City on a Hill 2.1: Big Dig

City on a Hill is back with its second season on Showtime today, firing of all cylinders.  In the first minutes, we see DeCourcy denounced by a black cop in Boston as "Huxtable-looking," after DeCourcy tries to reprimand the cop for being too tough on a black kid, whose erudition reminds DeCourcy of himself.  And Jackie Rohr dumps a nearly-dead Holly Gunner at the front of a hospital after she ODs in his car.

And it gets even better from there -- or, rather, worse for the characters, which is better for the narrative. Jackie's new boss from the new Clinton administration  tells him the best thing he can for himself is retire.  DeCourcy's new case is an 11-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet in a drug gang-war.  Boston in 1993, where the Big Dig is in play, is even more edgy, more perilous, than it was in the first season of the show.

The personal relationships are tense, too.  This episode could have been titled "amends," given what Benedetta is trying to do with her parents.  Neither Jenny nor Jackie want to hear them from their daughter.  Is this something from Irish culture, or Boston culture?  I could tell you.  I'm not Irish and I'm a New Yorker.  But it makes for a good story.

The language is especially apt given the racism of our own real world in 2021.   You not only hear the N word, but anti-Asian slurs, courtesy of Jackie and his opinion of the FBI superior who tells him he would do well to resign.  All that's missing in terms of the attitudes and close-to-the-brink existences between City on a Hill and our world today is the pandemic.   I guess the lesson in that is life was rough even before the pandemic and Trump.

But it's good to see it in such gritty form on the screen, and I'll be back here with my review of the next episode next week.

See also City on a Hill: Possibilities ... City on a Hill 1.2: Politics in a Cracked Mirror ... City on a Hill 1.3: One Upping The Sopranos ... City on a Hill 1.4: Enjoyable Derivative ... City on a Hill 1.6: Tony's Mother, Mayhem, and Family ... City on a Hill 1.7: The Bodies ... City on a Hill 1.8: Personal Business and Its Accompaniment ... City on a Hill 1.9: Changes ... City on a Hill season finale: "You Ain't the Good, and I Ain't that Bad"