'This City Is Ours' Lands Season 2, Still Has No U.S. Premiere
This City Is Ours Key Art
BBC
Entertainment is a political business. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Every TV series and movie released into the world is a product of not just someone's imagination (and a whole lot of hard work from artists), but is a testament to the social mores and beliefs of its era. From thousands of hours of historical dramas starring only white actors giving viewers a biased picture of the past, to series like Mr. Bates vs the Post Office, which sparked a government investigation, the real world has a massive effect on what we watch. Nowhere is that more prevalent right now than the sudden spate of U.K. shows, like This City Is Ours, failing to get American distribution.
Recently renewed for a second season, This City Is Ours's first season stars Sean Bean (Game of Thrones), a massive draw on both sides of the pond. The man who is famous for being killed off early and often in his roles should have no problem getting a show scooped up by an American streaming service, especially in a star-studded series that features multiple actors Americans know and love, set in a gangland version of Liverpool. U.S. viewers love organized crime shows! From great stuff like Peaky Blinders to far lesser fare like MobLand, viewers tune in in droves. So what is preventing a series that includes multiple stars from recent U.K. hits from crossing the pond?
(The ensemble includes James Nelson-Joyce and Darci Shaw from A Thousand Blows, Saoirse-Monica Jackson from Derry Girls, etc.)
The co-production market first froze in mid-February 2025, coinciding with Macron's national address. Since then, the number of shows without an American distributor has tripled. We've reported on several, but these are the top layer of series that obviously belong here; we've dozens more in the to-do pile. Moreover, the situation is only getting worse with random wacky threats from the U.S. to "impose 100% tariffs on foreign-made productions," and worsening relations between governments. You might think that stuff doesn't affect you, but it certainly affects the shows you get to see.
It's hard to fathom how much viewers are currently losing out. Part of the problem is that, until the 2010s, British imports were primarily relegated to PBS, HBO, and occasionally a series on AMC or BBC America. It wasn't until Netflix began the streaming wars in 2013 (and imported the entire BBC Two library as supporting content) that the dam broke, and every streaming service — even the super-American Disney — brought over British hits.
On some level, this is probably a re-righting of the ship; the sudden wave of British shows across every platform couldn't last. But it's clearly swung too far in the other direction, if the most obvious series that should be viewable here can only be pirated. Perhaps This City Is Ours needed to win a few topline BAFTAs to get someone to step up, the same way Mr. Loverman did. But it shouldn't have to come to that, for either series.
This City Is Ours Season 2 will again consist of eight episodes. Filming for the new season has yet to begin, but it is tentatively planned for a 2026 release. Perhaps by then, BritBox or Hulu will have stepped in, and made Season 1 available to stream in the U.S.
