Series Review: "When They See Us" (2019).

"What if all boys were created equal?" This is When They See Us. This miniseries created and directed by Ava DuVernay, written by DuVernay, Julian Breece, Robin Swicord, Attica Locke, and Michael Starrbury, based on the events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case, and produced by Netflix. Based on the true story of five teens from Harlem who become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

In early July 2017, it was announced that Netflix had given the production Central Park Five a series order consisting of five episodes with DuVernay as creator and director. In early July 2018, it was reported that the series would consist of four episodes, Robin Swicord, Attica Locke, and Michael Starrbury would cowrite each episode with DuVernay. By early August, Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Ethan Herisse, Jharrel Jerome, Marquis Rodriguez, Justin Cunningham, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Freddy Miyares, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Kylie Bunbury, Aunjanue Ellis, Vera Farmiga, Felicity Huffman, John Leguizamo, Niecy Nash, Michael K. Williams, Omar Dorsey, Joshua Jackson, Famke Janssen, Adepero Oduye, Aurora Perrineau, Storm Reid, William Sadler, Blair Underwood, Len Cariou, Dascha Polanco, and Logan Marshall-Green were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout New York City. Due to the sordid and distressful nature of the material, the production budget provided on-call crisis counselors for anybody in need of emotional appeasement during or after the daily shoots. In early March 2019, DuVernay announced the series had been retitled When They See Us and would be released on May 31, 2019. The announcement was accompanied by the release of a teaser.

The series features an ensemble cast that included Blackk, Harris, Herisse, Jerome, Rodriguez, Cunningham, Adepo, Chalk, Miyares, Stephanie Blake, Bunbury, Ellis, Farmiga, Huffman, Leguizamo, Nash, Williams, Dorsey, Jackson, Janssen, Oduye, Perrineau, Reid, Sadler, Underwood, Cariou, Polanco, and Marshall-Green. The series is rife with smart, gut-wrenching, and even shameful, portrayals of the accused five men and everybody around them. 

A notorious crime - the rape of a jogger in Central Park in 1989 - is revisited in this painful, angry, scrupulously reported story of race, injustice and media frenzy. The American justice system presumes defendants are guilty until proven innocent. It also places extreme pressure and convictions on the suspects for crimes they didn't even commit. The American justice system knew, or should have known, that the true perpetrator would have been arrested if it were not for racial profiling. How could this second crime have occurred? The film asks that question but only partly answers it, and in the process it raises an even more troubling one. Kudos to DuVernay for telling a harrowing, instructive story of fear, racism and mob mentality, and for exposing the media madness that fueled the investigation. As grim a portrait of the criminal justice system as can be imagined. The series is a sobering indictment of racism and vigilante justice, yet it is not constrained by a PBS-style deference to the very system it critiques.

Simon says When They See Us receives:

Also, see my review for 13th.