Good news for fans of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's new crime drama: City On A Hill Season 2 is definitely happening. Though the show doesn't air its freshman finale until Aug. 18, Showtime is so confident in the project, it's already green-lit more episodes. In fact, as reported by Variety, the news actually came a few weeks in advance. So clearly, the network is happy with what it's seeing.
If you've been keeping up with reviews, the renewal isn't all that surprising. Rolling Stone praised the show for its "wicked-good acting," and with a 73 percent critics rating and a 74 percent audience score, it currently ranks fairly high on Rotten Tomatoes. Its numbers aren't mind-blowing, but they're nothing to sneeze at either: according to The Hollywood Reporter, City On A Hill has averaged 3.5 million viewers per episode, which puts it pretty middle of the pack as far as Showtime's ratings go. Considering the star power and storyline involved, that was enough for Showtime to give it another go.
"City on a Hill is that addictive kind of meaty and messy show we love at Showtime," Gary Levine, co-president of entertainment for Showtime Networks, said in a statement when the show was renewed, per Boston.com. "With the inspired pairing of Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge and the inspired writing of Tom Fontana and Chuck MacLean, we believe there is a rich future for this compelling series."
According to its Showtime description, City On A Hill follows a corrupt FBI agent named Jackie Rohr (played by Kevin Bacon) who creates an "unlikely alliance" with Assistant District Attorney Decourcy Ward (played by Aldis Hodge) in order to take on the surging crime rate in '90s Boston in. Season 1 saw them take on a family of armed car robbers in a case that grew "to involve, and ultimately subvert, the entire criminal justice system of Boston," The Wrap writes. Hopefully, Season 2 will bring something new and equally thrilling.
For the team behind City On A Hill, the early renewal should come as a relief, considering it took a long time to even get Season 1 off the ground. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series was originally given a pilot episode in 2017, but it wasn't granted a full season until 2018, which, of course, didn't air until 2019.
As for what's next, the possibilities are pretty open. Some of the plot will depend on what happens during the Aug. 18 finale, but considering that '90s Boston was ripe with crime and competing ideas of how to combat it, there's a lot City On A Hill can do in a second season. You can also expect the show to be back fairly soon: the 10-episode first season premiered in June, so if Season 2 follows a similar timeline, it could return as soon as June 2020. Regardless of when City On A Hill makes its way back to screen, though, rest assured there will be definitely be more to come.
