''DMZ'' is an American

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

miniseries created by

Roberto Patino Roberto Patino is an American screenwriter and television writer, known for writing the film '' Cut Bank'', starring Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich and Billy Bob Thornton. He created and served as showrunner of the HBO Max miniseries ''DMZ'', was a ...

, based on the comic book series of the same name by Brian Wood and

Riccardo Burchielli Riccardo Burchielli (born 27 February 1975) is an Italian artist known for his work on the DC/Vertigo comic book series ''DMZ'', his first work in the United States. Early life Burchielli was born in Peccioli, near Pisa, Tuscany.

, that premiered on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

on March 17, 2022. A portion of the miniseries premiered at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

on March 12, 2022.

Premise

Alma Ortega, a

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

medic A medic is a person involved in medicine such as a medical doctor, medical student, paramedic or an emergency medical responder. Among physicians in the UK, the term "medic" indicates someone who has followed a "medical" career path in postgradu ...

, becomes a symbol of hope in a

demilitarized A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...

Manhattan Island Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

while trying to find her son, who wandered off instead of sticking with her during their evacuation from Manhattan during the

Second American Civil War The "Second American Civil War" is an umbrella term used by academics in order to reclassify historical eras of significant political violence in the history of the United States as a "civil war" or, more commonly, to discuss the potential outbre ...

Cast

Main

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama ''Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include '' He Got Game'' (1998), ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

as Alma "Zee" Ortega, a medic who spent the last 8 years looking for her son *

Benjamin Bratt Benjamin Bratt (born December 16, 1963) is an American actor and producer who has worked in film and on television. He had supporting roles in the 1990s in such box office hits as ''Demolition Man'' (1993), ''Clear and Present Danger'' (1994), ...

as Parco Delgado, a leader of the Spanish Harlem Kings who controls a part of

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park ( 110th Street), ...

and Alma's ex * Freddy Miyares as Skel, Parco's assassin and Alma's son formerly known as Christian Ortega *

Hoon Lee Tong Hoon Lee (born July 18, 1973) is an American stage, film and television actor, known for playing Job in the Cinemax original series ''Banshee'' and the King in the Broadway revival of ''The King and I'', and voicing Hamato Yoshi/Splinter in ...

as Wilson Lin, the leader of

Chinatown, Manhattan Manhattan's Chinatown () is a Neighborhoods in Manhattan, neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy, Manhattan, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center to its ...

, who knew Alma before the war * Jordan Preston Carter as Odi, an orphaned kid inside the DMZ who becomes friends with Alma * Venus Ariel as Nico, Odi's friend * Amandla Jahava as Nicole

Recurring

Mamie Gummer Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983) is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series ''Emily Owens, M.D.'' (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on ''The Good Wife'' (2010–2015) and its ...

as Rose *

Agam Darshi Agamdeep Darshi is an English-Canadian actress, now based in Los Angeles. Early life Born as Agamdeep Darshi in Birmingham, the United Kingdom, to parents of South Asian Punjabi (Indian) descent. At a very young age she and her family moved t ...

as Franklin * Rey Gallegos as Cesar *

Henry G. Sanders Henry Gale Sanders (born August 18, 1942) is an American actor best known for his role in Charles Burnett's 1977 neo-realist film ''Killer of Sheep''. He has also appeared extensively on television, on such programs as ''The Rockford Files'', '' ...

as Cedric *

Jade Wu Jade Wu (born January 5, 1953) Chinese-American actress, playwright, producer, director, and editor who was born in Japan. She is the granddaughter of actor and director, Yuanlong Wang, who is known for his work in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan ...

as Susie, Wilson's advisor *

Sydney Park Sydney Park is a recreational area in the inner-city area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The parkland is located in the suburb of Alexandria, sitting along the borders with Newtown and Erskineville. Sydney Park is the third largest p ...

