When They See Us Review

When They See Us is an American drama that aired in 2019 on Netflix. It’s based on a real crime that happened in 1989. On April 19, Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white lady was jogging in Manhattan Central Park.  She was assaulted and raped.

In the evening, around 8 pm, a large group of African American teenage boys were beating up joggers and harassing cyclists. The police responded to a call at 1:30 pm, the call was received from other joggers about a woman who was lying off the road and bleeding out. The police started arresting all the African American teenagers that were found in the park. All but 5 teenage boys were released.  Those not released included 4 African Americans and 1 Hispanic.  These 5 boys became known as the Central Park Five. The Central Park Five was made up of 14 year old Kevin Richardson, 14 year old Raymond Santana, 15 year old Antron McCrary, 15 year old Yusef Salaam, and 16 year old Korey Wise.

This series follows all five of these boys for a quarter of a century, starting from the day of the incident. Through the first episode of this show, these 5 teenage boys were pressured into saying they raped Trisha Meili, even though they were innocent. The five boys were interrogated for at least seven hours without any parental guardian before four of them made videotaped confession to detectives. The next episodes follows the boys as they go through prison and their struggles when they get released. 

When They See Us is a great show that I think everyone should watch. 97% of Google users liked this show with a rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jharrel Jerome who played the role of Korey Wise won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead. At the same time Billy Hopkins, Ashley Ingram, and Aisha Coley won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series, Movie or Special.