I'd like to start by saying that I don't think this was a "bad" series at all. However, the critical consensus, particularly on Metacritic was so overwhelmingly high, that I was led to believe that not only would this be one of the best series to see in 2020, but it would also be one of the best things on TV in the last few years. It is not even remotely one of the greatest series to come out of 2020, much less previous years. We are still in the "Peak TV" era, and I have the "1st World" problem of trying to keep up with everything out there. Because the critical consensus was so high, and because the series was binge released on the Nat Geo Channel, "City So Real" jumped my queue, and I stopped watching everything else just so that I could get to it. What a disappointment. After I saw the first episode, I thought it just had to get better, based on everything I had read. It didn't get better in the second episode, or any of the other ones, although I will say the final episode, which jumped a year ahead to show how Covid and George Floyd was affecting Chicago was the most interesting of the five episodes. Still, this series was very dry to watch. If you're from Chicago, it's probably incredible. If you're not from Chicago, I was led to believe it would still be great. It wasn't. Don't go out of your way to watch this. You'll thank me later.
Review of City So Real
