Linda Fairstein

Linda Fairstein heads the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit, and when a jogger is attacked in Central Park she takes charge of the investigation with total conviction. Brisk, exacting, and certain of her own instincts, she directs detectives toward a group of Black and Latino teenagers and does not waver from that certainty.

Felicity Huffman plays authority without theatrics — no scenery-chewing villainy, just the chilling calm of someone who believes procedure and personal certainty are the same thing. The writing lets her conviction do the damage; Huffman's stillness makes that conviction feel institutional, not merely individual, which is the point.