as Tenny, Skel's love interest *

Juani Feliz Juani Feliz (born January 3, 1989) is a Dominican-American actress. She is best known for playing Isabela Benitez-Santiago in Tracy Oliver's Amazon comedy series ''Harlem'', Carmen in Ava DuVernay's HBO Max series ''DMZ'', and Alejandra Lopez ...

as Carmen, Parco's wife *

Nora Dunn Nora Dunn (born April 29, 1952) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch variety TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990, Dr. Reynolds in ''The Nanny'' (1998-1999), and Muriel in ''Home Economics' ...

as Oona, the woman who controls the water supply *

Rutina Wesley Rutina Wesley (born December 21, 1978) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Tara Thornton on the HBO television series ''True Blood'', and Nova Bordelon on OWN’s ''Queen Sugar''. Early life and education Wesley was born ...

as Athena In addition, Bryan Gael Guzman co-stars as Christian Ortega, Alma's teenage son in flashbacks.

Episodes

Production

Development

In February 2014, it was announced that

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

was planning on making a TV series adaptation of the comic with former writers and executive producers

Andre Jacquemetton Andre Jacquemetton is an American television writer and producer. He served as a producer for the first season of ''Mad Men''. He and Maria Jacquemetton co-wrote three episodes of the first season. Alongside his colleagues on the writing staff, he ...

and

Maria Jacquemetton Maria Jacquemetton (née Mastras) is a Greek American television writer and producer. She graduated from Lehigh University in 1983. She served as a producer for the first season of ''Mad Men'' and co-wrote, with Andre Jacquemetton, three episodes ...

, with

David Heyman David Jonathan Heyman (born 26 July 1961) is a British film producer and the founder of Heyday Films. Heyman secured the rights to the ''Harry Potter'' film series in 1999 and went on to produce all eight installments of the franchise. He als ...

as executive producer for the potential series. On October 1, 2019, it was announced that

was developing a TV series adaptation of the comic with

Ava DuVernay Ava Marie DuVernay (; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, television producer and former film publicist. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee ...

directing the pilot with

writing the pilot and as showrunner the series. It was also announced that DuVernay and Patino would both executive produce under their respective overall deals with

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

. On November 19, 2020, HBO Max gave ''DMZ'' a limited series order of four episodes, with Patino set to write all of the episodes. In July 2021,

Ernest Dickerson Ernest Roscoe Dickerson (born June 25, 1951) is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television, and music videos. As a cinematographer, he is known for his frequent collaborations with Spike Lee ever since they were c ...

joined the series as an executive producer and directed three episodes. The series premiered on March 17, 2022.

Casting

On January 22, 2020,

was cast as Alma. On February 6, 2020,

was cast as Parco Delgado. On February 18, 2020,

Freddy Miyares ''When They See Us'' is a 2019 American crime drama television miniseries created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts on May 31, 2019. It is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case a ...

was cast as Skel. Upon the limited series order announcement,

and Jordan Preston Carter joined the main cast. On July 12, 2021,

, and

were cast in undisclosed capacities while Venus Ariel,

Rey Gallegos Rey may refer to: *Rey (given name), a given name *Rey (surname), a surname * Rey (''Star Wars''), a character in the ''Star Wars'' films * Rey, Iran, a city in Iran * Ray County, in Tehran Province of Iran * ''Rey'' (film), a 2015 Indian film *The ...

, and

were cast as series regulars.

Filming

On October 1, 2019, the pilot was scheduled to go into production in early 2020, with filming on the pilot wrapping on March 16, 2020. Filming for the pilot took place in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. Filming for the rest of the episodes wrapped in 2021.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the limited series holds a 50% approval rating based on 14 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''DMZ'' takes an explosive premise and lets it fizzle, although a commanding

tries his best to ignite some sparks in this uneven dystopian drama." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the miniseries has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{HBO Max 2020s American drama television miniseries 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings Alternate history television series Dystopian television series English-language television shows HBO Max original programming Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows based on DC Comics Television shows set in New York City Triad (organized crime) Second American Civil War speculative fiction