--- title: "Show Me a Hero" year: 2015 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/show-me-a-hero" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 10 published: "2026-09-17T03:12:41.475659+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T03:12:41.859255+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Show Me a Hero (2015) Created by David Simon · 1h 00m · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Drama, War & Politics **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 80 from 10 reviews *In a sentence:* Yonkers elects a man who promises a fight and never forgives him for losing it > David Simon’s six-part account of a housing fight in 1980s Yonkers is patient, well acted and, in Oscar Isaac’s young mayor, has a lead performance worth six hours of anyone’s time. Paul Haggis directs as if he does not trust the writing, and the Springsteen songs say everything twice. ## Synopsis Yonkers, New York, 1987. A federal judge, Leonard B. Sand (Bob Balaban), has ordered the city to build a few hundred homes of public housing on its white east side, and the council has refused for so long that the fines are about to break the city. Nick Wasicsko (Oscar Isaac), a councilman not yet thirty, runs for mayor promising to appeal the order, with aide Jim Surdoval (Michael Stahl-David) and Nay Noe Wasicsko (Carla Quevedo), whom he is courting. Councilman Henry J. Spallone (Alfred Molina) leads the resistance and homeowner Mary Dorman (Catherine Keener) shouts at every meeting. Across town, in the towers where the housing already is, Norma O’Neal (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) is losing her sight. ## Review In 1987 the city of Yonkers, New York, had been ordered by a federal court to build a few hundred homes of public housing on its white east side, and had decided it would rather be fined into bankruptcy than do it. David Simon and William F. Zorzi have made six hours of television out of what happened next. It sounds like a council meeting, and a good deal of it is one. We were not bored for a minute. We recommend it, with one caveat. The reason is Oscar Isaac. Nick Wasicsko runs for mayor promising to fight the court order because that is what wins, and within weeks he is the man who has to carry it out. Isaac plays him as someone who wants to be liked far more than he wants to be right, who does the right thing anyway, half by accident, and then cannot understand why nobody thanks him. Watch his face at the back of the chamber when a vote goes against him: hurt first, then arithmetic, then the smile for the cameras. Carla Quevedo, as Nay Noe Wasicsko, gives him somebody to lie to about how well it is going. The council meetings are where the series lives, and they made us angry in a way we had not budgeted for. Alfred Molina’s Henry J. Spallone plays to a gallery of hundreds of homeowners screaming at the mayor and at Bob Balaban’s Judge Leonard B. Sand, who is not even in the building. Jo Francis and Kate Sanford cut these scenes long, holding on the shouting until it stops being exciting and starts being frightening. Catherine Keener is in that gallery as Mary Dorman, a homeowner who believes every word she is yelling, and the series follows her home. Keener plays her slow change without a scene announcing it. Across town, in the towers where the housing already is, Simon gives equal time to the people a political drama would usually skip. LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s Norma O’Neal is a home help losing her sight, trying to get anyone to come to a building the agencies are frightened of. Natalie Paul’s Doreen Henderson and Ilfenesh Hadera’s Carmen Febles are younger women looking for a way out. For two episodes these strands sit alongside the politics rather than tying to them. Then Norma’s story tightens into a plain account of what it is to be poor and going blind in a place nobody visits, and it moved us more than the shouting did. Peter Riegert’s Oscar Newman, the consultant who wants the homes scattered rather than stacked, and Jon Bernthal’s Michael H. Sussman, the lawyer who brought the case, are the two calm men in it, and Winona Ryder is sharp as councilwoman Vinni Restiano. Andrij Parekh photographs both halves of the city in the same flat, cold light, so the east side’s lawns look no warmer than the west side’s concrete. Laurence Bennett’s chamber has panelled walls and cheap chairs. Abigail Murray’s boxy suits and shoulder pads are of the period without being a joke. Nathan Larson’s score is spare and stays out of the way. The caveat is Paul Haggis. Haggis does not trust a scene to have landed. He cuts to the reaction that tells us what we have just seen, he holds on a tear a beat too long, and above all he reaches for Bruce Springsteen. There is a great deal of Springsteen, over driving, over moving in, over a man sitting alone in a car, and each time the song says what the scene had already said, only louder. Against Simon’s own [*The Wire*](https://film.one/tv/the-wire), this is shorter, tidier and easier to follow, partly Zorzi’s doing and partly the subject’s: a court order has an end in a way a city does not. Most critics have liked it as much as we do, and the one serious dissent complains that the residents are written thinner than the politicians. For the first two hours that is fair. After that it is not. Watch two episodes a night rather than six in a row. The council meetings are better with a break between them, and so is Nick. *Fi1m score 78, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics are warmly in favour. The consensus is that David Simon has made an unlikely subject, the fight over public housing desegregation in 1980s Yonkers, into six gripping hours, and more than one review ranks it alongside his earlier work. Praise clusters around Oscar Isaac’s restrained central performance, which almost every review singles out, and around Simon’s habit of treating tenants and council clerks with the same seriousness as the mayor. The period detail and the Springsteen-heavy soundtrack also get their due. The spread is narrow. Reservations, where they appear, concern thinner supporting storylines, a running time some find heavy-handed and long, and direction by Paul Haggis that a few consider blunt. The one clear dissent comes from Paste, which reviews only the first two episodes and finds the script takes shortcuts and writes its non-white characters more thinly than its white ones. Nobody dislikes it. ### Reviews we read (10) - **The AV Club**, Joshua Alston (A): The critic calls it Simon's most concise and accessible work yet, and a timely, compelling period piece that makes a passionate case for the value of careful journalism while digging human stories out of complex legal and political issues. