'City on Fire' is a hot mess. But you'll want to watch the Apple TV+ series anyways

“City on Fire” is a sprawling mess of a limited TV series, with characters and plot developments roaming all over New York City in seemingly disparate ways.

It’s a story of money, music, misbehavior and, yes, more money.

The loose threads come together eventually in the eight-episode Apple TV+ series, based on Garth Risk Hallberg’s 900-page novel, if not in a particularly convincing fashion.

But it’s entertaining as all get out, even if it’s all over the place.

The characters are different enough and likable enough and unlikable enough and just plain weird enough to keep viewers engaged. That’s saying something when one of the most compelling ones is shot in the head at the outset.

What year does 'City on Fire' take place?

That’s Samantha (Chase Sui Wonders), a New York University student who winds up on the wrong side of a gun in Central Park on July 4, 2003, and spends much of the series hovering between life and death. (The show’s creators, Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, have updated the novel’s time frame from the late 1970s.)

Sam, as she’s called, has befriended Charlie (Wyatt Oleff), a Long Island kid who is as agog over the mysteries of the city as he is over Sam. Charlie’s father died on 9/11, a tragedy whose shadow looms over the city and everyone in it.

Phoenix 'Suns Live' host Tom Leander: He's seen it all

We see a lot of Sam in flashbacks as her relationship with Charlie grows, and as the NYPD tries to solve the shooting. It affects a laundry list of characters all over the map, literally and figuratively.

There is Regan (Jemima Kirke), both heiress to a real-estate fortune and instrumental in the company business. Her husband Keith (Ashley Zukerman, straying not too far from his performance as Nate in “Succession”) has been cheating on her, she knows.

Regan’s father is ailing; dementia is suspected.

Waiting in the wings is the “demon brother,” Amory (John Cameron Mitchell, up to his usual delightfully diabolical tricks).

Then there is Regan’s brother William (Nico Tortorella), also known as Billy Three-Sticks when he was the leader of an influential punk band, Ex Post Facto. He bailed on the band and became an artist; his gifts currently being squandered on a heroin addiction, much to the misery of his partner Mercer (Xavier Clyde) — who finds Sam in the park after she is shot.

Mercer is a teacher and would-be writer. That he is not published proves a particularly useful nugget for Amory to cut him off at the knees.

Wait, there’s more. Nicky Chaos (Max Milner) took over the lead-singer job for William in a knock-off band. But Nicky is also a nut-job anarchist with charisma, which makes him extra dangerous, going off all the time about “taking back the city,” whatever that means.

Among his acolytes is Sewer Girl (Alexandra Doke), who befriends Charlie in Sam’s absence, and her boyfriend Sol (Alexander Pineiro), who most definitely does not.

'What's not to love' about Arizona?: Why Allison Rodriguez joined 12 News

Jemima Kirke and John Cameron Mitchell are magnetic

The show flits back and forth between all of these characters, and if some are more immediately compelling than others, as you settle into the pacing you begin to look forward to spending time with all of them, either because you enjoy their company (Regan) or hate them but want to find out what they’re up to (Nicky).

Kirke’s performance as Regan is particularly strong, as she sorts through a life of unimaginable privilege that is unraveling all around her, but just plows ahead.

'City on Fire' is more than a mystery drama

“City on Fire” takes the form of a mystery — who shot Sam, and why? But with so many characters and so many strands of story, it allows the show to comment on all manner of aspects of New York life. There’s the art scene, the downtown music scene, the richer-than-god scene, the disillusioned youth scene and the heretofore underrepresented punk-band-turned-violent-anarchists scene.

There’s a trick to making a successful ensemble show — as you watch, your favorite characters should change as the story evolves. That way you don’t tire of one, because you’re quickly on to another.

10 new movies we can't wait to watch: From 'Barbie' to "The Blackening"

One of the strengths of “City on Fire” is its characters (and, for the most part, its actors). If not everything makes sense all the time, and there are a few too many coincidences required to make it all work, at least the story doesn’t drag while you’re stuck with a couple of characters who bore you.

Because none of them do.

Best not to think too hard about pulling the mystery together and just enjoy the time capsule.

How to watch 'City on Fire'

The first two episodes stream on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 12. New episodes drop every Friday.

Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

Subscribe to azcentral.com today. What are you waiting for?

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'City on Fire' review: Apple TV+ series is messy, weird and must-watch