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HBO's 'Show Me a Hero' showcases David Simon in peak 'Wire' form

The politics of Show Me a Hero hit hard and cut deep, tearing down lives and careers that can't be reassembled.

The new six-part miniseries, premiering Sunday on HBO, bears the unmistakable fingerprints of David Simon, who brought a labyrinthine, Russian-novel approach to systemic dysfunction in The Wire.

Hero is Simon's best work since that show went off the air in 2008; if the miniseries were set in Baltimore instead of Yonkers, it could be a lost Wire season.

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Based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Belkin, Hero burns slow but bright in dramatizing issues of race and class that still plague the country almost three decades after the miniseries takes place. At its core is an affordable-housing controversy, not unlike the one facing Dallas. The middle-class residents of Yonkers stand rabidly against a new public-housing plan pushed through by a federal judge (Bob Balaban). In the eye of the storm, and at the center of some terrifying city council meetings, is Mayor Nick Wasicsko (Oscar Isaac).

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A boy wonder with a populist touch, Wasicsko inherits an untenable situation common to politicians who make promises they can't keep. Over the six episodes we see him transform from an aspiring consensus builder to an embittered bridge burner. Simon and Belkin know that politics, especially municipal politics, is a blood sport whose strategies lie in the grimy details. Those details are dissected here with the combination of humanity and realpolitik that fans of The Wire came to savor.

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The first episode begins with a progressive consultant (Peter Riegert) surveying the city by helicopter and eyeballing potential sites for the new housing complexes. The sequence presages Hero's panoramic view of urban American life, from the council members who duke it out behind closed doors, to the mostly black and Latino residents who anticipate the new housing with a mix of optimism and fear, to the mostly white not-in-my-backyard constituents who see barbarians approaching the gates.

When Simon is clicking, as he is here, nothing is simple. Even the rare good deed can carry unintended consequences. The title comes from an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy." Simon and Belkin have delivered a doozy.

Hero is also a triumph for Paul Haggis, who directs all six episodes and thrives within the spacious confines of the script; and for Isaac, who brings to Wasicsko the coiled energy and presence of a young Al Pacino.

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Jim Belushi and Oscar Isaac in "Show Me a Hero."
Jim Belushi and Oscar Isaac in "Show Me a Hero." (Paul Schiraldi / HBO)

Isaac makes his character likable and achingly vulnerable, even as his own ego drives him mad and he falls apart in ungainly fashion. "You can't confuse votes with love," warns a political ally (Winona Ryder, also fantastic). "They're not the same thing." He can't heed her words, and as a result he carries the story's tragic arc. (Refrain from Googling the true story until after you finish watching. You'll save yourself from a whale of a spoiler).

Simon, a refugee from the world of journalism, has a gift for wringing wrenching drama from the seemingly mundane. You might think city council meetings make for meager thrills. You'd be wrong. Simon also knows the value, dramatic and social, of bringing underrepresented voices and faces to the screen. He doesn't just probe democracy; he practices it onscreen as well.

My only complaint with Show Me a Hero is that I wanted more. Hero ends suddenly, and with blunt-force impact. It leaves us considering the relentless sociopolitical machinations that govern our lives. It lingers as only the best storytelling can.

Show Me a Hero

7-9 p.m. Sunday, HBO. Followed by two hourlong episodes each night on Aug. 23 and 30.