# Boomtown (2002)

> Boomtown dissects one Los Angeles crime per episode from every side, from patrol cops and detectives to witnesses, reporters, and the criminals themselves.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/670

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 24
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Graham Yost
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Donnie Wahlberg, Neal McDonough, Mykelti Williamson, Gary Basaraba, Nina Garbiras, Lana Parrilla, Jason Gedrick, Rick Gomez
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319960/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gritty, urgent, documentary-like, tense, sardonic

## Synopsis

Boomtown (2002-2003) is an American NBC crime drama created by Graham Yost, a short-lived series built as a two-season procedural set in contemporary Los Angeles. Donnie Wahlberg plays Detective Joel Stevens, whose investigations run alongside the work of Mykelti Williamson as Detective Bobby Fearless Smith, Gary Basaraba as Officer Ray Hechler, and Lana Parrilla as paramedic Teresa Ortiz, with Neal McDonough as assistant district attorney David McNorris pressing the cases toward court. Each of its 24 forty-five-minute episodes follows a single crime and retells it through many viewpoints at once: uniformed cops, detectives, witnesses, reporters, firefighters, rescue crews, and even the criminals themselves. The engine is the friction between officers who want a clean arrest and a city that rarely offers one, so every episode is assembled from overlapping accounts of the same night. The tone is gritty and urgent, with a hard-edged, documentary-leaning energy. Viewers who enjoy Homicide: Life on the Street, Hill Street Blues, and The Wire will find a similar appetite for institutional texture and procedural detail. Its serialized threads are light, so the show rewards attention but works episode by episode.

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