2 Best Movies to Watch by David Simon

We Own This City is a six-part miniseries following the ins and outs of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force. Hailed by critics as the “spiritual successor to The Wire” (both shows were developed by David Simon), the gritty crime drama works as a smart and gripping exposé not just of the Baltimore police department, but of big and flawed institutions, in general, and the seeming inherence of corruption. The series is based on the book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Reality

Actor: Dagmara Domińczyk, Darrell Britt-Gibson, David Corenswet, Delaney Williams, Don Harvey, Jamie Hector, Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles, Larry Mitchell, Lucas Van Engen, McKinley Belcher III, Rob Brown, Wunmi Mosaku

Rating: TV-MA

By imagining a plausible world in which World War II is avoided when an American populist president cozies up to Hitler, The Plot Against America becomes an effective allegory for all the ways well-meaning citizens gradually allow fascists to take power. Every perspective espoused by the Levins—a Jewish family grappling with the new president's endorsement of anti-Semitism—is treated as just one partially correct response that's ultimately just too little, too late. These ideological discussions that make up the heart of the miniseries are nevertheless filmed on a grand scale, and played with real fervor by an ensemble cast that includes Morgan Spector, Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro.

Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, War & Politics

Actor: Anthony Boyle, Azhy Robertson, John Turturro, Morgan Spector, Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan