Show Me a Hero season 1 UK air date: The Wire creator’s new HBO series is ‘a whole new level of excellence’

Show takes place in Yonkers in the late 1980s and early 1990s

(HBO)

If you’ve been feeling a little stuck for a show to watch, with Game of Thrones being off the air and True Detective taking a nosedive in its second season, then HBO’s new series from The Wire creator David Simon could well fill the hole.

The show takes its name from the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you tragedy,” and as such shows there to be none, or any attempts to be one being foolhardy, during tension over public housing development in Yonkers in the late 1980s.

Based on a true story, it sees Star Wars and Inside Llewyn Davis actor Oscar Isaac play mayor Nick Wasicsko, with support from Winona Ryder, Alfred Molina and a few faces you’ll recognise from The Wire.

The first two episodes went out in the US last night, and according to Deadline sees Simon, along with The Wire co-writer William F. Zorzi and Crash director Paul Haggis, reach “a whole new level of excellence”.

“A slow-burn beginning to a fascinating disaster,” says The AV Club, the series doesn’t simply paint the powerful as corrupt and the downtrodden as victims but rather points out everyone’s flaws and self-interest from top to bottom, a delicate look at a very messy situation.

The show aesthetically looks very different from The Wire, which had a ‘world’s wildest police chases’ aspect ratio and standard definition, appearing a more cinematic period piece.

Many early reviewers have drawn attention to the fact that while the action takes place over 20 years ago, the series depressingly shows how little power dynamics have changed, and it is this juxtaposition that could make the show a major talking point and a big awards contender.

Show Me a Hero begins on Monday 17 August on Sky Atlantic at 9pm.

@christophhooton