Set in Yonkers, N.Y., in the late 1980s and early ’90s and starring Oscar Isaac as an ambitious, embattled young politician, it bears all the hallmarks of the Simon style – the exploration of place through character and of character as an expression of place; naturalistic acting and dialogue; intercut multiple story lines that make the pace feel leisurely in its parts and propulsive overall; and a propensity to ask questions rather than to fix answers.
Written by Simon and longtime colleague William F. Zorzi – they worked together at the Baltimore Sun, and Zorzi later wrote for “The Wire” – and directed in its entirety by Paul Haggis (“Crash”), the series takes its substance and characters from a 1999 book by then-New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin; the title quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald – “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” (In the series, a newspaper reporter pronounces and explains the line, which is just the sort of disillusioned thing reporters in the talking pictures say.)
Belkin’s book – which Simon first pitched to HBO in 2001 and which Zorzi spent years re-reporting – tells the story of the Yonkers housing case. Sued in 1980 by the Department of Justice and the local branch of the NAACP over segregated schools and housing, the city was under court order to build 200 low-income and 800 affordable units in white, middle-class neighborhoods.
Continue reading at LATimes.com.