Entertainment Extra

2 ENTERTAINMENT EXTRA By Rachel Jones TV Media A ldis Hodge ("One Night in Miami," 2020) and Kevin Bacon ("Crazy, Stupid, Love," 2011) return to Boston as Assistant District Attorney Decourcy Ward and corrupt-but- revered FBI agent Jackie Rohr, respectively, in the Season 2 pre- miere of the popular crime drama "City on a Hill," airing Sunday, March 28, on Showtime. Set in the early '90s, Season 1 saw the beginning of an unusual alliance as Ward and Rohr teamed up despite their vastly different personalities and out- looks. The new season is set to revolve around a federal housing project in Boston's Roxbury com- munity, where drugs, crime and corruption are all living next door. Pernell Walker ("The Deuce") joins the cast as coali- tion leader Grace Campbell, whose dedication to improving the community is sabotaged by gang activity. In contrast to Campbell's Good Samaritan personality, Rohr is desperate to salvage his career by capitalizing on the city's faulty criminal justice system. However, it won't be easy for him with Ward as his ever-present antithe- sis. With Ward quickly picking up on Rohr's latest scheme, it's real- ly only a matter of time before the hostile kinetics between the two erupt into full-blown com- bat, especially given that the pair have quite a history together. In Season 1, they took down a group of masked armored-car robbers in the north Boston neighborhood of Charlestown. While much has changed in the new season, Ward is still his old bureaucracy-cleaning self while Rohr remains true to his tradi- tional, often illegal, ways. What truly stands out about "City on a Hill" is the collective brilliance of the actors. Bacon owns the screen in his role as the brash antihero Rohr. Between using drugs and cheating on his wife, Jenny (Jill Hennessy, "Standing Up, Falling Down," 2019), Rohr is all about snatch- ing the worm before everyone else. Meanwhile, Hodge, with all of his gravitas and morality, pro- vides the perfect counterbalance to Bacon as Ward, the personifi- cation of all that is good and hopeful in Boston. That being said, Season 2 is going to shake things up quite a lot as our leads face various new trials and tribulations. In an inter- view with EW, Bacon explained, "We're going through different levels of fear, terror [and] self- reflection when it comes to who these people are in the space they're in. Even Jackie has those moments where he has to look in the mirror and say, 'Who am I? And is this who I really want to be?'" While Season 2 will see the return of series regulars Lauren E. Banks ("Plain Fiction," 2018), Mark O'Brien ("Blue Bayou," 2021), Amanda Clayton ("Dirty Dead Con Men," 2018) and Matthew Del Negro ("Magnum PI"), it will also feature a variety of guest stars, including Keiko Elizabeth ("How to Get Away with Murder"), Lucia Ryan ("The Last OG"), Kameron Kierce ("The Best of Enemies," 2019), Shannon Wallace ("Dynasty"), John Doman ("The Trial of the Chicago Seven," 2020) and Michael O'Keefe ("The Enemy Within"). The first season premiered in June 2019 and was renewed for a second season barely two months later. Filming for Season 2 began in late February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pan- demic shut it down. Luckily, pro- duction was already completed on all eight one-hour episodes of Season 2 by that time, leaving mainly post-production duties. The TV drama was originally inspired by a real-life campaign called the Boston Miracle, which led to a drastic decrease in the city's youth homicides in the 1990s. Created by a criminology professor named David Kennedy, the program was developed as a problem-oriented policing pro- gram aimed at preventing vio- lence in U.S. cities. It earned its name after it pulled down the youth homicide rate by a stag- gering 63% in Boston, with par- ticular focus on the Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester neigh- borhoods. Despite being set in the '90s, the showrunners are keen on keeping the storyline attuned to current issues. In an effort to stay timely, the network was quick to discuss with writers and cast members as the Black Lives Matter movement reached new levels in 2020. They made sure the scripts were as on point and relevant as possible, while still staying faithful to the context of 1990s Boston. A-list celebrities Ben Affleck ("The Way Back," 2020) and Matt Damon ("Jay and Silent Bob Reboot," 2019) top the list of executive producers, who, as Boston natives, have a unique talent for balancing authenticity with timeliness. In addition to executive pro- ducing the show, Affleck is also responsible for the original idea behind the series, then brought to life by Chuck MacLean ("Marmalade," 2014) on a two- year contract. Following investi- gations into his alleged inap- propriate comments last year, however, MacLean's involve- ment in the series has been scaled back for Season 2. If the show gets a third season, it's unclear whether he will be part of it. YMCA 2 x 2" Pear Tree Gallery 3 x 2" On the Cover Aldis Hodge as seen in "City on a Hill" Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' airs on Showtime Chase Center 3 x 2" American Legion Post 60 2 x 3" Thrifty Muffler 2 x 2.5"

• Cover