HBO's 6-Part Crime Thriller Series Is One Of Its Best & The Perfect One-Night Weekend Binge

3 weeks ago 17

Published Feb 18, 2026, 3:20 PM EST

Felipe Rangel is a Superheroes Lead Writer and Reviewer at ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021, with a focus on superhero projects. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Since the launch of the Superheroes vertical in 2023, he has focused his efforts on coming up with insightful analyses of Marvel and DC's projects.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

One of HBO's best shows is a limited series with a few major Hollywood stars, and it is easy to see why more viewers should be checking out this gem of a series. HBO has become the definition of high-quality TV shows. Many of the best TV shows of all time come from HBO, with it understanding a wide array of genres.

Some of those successful series include recent hits like The White Lotus and The Pitt, and shows like Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, and many more. A few years ago, HBO released an underrated series that is one of its best, and with the weekend coming closer, the crime thriller series emerges as the perfect one-night binge for a few reasons.

Why HBO's Crime Thriller Series Is One Of Its Best

Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal) walking away angrily in We Own This City.-1

The TV show in question is We Own This City, which was released on April 25, 2022. The crime thriller series is based on the book of the same name by Justin Fenton. The HBO crime drama spotlights the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force, showing both its rise to power and how the task force would lose its way and fall from grace.

One of the best aspects of We Own This City is the HBO series' cast, which now looks even more exciting than when the show was released. Some of its stars include Jon Bernthal (His & Hers) as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the main player in the Gun Trace Task Force, David Corenswet (Superman) as David McDougall, a narcotics investigator, and recent Oscar nominee Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) as the attorney Nicole Steele.

As can be seen, We Own This City features top-notch talent. The gritty crime thriller series presents a realistic approach to corruption in the Baltimore Police Department. It accomplished what it set out to do, being met with a near-perfect 93% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is a dark, violent, and thought-provoking series that stays with viewers after finishing the show.

HBO's Star-Studded Crime Thriller Is The Perfect One-Night Weekend Binge

With six hour-long episodes, new viewers can finish We Own This City during a dedicated one-night weekend binge. The intense tone of the story, as well as its many twists and constant flashbacks, help the HBO crime thriller series never have a dull moment. We Own This City plays like a movie that one can't help but finish in one go.

There are two other reasons to binge the series, both connected to Bernthal. After the success of the Netflix crime thriller series His & Hers, those looking for a replacement can find an equally magnetic performance from Bernthal as an unreliable character in a thriller in this show.

Additionally, director Reinaldo Marcus Green is the director and co-writer of Bernthal's 2026 The Punisher Special Presentation for Marvel Studios on Disney+, making HBO's We Own This City a preview of what they can do together.