The Second City Does Baltimore...is a commissioned piece, one of a series the company has done in other cities, such as Atlanta, Boston, Denver, and Pittsburgh. Its reception rests on whether the writers have managed, despite their outsider status, to move beyond cliché bits about hons and crab cakes and the not-so-hilarious murder rate to something deep in the city's psyche we haven't fully mocked yet. Judging by reviews from other cities, the odds are fairly even.