Television series

When They See Us

Name: When They See Us
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: 2019
Cast: John Leguizamo, Michael K. Williams, Marquis Rodriguez, Ethan Herisse, Asante Blackk

Ava DuVernay's four-part dramatization of the Central Park Five case turns a real prosecutorial disgrace into a devastating character study, following five boys from arrest through decades of aftermath. It's unhurried, precise, and anchored by career-best performances, especially from the actors playing the men as adults. Watch it for outrage and grief, not entertainment — it earns every minute of its considerable length.

TVMaze rating

7.8

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The wildcard

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Elia Kazan's noir, based on an actual case, follows a prosecutor who starts to doubt the confession he extracted — the same manufactured-guilt machinery, examined seventy years earlier in crisp black and white.

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Presumed Guilty2008no page yet

A Mexican documentary in which the filmmakers — one of them the accused's own lawyer — film his retrial as it happens, the same story of a coerced, contradictory confession outrunning the actual evidence.

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