
But No cops, no crime plot; it's slower, more political, and asks patience for city-council-meeting-level detail.

Narcos2015
The drug war from the supply side, showing how prohibition corrupts entire governments and agencies, not just individual officers — same thesis, much wider lens.
But Slicker and more entertainment-forward than Simon's work; it romanticizes scale in ways We Own This City refuses to.

The Seven Five2015
This is the nonfiction version of Wayne Jenkins: a documentary where the actual dirty cop narrates his own downfall, showing how close the drama's fiction sits to plain fact.
A real corrupt NYPD detective, on camera, explaining exactly how he and his partners turned their badges into a criminal enterprise — chillingly candid, funny in the worst way.
But No dramatization, no Bernthal charisma to soften it — just a man justifying himself, which can feel uncomfortably intimate.

Bad Lieutenant1992
Same moral collapse, opposite register: where We Own This City indicts a system, this one drags you inside a single man's ruin, trading institutional critique for operatic, almost religious despair.
Harvey Keitel spirals through gambling debts, drugs, and self-destruction as a corrupt NYPD officer — grimier, more feverish, and far less interested in policy than in damnation.
But It's punishing, sleazy, and explicit in ways prestige TV rarely goes; this is exploitation cinema, not measured journalism.

People
Cast
Production
- Mara GoodmanAssociate Producer
- William F. Zorzi Jr.Co-Executive Producer
- Karen L. ThorsonConsulting Producer
- David SimonExecutive Producer
- Ed BurnsExecutive Producer
- George P. PelecanosExecutive Producer
- Kary AntholisExecutive Producer
- Nina Kostroff-NobleExecutive Producer
- Reinaldo Marcus GreenExecutive Producer
- Heather LevenstoneLine Producer
- John MabryProducer
- Reena RexrodeProducer