''City on Fire'' is an American

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

television series created by

Josh Schwartz Joshua Ian Schwartz (born August 6, 1976) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for creating and executive producing the Fox teen drama series '' The O.C.'' which ran for 4 seasons. Schwartz is also known for dev ...

and

Stephanie Savage Stephanie Savage (born 1969) is a screenwriter and television producer from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Savage is best known for developing The CW's teen drama series ''Gossip Girl'' (2007) from the novel series, and being an executive producer of t ...

, based on the novel of the same name by

Garth Risk Hallberg Garth Risk Hallberg (born November 1978) is an American author. His debut novel is '' City on Fire''.Brian Appleyard, "Manhattan Project", ''The Age'', "Good Weekend", pp. 20–22. Hallberg was born outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana and grew up in G ...

. It aired on

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

from May 12 to June 16, 2023. In August 2023, the series was canceled after one season.

Plot

After Samantha Yeung was shot in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on July 4, 2003, the investigation into her shooting reveals the crucial connection between a series of mysterious city-wide fires, the downtown music scene, and a wealthy uptown real estate family fraying under the strain of the many secrets they keep.

Cast

* Wyatt Oleff as Charlie * Chase Sui Wonders as Samantha Yeung *

Jemima Kirke Jemima Jo Kirke (born 26 April 1985) is a British-American artist, actress and director. She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson in the 2012 HBO series '' Girls''. She made her film debut in the 2005 indie short '' ...

as Regan Hamilton Sweeney *

Nico Tortorella Nico Tortorella (born July 30, 1988) is an American actor and model, known for screen roles including the slasher film ''Scream 4'' (2011), the Fox crime drama series ''The Following'' (2013–2015), and the TV Land comedy drama series '' Younge ...

as William Hamilton Sweeney *

Ashley Zukerman Ashley Zukerman is an American-born Australian actor. In Australia, he became known for playing Senior Constable Michael Sandrelli in the drama series ''Rush'' (2008), and Jesse Banks in the political thriller '' The Code'', for which he rece ...

as Keith * Xavier Clyde as Mercer * Max Milner as Nicky Chaos * Alexandra Doke as Sewer Girl *

Omid Abtahi Omid Abtahi (; born July 12, 1979) is an Iranian-born American actor. He is best known for his roles as Salim, in the Starz Original ''American Gods'', Penn Pershing in ''The Mandalorian'', Saleem Ulman in '' NCIS'', and Homes in the fourth insta ...

as Detective Ali Parsa *

Kathleen Munroe Kathleen Munroe (born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actress. Munroe was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and currently resides in Los Angeles. She attended high school at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, and studied cinema at the University of T ...

as Detective PJ McFadden *

John Cameron Mitchell John Cameron Mitchell (born April 21, 1963) is an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer and director. He is known as the writer, director and star of the 2001 film ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film), Hedwig and t ...

as Amory Gould *

Michael Tow Michael Tow is an American actor, director and producer. He is best known for his work on Paramount+’s '' Special Ops: Lioness'', '' Lucky Grandma'', and ''Hocus Pocus 2''. Currently, he is in Apple TV’s '' City on Fire'' as Joe Yeung, the f ...

as Joe Yeung * Alexander Pineiro as Sol * Amel Khalil as Sherry Parsa *

Beth Malone Elizabeth Ann "Beth" Malone (born January 2, 1969) is an American actress and singer known for her work in Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theatre. She originated the role of Alison Bechdel in the musical '' Fun Home'', for which she was ...

as Felicia Gould *

Shawnee Smith Shawnee Smith (born July 3, 1969) is an American actress and singer. She began her acting career at a young age, making her feature film debut at age 11 in '' Annie'' (1982). A few years later, she made her stage debut in '' To Gillian on Her 37 ...

as Ramona *

Geoff Pierson Geoffrey Pierson is an American actor known for his starring television roles on ''Dexter'', ''Unhappily Ever After'', ''Grace Under Fire'', '' 24'', ''Ryan's Hope'', and ''Designated Survivor''. He has also guest-starred in dozens of other TV sh ...

as Bill Sr

Production

Development

On June 30, 2021,

and

were set to write and serve as showrunners for an 8-episode TV series adaptation of

's novel '' City on Fire'', with Schwartz, Savage and Lis Rowinski producing the series through Fake Empire.

was set to distribute the series. On October 29, 2021,

Jesse Peretz Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band that form ...

was set to direct the first 2 episodes and to also produce the series. ''City on Fire'' aired from May 12 to June 16, 2023 on

. On August 3, 2023, Apple TV+ canceled the series after one season.

Casting

On October 29, 2021, Wyatt Oleff was cast. On January 19, 2022, Chase Sui Wonders joined the cast. Additional casting was announced in March 2022.

Filming

Filming for the series began by April 2022 under the working title ''Brass Tactics''.

Episodes

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 39% approval rating with an average rating of 5.0/10, based on 23 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Spread thinly across run-of-the-mill characters in an unconvincing setting, ''City on Fire'' is akin to getting doused with a cold bucket of water."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 45 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{Apple TV+ 2020s American crime drama television series 2023 American television series debuts 2023 American television series endings Apple TV+ original programming American English-language television shows Television series set in the 2000s Television series set in 2003 Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in New York City