Entertainment

‘City on a Hill’ season 2 is set in Roxbury, will premiere this spring

The new season of the Boston-set crime drama arrives March 28 on Showtime.

By Kevin Slane

January 28, 2021

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When “City on a Hill” returns to the airwaves this spring, it will be focused on a different Boston neighborhood than last season.

The crime drama starring Kevin Bacon, which debuted in 2019 and is set in 1990s Boston, will be back for season two on Showtime at 10 p.m. Sunday, March 28.

Similar to how HBO drama “The Wire” which explored a different subsection of Baltimore in each of its five seasons, “City on a Hill” executive producer Ben Affleck told The New York Times in 2019 that he hopes to highlight a different Boston neighborhood in each season of the show.

Season one largely focused on the neighborhood of Charlestown, where FBI agent Jackie Rohr (Bacon) and assistant district attorney Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge, “Hidden Figures”) attempted to bring down a group of masked bank robbers. Season two, meanwhile, will focus on a federal housing project in Roxbury that is “plagued with drug violence and a rightful distrust in local law enforcement,” according to a show synopsis.

Joining Bacon and Hodge in the cast is Pernell Walker (“The Deuce”), who will play Grace Campbell, a Roxbury coalition leader whose efforts on behalf of her community are undermined by gang activity.

Also causing collateral damage for the project’s residents is the continued personal feud between Rohr and Ward. When Ward realizes Rohr is attempting to exploit Boston’s “defective criminal justice system” for his own gain, their battle balloons into “an all-out war between the offices of the U.S. Attorney and the Suffolk DA,” according to Showtime.

“City on a Hill” filmed scenes in Boston in February 2020 just before the pandemic, but primary production was once again based in New York City, with parts of the Big Apple standing in for Boston.

Along with Bacon, Hodge, and Walker, “City on a Hill” season two will star Lauren E. Banks (“Maniac”), Mark O’Brien (“Arrival”), Amanda Clayton (“Bleed For This”), Matthew Del Negro (“The Sopranos”) and Jill Hennessy (“Crossing Jordan”).

Showrunner Tom Fontana will once again helm the show, while Affleck, Matt Damon, and Jennifer Todd are among the executive producers. Creator Chuck MacLean, a Quincy native, was demoted to the role of writer for season two and ordered to stay away from set for the duration of production after an internal investigation in 2019 determined that “inappropriate comments were made in violation of CBS policy.”