BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – The power of writer David Simon’s work has drawn remarkable actors to TV dramas including “The Wire” and “Treme.”
The latest evidence is “Show Me a Hero,” HBO’s six-episode miniseries based on a bitter 1980s battle over public housing in Yonkers, New York. It begins this weekend and airs 8-10 p.m. EDT on three consecutive Sundays through Aug. 30.
Even Simon marveled at the cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Alfred Molina, Winona Ryder and Catherine Keener. All that talent for what sounds like – but is far from – a dramatized bureaucratic slog?
“It makes no sense. I’m coming with, like, eight hours on botany and seeing who I pull next time,” he jokingly told a meeting of the Television Critics Association.
Stellar director Paul Haggis also was attracted to the miniseries, which is based on Lisa Belkin’s non-fiction book of the same name that recounted how a federal court order to build low-income housing in white neighborhoods split the city and wrecked its young mayor’s career.