David Simon
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Back to One, Episode 199: Wunmi Mosaku
Wunmi Mosaku won a BAFTA award for Damilola, Our Loved Boy. She was only the second Black actress to win one in 62 years. You might know her from her incredible work as Ruby in Lovecraft Country, Rial in His House, or B-15 in the Marvel series Loki. Her latest is We Own This City, from the makers of The Wire, which premiered Monday on HBO Max. On this episode, she talks about her early days of learning the ropes of screen acting, how rehearsal makes a big difference in her process, why connecting to people is so important to […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Apr 26, 2022 -
Ungentrified: Production Designer Scott Dougan and Visual Effects Supervisor Jim Rider on The Deuce
David Simon’s latest HBO series, The Deuce (co-created with George Pelecanos), represents another entry in a career-spanning investigation of institutional corruption and decay, this time focusing on the sex and pornography industry in New York City during the 1970s. Primarily viewed through the eyes of bartender and club owner Vincent Martino (James Franco) and sex worker-turned-pornographer Eileen “Candy” Merrell (Maggie Gyllenhaal), The Deuce uses the sex trade as a microcosm for various developments in late-stage capitalism, including gentrification and urban renewal. As the series shifts periods over the course of its three-season run—1971–1972 in the first season, 1978 in the […]
by Vikram Murthi on Jun 19, 2019 -
“We’re Not Very Good at Sharing in This Country”: David Simon on Show Me a Hero, Public Housing Today and Moving from Journalism to Television
David Simon (Homicide, The Wire, Treme) has a new miniseries on HBO, Show Me a Hero, and it’s about the fight for public housing and desegregation in Yonkers, N.Y. in 1987. And if you think that doesn’t sound dramatic or exciting, you’d be dead wrong. I watched all six hours straight through and found the series riveting from the first scene to the last. After watching the series I read the book (of the same title, by Lisa Belkin and equally riveting). The book has been out of print, but is being re-released with an introduction by Simon, in which […]
by Alix Lambert on Aug 30, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: David Simon’s “Show Me a Hero”
The Wire creator David Simon moves up the East Coast for his latest drama, Show Me a Hero, that’s set in Yonkers in the 1960s. Based on a true story, the six-part miniseries portrays a young mayor, played by Oscar Isaac, who, amidst the civil rights movements, fights local powers to build low-income housing in his borough. The cast is impressive and includes Alfred Molina, Bob Balaban and Winona Ryder. The series debuts August 16 on HBO.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2015 -
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF “TREME”?
Most of the TV reviewers who reviewed David Simon’s new HBO series Treme were shown the first three episodes. I only caught the first, last night, on its premiere. Directed by Agnieskza Holland, the post-Katrina series set in the world of New Orleans musicians was undeniably gorgeous to look at and listen to. It took the fairly bold approach of not kickstarting with any huge central incident but rather sketching a tableaux of characters defined, in part, by their attitude toward a city that has been irrevocably changed. If The Wire was about characters defined by either their resistance or […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 12, 2010
