When They See Us - A short review of the TV Drama

Over the summer, I watched a 4 part drama series called 'When They See Us.' It is a detailed re-enactment of the story of 5 black and Hispanic teenagers, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise and Raymond Santana.

These young men were falsely accused of the rape and brutal assault of a jogger, named Trisha Meili, in which they had no association with.
These boys became involved because they innocently joined a crowd of other teenagers heading to Central Park. This lead to a series of complex events and false accusations which landed them as suspects for a fatal tragedy, which they didn't even know about. This is why they were given the name the 'Central Park Five.'

There were no witnesses, nor evidence which indicated that these boys committed such an inhumane crime with no motive. This was a prime example of racial profiling.
The real event occurred in 1989, and this series accurately portrays the blatant racism and sheer lack of respect towards people of colour at the time.

When They See Us is a gripping, powerful series. The acting and story line fully immerses you in the frustration, anger and sadness that these young men felt. A character that stood out to me in particular was Korey Wise, played by Jharrel Jerome. Unlike the other characters, Jharrel played both 16 year old Korey and adult Korey. He stood out to me due to the raw emotion in his acting, episode 4 in particular. This is because Jharrel accurately portrays Korey's spiral into insanity after facing unjust abuse and punishment.

I feel as if this series perfectly captures intense racism and manipulation and powerfully displays this to its viewers, and others who have not experienced racial profiling and shames the people who were against them. I highly recommend this series because of the sheer emotion and how much it moved me, I feel like it can really change the perspective of people who have never experienced racism, and show people why it is such a terrible thing.


Links:

instagram - https://www.instagram.com/whentheyseeus/?hl=en

youtube trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3F9n_smGWY

twitter - https://twitter.com/WhenTheySeeUs?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

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