Spoilers for City On FireCity On Fire changed its story from the book by Garth Risk Hallberg that it was based on. Hallberg’s book is based on the 1977 New York City blackout and how the event affected the community. From July 13 to July 14, New York City experienced a blackout, with some areas in Queens and Brooklyn unaffected. Hallberg’s book follows various characters and how the blackout affected their lives. On May 12, Apple TV premiered a new tv show based on the 2015 novel.
The series stars Jemima Kirke, best known for playing Jessa Johansson in Girls, and Wyatt Oleff from 2017’s IT. The plot centers on Samantha Yeung’s Central Park shooting, and the investigation, which her shooting is connected to city-wide fires. The show is run by The OC and Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who took creative liberty when creating the series, drastically changing the plot and the story’s tone.
City On Fire Uses A Real Blackout – Just Not The One From The Books
City On Fire keeps the blackout theme alive but switches the year from the late 70s to 2003. In the early 2000s, New York City suffered another blackout which lasted from August 14 through August 16. The outage affected the entire northeast of the United States instead of only New York City, like the 1977 blackout.
New York City was a very different place in 2003 than it was in 1977, and the way people reacted to the power outage was different too. This makes the series very different from the book, even if the plot and characters are the same. Crime in New York City was at its peak in the late 70s, but crime rates significantly dropped in the 1990s, meaning it was a safe place by 2003. Needless to say, people acted very differently during the second blackout.
Why City On Fire Changed Its Blackout (& Why It Didn’t Need To)
Schwartz explained to Deadline that he chose to set the series in 2003 because he wanted to explore a post-9/11 New York City. He explained that in 1977, people weren’t sure if the city would survive, and they felt the same way after 9/11 happened. However, the series didn’t need to change its setting because the 1977 blackout offered a lot for the story.
After the blackout, the city saw looting and crime for days. In 2003, the city saw others helping each other, with citizens even directing traffic since the lights went out. A City On Fire, set in a chaotic time, may have been a better way to tell a story of human connection.
