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TV Media Weekly | June 15 - 21, 2019 By Joy Doonan TV Media H ollywood mogul Ben Affleck is no stranger to the subgenre of Boston crime dramas. The Academy Award winner grew up just outside of Boston, and his rise to directorial acclaim is marked by films about his hometown's criminal under - world. "Gone Baby Gone" (2007), a drama about a local private eye's hunt for a child ab- ductor, displays the working- class realities of a Boston neigh- borhood ridden with drugs and violence; 2010's "The Town" fol- lows the real-life events of a large-scale bank robbery in Fen- way Park. Now, Affleck has teamed up with childhood friend and co- Oscar winner Matt Damon ("The Departed," 2006) to co- executive produce his latest brainchild, "City on a Hill." The series, with a debut season con - sisting of 10 episodes, is a fic- tionalized 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 criminolo- gy professor David M. Kennedy, to combat the rampant youth gun violence of the time. The program, dubbed Operation Ceasefire, was groundbreaking in that it employed research tac- tics to help law enforcement un- derstand and effectively target the main sources of gun traffick- ing and gang crimes. The project was such a sweeping success that Boston's youth homicide rate fell by 63 percent, and it was the inspira- tion behind Group Violence In- tervention projects that are still being employed throughout New York and other states to- day. Contemplating how the his- toric event of the Boston Mira- cle shook the city's entire law enforcement to its core, "City on a Hill" writer Chuck MacLean said, "Everything had been one way for such a long time, it seemed impossible to change, and it did, very quickly." The show depicts Boston as it was in the 1990s, a world in which rampant crime and gang violence is propped up by a cesspool of corrupt law enforce- ment officials who are invested in the status quo of a crime-driv- en economy, and a culture of un- checked racism. Bacon stars as corrupt-but-respected FBI agent Jackie Rohr, while Hodge por- trays Decourcy Ward, a newly appointed assistant district at- torney from Brooklyn. According to Showtime, the tension-fraught pairing "take on a family of armored car robbers in a case that grows to involve, and ultimately subvert, the en- tire criminal justice system of Boston." The series also stars Jonathan Tucker ("Kingdom"), Mark O'Brien ("Republic of Doyle"), Amanda Clayton ("If Loving You Is Wrong") and Jill Hennessy ("Crossing Jordan"). Bacon's Rohr is smug and dis- missive, a man well practiced at tampering with local justice to his own ends. As comfortable with partaking in the city's illicit underworld as he is with polic- ing it, he oversees corruption in dealings with Boston street gangs. He is not pleased with the prospect of an "affirmative action hire," as he calls Ward, stepping in to crack down on lo- cal crime. 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 revolutionary change than ei- ther of them could have imag- ined. The relationship between the two leads isn't just an un- likely investigative duo; "City on a Hill" attempts to delve into the complicated humanity of the players involved, to tell a story of struggling communi- ties and determination to af- fect change. In an interview with Show- time, actress Clayton explained the other side of the coin when it comes to the success of Oper- ation 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 po- lice force bore down on poor in- ner-city neighborhoods that were already struggling. Clay- ton's character is a tough inner- city mom whose husband, Frankie (Tucker), is a gang king- pin. She holds her family togeth- er and tries to arm them emo- tionally for survival in a world where they are caught between the rival forces of gang violence and crooked cops. Bacon has expressed his ex- citement 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 be- hind-the-scenes featurette. Ba- con is a co-executive producer 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. Aldis Hodge and Kevin Bacon star in "City on a Hill" Boston's darkest hour: 'City on a Hill' tells a story of crime and redemption 2 | Cover story A/Grindstone Charlie's B/Norris Insurance 1 x 4" Encompass Credit Union 5 x 2"

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