Apple TV+
Ah, how I’ve missed that sweet feeling, the sensation of traversing deeper into the pits of televised hell at every turn. If that was the intention—to grip viewers by way of increasingly absurd, nonsensical, and frustrating plot points—Apple TV+’s new drama City on Fire (premiering May 12) could actually be considered a raging success.
Created by the genius minds behind the original Gossip Girl, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, City on Fire certainly has enough going for it: a crack team of creators and writers with a proven track record for dishy teen dramas; an ensemble cast with recognizable faces like Chase Sui Wonders, Jemima Kirke, and Nico Tortorella; and even a pretty damn good pilot episode that nimbly sets the show up for a riveting mystery. But throughout its eight-episode first season, City on Fire is weighed down by its potential. The show unsuccessfully scrambles to keep its early promise from falling through its fingers, with a collection of truly unbelievable plot twists and hilariously hammy acting choices that pour gasoline all over an already raging flame.
City on Fire tracks the evolving puzzle that surrounds a seemingly random shooting in New York’s Central Park on July 4, 2003. There are no witnesses to the attack. But the victim, an NYU freshman named Sam (Wonders), is surprisingly well-connected, and the event soon lures everyone that was into her orbit into a complex web of secrets. Sam’s best friend, Charlie (Wyatt Oleff), grows desperate to find out the truth behind what happened to her. Naturally, this is in part because Charlie has been secretly pining over Sam, a feeling that will only cloud his better judgment when he learns what Sam had secretly been involved in.