# Show Me a Hero (2015)

> A idealistic city councilman becomes mayor of Yonkers in the late 1980s just as a federal court orders public housing into white neighborhoods, igniting a bitter racial and political storm.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/56171

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: David Simon
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Oscar Isaac, Catherine Keener, Alfred Molina, Bob Balaban, Peter Riegert, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Carla Quevedo, Jon Bernthal
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2492296/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: somber, tense, earnest

## What critics say

Critics broadly praised the miniseries for its sober, carefully observed account of Yonkers' public housing crisis and the political fallout around it, with strong lead performance and writing.

## Synopsis

Show Me a Hero is a sober, politically charged miniseries dramatizing the late 1980s clash in Yonkers, New York, when a federal court ordered public housing scattered into the city's white ethnic neighborhoods. Following idealistic first-term city councilman Nick Wasicsko, who is thrust into the mayor's office and into a storm of racial fear, the story moves through tense town hall wrangling, angry street protests, lawsuits, and the anguished bargaining of families caught in the middle. The tone is earnest, tense and quietly sorrowful, grounded in documentary-like realism and the texture of working-class neighborhoods and bruised city institutions. Rather than offering easy heroes or villains, it shows compromise, fear, political self-interest and the slow grind of bureaucratic failure, with moments of human decency breaking through. Its dialogue-heavy scenes favor conversation over spectacle, letting the weight of each decision accumulate. Viewers drawn to political dramas about housing, race and civic power will find a mature account where good intentions collide with entrenched prejudice. The emotional register is heavy and reflective, and the ending feels earned yet bittersweet.

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