‘City on Fire’ series review: A middling adaptation of Garth Hallberg’s murder mystery featuring a capable ensemble

Chase Sui Wonders and Wyatt Oleff in a still from ‘City on Fire’
| Photo Credit: Apple TV+

I wish I was put in the same room as the reader with a paper and pen to illustrate the connections all the characters share in Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s latest Apple TV+ series titled City on Fire. Known for developing shows like Gossip Girl and The O.C., they have taken to adapting Garth Risk Hallberg’s 900-page murder-mystery novel set in New York City of the seventies for their latest project. 

With fireworks in the air, the eight-episode-long series kicks off on the night of July 4, 2003: champagne is flowing at the parties hosted by the city’s elite while the underground punk music scene is unravelling in dingy clubs laced with drugs and alcohol. Samantha Yeung (Chase Sui Wonders) has just dropped off Charlie (Wyatt Oleff), a junior at school who is head over heels in love with her, at an Ex Nihilo performance and is on her way to attend to unfinished business. Samantha is the cool girl who lives for the underground music scene and cherishes the photographs she clicks.

Things take a turn for the worse when Mercer (Xavier Clyde), on hearing gasps in Central Park, ventures into the dark to discover Sam’s body with a bullet wound to her head and rings in the cops who in turn suspect him for the attempted murder after they discover heroin in his coat pocket. Mercer is a gay African-American schoolteacher living with his boyfriend William Hamilton-Sweeney (Nico Tortorella). William along with his sister Regan Hamilton-Sweeney (Jemima Kirke) is in line to inherit a fortune from his businessman father who is suspected to be suffering from dementia. Regan plays a key role in looking after the business and is stuck in a failing marriage with Keith (Ashley Zuckerman) who is involved in a secret affair with Sam.

Meanwhile, the band members of Ex Nihilo led by Nicky Chaos (Max Milner) fashion themselves as anarchists and go around the city burning properties and setting the tone for new-age populist movements like ‘Occupy Wall Street’ that would emerge a few years later.

Josh and Stephanie, the prodigal duo of the 2000s teen dramas, altered the time period the story is set in and thereby watered down Hallberg’s interpretation of 70s New York, something that formed the core of his book. 

Initially, the show has a great pace and is lucid with character introductions; the frequent flashbacks work in its favour and the first three episodes set the audience up for a great time. However, soon, it becomes a tad overbearing and exhausting to continue to follow multiple characters with complex backgrounds coupled with an increasingly shaky narration. The character development of William mars the narrative — imagine taking a character who could not be bothered to make a living because he is addicted to heroin and turning them into an amateur detective assisting the police in a criminal case he does not have high stakes in. 

Wit and elements of drama are reigned in to throw light only on the mystery enveloping the story making the narration dull and laborious to watch. But, the skill of the ensemble will convince you to persevere through these hiccups; Chase Sui Wonders, Wyatt Oleff and Jemima Kirke deserve a special mention.

Throughout the eight episodes, the show fails at piecing together a social commentary that it so desperately guns for at the cost of the audience’s attention. If you were in love with New York City of the early 2000s you could tune in for the nostalgia.

City on Fire is currently streaming on Apple TV+