The third season of Buffalo writer-producer Tom Fontana’s series “City on a Hill” set in Boston in the 1990s seems to be an ethical test for many of its characters.
In the Showtime series premiere at 10 p.m. Sunday, lead character Jackie Rohr (Kevin Bacon), the rule-bending former FBI agent who has flunked just about every ethical test in the first two seasons, amazingly even finds some ethics in the first six episodes made available for review.
The strong ethics of Jackie’s long-suffering wife, Jenny (Jill Hennessy), is tested by her abusive father and a priest she befriended.
Siobhan Quay (Lauren E. Banks), the wife of principled prosecutor DeCourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge), has her ethics tested by something resurfacing from her past.
Detective Chris Caysen (Matthew Del Negro) has his ethics tested against the Code of Silence in the Boston Police Department.
“The show from the beginning has always been about the gray area of morality,” said Fontana in a telephone interview. “But I think this is more personified by the various stories we did (this season.)”
Aldis Hodge, left, and Kevin Bacon in Showtime's "City on a Hill."
In last season’s finale of the series created by Charlie McLean based on a story from McLean and Ben Affleck, Rohr was bounced by the FBI. He has emerged as a highly paid head of security for Sinclair Dryden, a wealthy resident of Beacon Hill (“L.A. Law” star Corbin Bernsen), who in the first scene Sunday drugs a young woman to have sex with her with the apparent approval of his wife.
Even Jackie, who has a college-age daughter, sees that as a line you can’t cross and discovers some ethics.
“One never wants to write a one-dimensional character, especially for an actor as good as Kevin Bacon,” said Fontana, the showrunner. “As the series evolves, you want to change things up. You want to change the audience’s perception who these characters are. But you also want to make sure that the writers and the actors and the directors, don't sort of fall into that third season sort of cushy, ‘Oh, we know what we're doing.’ You always want to throw everybody a curveball.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Fontana addressed the recent Emmy nominations, the perils of filming during Covid, his next project, his entry into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame and this season of “City on a Hill.”
Fontana said the Dryden case is based on a real case in Boston decades ago.
“Every year we try to base these crime stories on something that happened in Boston back in the day,” said Fontana. “There was a commissioner or somebody in the city government who was basically molesting children, and … the cops covered up for him. It just came out within the last couple of years. So that's sort of sparked the main story about the Dryden family.”
“I would say – and I'm hesitant to say this – it's slightly based on (Bill) Cosby,” said Fontana.
The story line allowed the show to highlight a wealthy Boston area.
“Every year we would do a different section of Boston,” explained Fontana. “The first year we did Charlestown, the second year Roxbury. We decided to do Beacon Hill because we wanted to say there are bad guys all over the city. And we didn't want to ignore the bad guys at Beacon Hill.”
You can’t blame Fontana, Bacon, Hennessy, Hodge or Banks if they feel ignored by Emmy voters in a year that nominations were dominated by a small fraction of shows. Bacon and Hennessy have especially done Emmy-worthy work in roles with emotional ranges counter to their previous roles.
“I think they're both doing exceptional work as actors and if you know the real Kevin Bacon, he is so not Jackie Rohr,” said Fontana. “And Jill, who everybody thinks of from ‘Law and Order’ is doing some emotional somersaults that I just think are fantastic.”
However, “City on a Hill” never has had the cache to get Emmy attention.
Fontana, who has won three writing Emmys in a 40-year career, understands how Hollywood works.
“I love my Emmys and I would not give them back, but I don't really watch as much television as you need to watch to know which of the real good shows deserve to win.”
“Here's me going off on Hollywood yet again,” cracked Fontana. “Hollywood always sees the shiny new object … They go for what's being talked about in cocktail parties and pitch meetings.”
Fontana, who turns 71 in September, has his next project set. It is a six-episode series “Monsieur Spade” with writer-director Scott Frank (“Queen’s Gambit") set in 1963, stars Clive Owen and will be carried on AMC.
“It’s Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart’s character) 20 years after ‘The Maltese Falcon’ living in the south of France and successfully avoiding his previous life and then all hell breaks loose,” explained Fontana.
Fontana is used to all hell breaking loose after filming two seasons of “City on a Hill” during Covid.
“Shooting two seasons of this show during a pandemic was the hardest work I've ever had to do in television because you have all the normal problems,” Fontana said. “You have everything that is going to go wrong and add on top of that a layer of Covid.
“So many parts of what makes doing a television series fun is taken away, like having meals together … We had to regulate which crew members could be on set at which time and everybody was wearing masks. It's very hard for the actors to rehearse with masks and shields on their faces. Like the rest of America, like the rest of the world, there was never a moment you could relax and just do the work. Every time you started to do the work, you had to be conscious of all the ramifications that two actors in a room with a director, a cameraman and sound guys that everybody was at risk.”
Fontana doesn’t know if this is the final season of "City on a Hill."
“I think we've had a great run. I'm very proud of the show and the work we've done,” said Fontana. “If it’s time to let it go, we'll let it go.”
He has another reason to be proud. He enters the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame on Sept. 22 in the second year it expanded entries to actors, writers and producers from Western New York.
“I'm very honored. It was a total surprise to be asked, and I'm looking forward to coming,” said Fontana before ending with a laugh.
“This is the first time I've gotten an honor before (“Murphy Brown” creator and Buffalo native) Diane English. “I can't wait to tell her that I got this before her. I'm sure she will get it because she deserves it … Finally, I'm ahead of her.”
