Apple TV+ will be premiering the eight-episode series City on Fire, inspired by Garth Risk Hallberg’s bestselling novel, on May 12, 2023. The first three episodes will be released simultaneously, followed by new episodes on Fridays. The season’s finale is set to air on June 16th.
City on Fire takes place in New York City, and in an interview with NPR in October 2015, author Hallberg – who grew up in North Carolina – explained why he chose NYC as the setting. “I fell in love with New York at some indeterminate point in my early years,” said Hallberg. “Something about the city captured my imagination in a way that even Middle-Earth and Narnia couldn’t — because it was somehow real.”
Hallberg added: “So I guess I was dreaming my way into it long before I realized that I was going to write about it.”
Hallberg’s book was set in the 1970s, but showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl) opted to move the time period to 2003.
“We were really interested in that post-9/11, Occupy Wall Street [era] in New York. Obviously, the book culminates in the blackout of ’77. There was a massive blackout in 2003. So creatively, that storyline lined up. But also thematically, 1977 was a time when people weren’t sure that our city was going to survive. Post-9/11 New York, people had the same concerns, the same fears,” said Schwartz during a Television Critics Association panel.
Schwartz and Savage write and executive produce along with Lis Rowinski and Emmy Award nominee Jesse Peretz (GLOW). Peretz also directs multiple episodes.
Wyatt Oleff and Chase Sui Wonders lead the cast as Charlie and Samantha. Xavier Clyde stars as Mercer, Jemima Kirke is Regan, Nico Tortorella plays William, Ashley Zukerman is Keith, and Max Milner plays Nicky Chaos. Alexandra Doke stars as Sewer Girl, Omid Abtahi is Detective Ali Parsa, Kathleen Munroe is Detective PJ McFadden, and John Cameron Mitchell plays Amory.
The Plot:
In City on Fire, an NYU student is shot in Central Park on the Fourth of July, 2003. Samantha is alone; there are no witnesses and very little physical evidence. Her friends’ band is playing at her favorite downtown club, but she leaves to meet someone, promising to return. She never does.
As the crime against Samantha is investigated, she’s revealed to be the crucial connection between a series of mysterious citywide fires, the downtown music scene, and a wealthy uptown real estate family fraying under the strain of the many secrets they keep.
Chase Sui Wonders stars as Samantha, and Wyatt Oleff plays Charlie, a friend of Samantha’s who is struggling to cope with the death of his father on 9/11 two years earlier. After Samantha is shot, he stops at nothing to unravel the mystery of what happened.
