Hightown: chaos, drugs and crime in P-Town

Plot:

Jackie Quiñones is a National Marine Fisheries Service Agent in Provincetown, Massachusetts who abuses alcohol and drugs. One Morning she finds the body of a murdered woman, which launches an investigation by Detectives Alan Saintille and Ray Abruzzo into Cape Cod organized crime and the local opioid epidemic.

Cast:

Monica Raymund (Lie to Me )as Jackie Quiñones

Riley Voelkel ( The Originals and Legacies) as Renee Segna

Shane Harper (Good Luck Charlie) as Junior

Atkins Estimond as Osito

Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) as Frankie Cuevas Sr.

Dohn Norwood (Hell on Wheels) as Alan Saintille

James Badge Dale (24) as Det. Ray Abruzzo

Episodes:

The episodes of the first season are 8. The series was created by Rebecca Cutter, with Gary Lennon as showrunner and both serving executive producers alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, and KristieAnne Reed. Rachel Morrison (Mudbound) is the director of the pilot and the 2 episode.

On June 11, 2020, Starz renewed the series for a second season and the creator signed a deal with Lionsgate Television.

Thoughts:

We are in the city of Provincetown, abbreviated to P-town, is a tourist resort located on the extreme tip of the Cape Cod promontory in Massachusetts. P-town, with its long oceanfront beaches and trendy bars, is one of the favorite destinations for American LGBT communities.

Let’s take a step back

The opioid epidemic in the United States, synthetic drugs with heroin-like effects, is such a hot public health issue that not even the spread of Covid-19 has managed to obscure. Indeed, the Washington Post has released alarming data relating to the period of the lockdown, an analysis of preliminary data by the Commonwealth Fund found that shortly after the pandemic started, monthly overdose deaths spiked 50 % to more than 9,000 deaths in May.

The plague began about ten years ago, when the Big Pharma galaxy began to propose (impose) the unscrupulous use of painkillers, including those that, here in Europe, are administered only to the terminally ill.
Politics didn’t help. The new drug become the intake of pain killers, very strong analgesics freely prescribed by doctors. The pills marketed by large pharmaceutical companies and chains are the first step towards addiction. Of the 67,000 people who overdosed in the US in 2018, only 30% “got punctured”.

Hightown talks about this struggle and the contrast between limitless sexual freedom and substance abuse induced imprisonment is very interesting. The story begins with the finding of a corpse “Sherry Henry”, key witness in the trial of a local drug kingpin, Frankie Cuevas. But she was not alone that night. They throw the woman into the ocean. But something goes wrong. The waves bring it back to shore. Jackie Quiñones, a “fish policewoman”, as “real policemen” call her, comes across the corpse during a walk at dawn. From that moment on, his life took an unexpected turn. His dreams become the gateway to the souls of the dead. Jackie gets carried away and begins her own investigation.

Hightown is a crime drama that touches other genres, this series happened to me by chance I hadn’t heard much about it. Is a different series from the usual detective show. The opening intro already makes you understand what awaits you and the topic of the series. There are many sex scenes, drinking and drugs. The script is written in a very realistic way but that sometimes loses a lot in the dialogues written for certain very embarrassing and banal scenes. But we highly recommend it.

Duration per episode: 56–59 minutes each

Vote 8

Stream it now on Starz

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Thank you for reading.