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/david-simon-s-show-me-a-hero-turns-public-housing-into-1798184622) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the series' radical humanism in treating all characters as equals regardless of social status and giving equal weight to their stories, making viewers care about marginalized lives and embodying an idealistic democratic impulse. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2015/08/david-simons-radical-humanism.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (85/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a smart, gripping take on race and class in America that rewards viewer investment with strong storytelling and acting. It praises the humanity found in the characters and nuanced scripts, noting the universal themes of home and family alongside the direction by Paul Haggis. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/show-me-a-hero-tv-813151/) - **Radio Times**, Gill Crawford (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the miniseries utterly compelling despite its subject matter of public housing desegregation battles in 1980s Yonkers. It highlights the strong pedigree from writer David Simon and director Paul Haggis along with excellent period detail and a Springsteen-heavy soundtrack. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-i0n13g/show-me-a-hero/) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the series a gripping exposé of political power and its corrupting effects. Oscar Isaac’s subtle, restrained lead performance stands out as the series’ greatest strength. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/mar/31/show-me-a-hero-box-set-review-1980s-new-york-nick-wasicsko-oscar-isaac) - **The Telegraph**, Ben Lawrence (4/5): The review calls the series compelling and complex despite its unpromising subject matter. It singles out Oscar Isaac’s nuanced performance for particular praise while noting thinner supporting storylines. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/2016/06/16/show-me-a-hero-sky-box-sets-review-compelling-and-complex/) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (80/100, inferred): The review calls the HBO miniseries a timely, nuanced and meticulously crafted look at race and class through the lens of Yonkers politics. It singles out Oscar Isaac’s central performance and the overall quality and ambition as standing out, comparing it favorably to Simon’s earlier work. [Read](https://variety.com/2015/tv/reviews/show-me-a-hero-review-david-simon-miniseries-hbo-1201559373/) - **The Independent** (75/100, inferred): The critic praises the absorbing six-part miniseries about public housing policy and its continuing relevance. It highlights David Simon’s skill at portraying stagnant communities over individual heroes. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/show-me-a-hero-tv-review-public-housing-policy-brought-to-the-screen-by-offtopic-testimonies-10459382.html) - **Collider**, Allison Keene (★★★★): The critic finds the miniseries a difficult but worthwhile work capturing the bleak atmosphere and politics of late-80s Yonkers, praising the strong ensemble acting especially Oscar Isaac and the female characters while noting it can feel heavy-handed and overlong at times. [Read](https://collider.com/show-me-a-hero-review-oscar-issac-david-simon-hbo-miniseries/) - **Paste**, Paste Staff (8.2): The review of the first two episodes praises the ambition, stunning cinematography, and complex lead performance by Oscar Isaac but criticizes shortcuts in the script, heavy-handed direction, and weaker writing for non-white characters. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/show-me-a-hero-review-part-1-and-part-2) ## Details - **Created by:** David Simon - **Creator:** David Simon - **Director:** Paul Haggis - **Writer:** David Simon, William F. Zorzi - **Story:** David Simon - **Cinematography:** Andrij Parekh - **Editor:** Jo Francis, Kate Sanford - **Music:** Nathan Larson - **Production design:** Laurence Bennett - **Costume design:** Abigail Murray - **Cast:** Oscar Isaac as Nick Wasicsko; Catherine Keener as Mary Dorman; Alfred Molina as Henry J. Spallone; Bob Balaban as Leonard B. Sand; Peter Riegert as Oscar Newman; LaTanya Richardson Jackson as Norma O'Neal; Carla Quevedo as Nay Noe Wasicsko; Jon Bernthal as Michael H. Sussman - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 16 August 2015 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, War & Politics - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FPIflcWIOk ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AT, AU, BR, CA, CO, ES, FR, GB, MX, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Our Friends in the North* (1996), Fi1m 88: Newcastle, thirty years, housing and politics; the British series this most resembles. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/our-friends-in-the-north.md) - *The Wire* (2002): Simon’s Baltimore, longer and angrier, with a whole city instead of one council. - *La Haine* (1995), Fi1m 90: A day on a Paris estate, shot in black and white, and the towers do the talking. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/la-haine.md) - *Borgen* (2010): Danish coalition politics, where every good decision costs someone a marriage. - *Do the Right Thing* (1989), Fi1m 93: One Brooklyn block, one hot day, and the same argument about who a neighbourhood belongs to. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/do-the-right-thing.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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