AMC today released a thrilling first look at its upcoming drama 61st Street as the network unveiled the first trailer for the series from BAFTA-winner Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice, The Night Of, Your Honor) and executive-produced by Michael B. Jordan and Alana Mayo of Outlier Society (Just Mercy, David Makes Man).
A two-season television event series, with eight episodes per season, 61st Street is a propulsive thriller coursing through the dark heart of the infamous Chicago criminal justice system as police and prosecutors investigate a deadly drug bust that threatens to unravel the police department’s code of silence.
The series stars Emmy Award-winner Courtney B. Vance (The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Lovecraft Country, Genius), Tosin Cole (Doctor Who, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens), Bentley Green (Snowfall), Aunjanue Ellis (Lovecraft Country), Andrene Ward-Hammond (Your Honor, Project Power, Manifest), Holt McCallany (Mindhunter, Blue Bloods), and Killian Scott (Dublin Murders, Damnation).
The story follows Moses Johnson (Cole), a promising, black high school athlete, who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system. Taken by the police as a supposed gang member, he finds himself in the eye of the storm as police and prosecutors seek revenge for the death of an officer during a drug bust gone wrong. Franklin Roberts (Vance) is a public defender in the twilight of his career serving the busiest courthouse in America.
After promising his wife he’d retire to spend more time with their seventeen-year-old autistic son, Franklin realizes Moses Johnson is the case of a lifetime, one that can upend the entire Chicago judicial system, challenging the institutional racism and endemic corruption at its heart. Timely and provocative, 61st Street is set against the systemic abuse happening in some of our country’s most vulnerable communities.
