Crimetown

Crimetown, from Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier, tells the story of a city’s corruption as a season-long narrative, starting with Providence and Buddy Cianci.

Politicians, bookies, and neighbors share the tape. The show is interested in how a place decides who the bad guy is, and how often the answer is useful to someone still in office.

It sits between a true-crime serial and a civic history. The unit of storytelling is the city, not the autopsy.

Play a season from the first episode. Later seasons change cities, and the Providence chapters do not make sense backwards.