This City Is Ours

Not at all what I expected. Refreshing that the city in the title is Liverpool and not London. I have not given this series 10 stars simply because there are some gaping holes in the plot. Otherwise it is compelling viewing which I viewed in two sittings.

What I feel is different about this crime drama is that it is told from the point of view of gang members who carry out violent acts. The writers have skilfully shown us that men and women who carry out or condone violence are also capable of being in love and feeling vulnerable.

I like the fact that the action is set in Liverpool but warn that if one is not familiar with the scouse accent the plot may be hard to follow.

I cannot give any spoiler away only to say I wish Sean Bean appeared more.

Professionally put together, none of the OTT scouse kidda la la acting.

Really nicely done, some top heavy actors involved, exactly how you'd expect businessmen to conduct themselves, it's about time someone made a decent Liverpool based mob film as this is where the majority of the big players operate.

Absolutely gripping from start to finish, the plot isn't easily sussed out.

Stephen Butchard take a bow son!

James Nelson-Joyce is a diamond level actor, Hannah Onslow is a classy, sophisticated Gangsters Mol with a hidden past.

The cast has been very well selected, I hope to see much more from this series, I can't get enough!

This is a must watch!

This is the best show on Tele in a long time. Absolutely brilliant acting from all involved, even the typical Scouser were brilliant. Anti heros all over the place and some jaw dropping, unexpected twists. The writer deserves a Bafta for this. There must be a season 2 as it would be a crime if they didn't! If you watch anything this weekend then watch this. Fantastic! Ps. Sean Bean with his Yorkshire accent is superb! Typical Sean performance and those supporting him were outstanding. Where this came from I've no idea but they need to make more television like this. Worth the licence fee alone.

I was really looking forward to watching this, especially being written by the same guy who wrote The Last Kingdom (if you've not seen it watch it, absolutely brilliant from start to finish).

I digress. If you're wanting flowers and hearts this isn't for you, however if you like a good northern drama you will love it.

I don't believe in giving any kind of spoilers so all I can say is it has a kickass soundtrack. The cast choices are perfect Julie Graham is a really good choice for the Matriarch and Sean Bean even with his Yorkshire accent (thee knows nowt Jon Snow) as a scouser well he can be forgiven. Jack McMullen (Waterloo Road) is a real header, somewhat unpredictable character. An actor I don't recall seeing before is James Nelson-Joyce who again puts in a solid performance.

I have watched the whole season in 2 nights and will be watching it again.

I'll cut to the chase: I don't know why so few people have realised it, but this series is a (very loose) adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It's so loose that after 8 hours we're basically up to the end of act 2, but it's still Macbeth in spirit. My guess is that the series' creator Stephen Butchard originally wrote an adaptation of Macbeth set in his native Liverpool, but somewhere along the line it got expanded into a whole epic drama about Scouse gangsters and their families.

And you know what? It's all the better for that. Lots of people have done modern adaptations of Shakespeare plots, but mixing them up with really believable modern characters and situations is a lot harder, and We Own This City mostly pulls it off.

Thanks to some unfortunate family connections I've spent some time around the fringes of Liverpool criminals, and this seems pretty true to their weird subculture. My only criticisms would be that the series doesn't fully represent the extreme poverty a lot of Scouse gangsters come from. The reason some of these people will hurt and even kill people for money is that they grew up without any and were exposed to enormous suffering as a result. There are some scenes filmed in poor areas, but the show never really dives into how grim things are for a lot of people. It would really help develop the characters if we saw more of where they came from.

It also sort of underplays the insane drinking culture in Liverpool. A lot of violence happens because people are off their faces much of the time. A couple of characters are criticised for drinking too much, but it's not really explained how normalised the excessive drinking is to a lot of people.

Anyway, this is a really good British gangster drama, and much more realistic and better written than most contributions to the genre. I think I know how it'll all pan out because... I've read Macbeth (duh). But I know that season 2 will be enjoyable whether or not it conforms to my expectations.