Netflix's 4-Part Crime Series With A Near-Perfect RT Score Is Not An Easy Binge, But You Won't Regret It

Published Sep 28, 2026, 4:01 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While Netflix’s 2019 crime drama is a hard watch, the show is also a sobering and brilliant piece of must-see TV. There can sometimes be a wide gulf between good TV and fun TV, even though a lot of shows slot neatly into both categories at the same time. While shows like the ambitious Stephen King adaptation11.2.63 might be both rip-roaring propulsive fun and also smart, well-written, and insightful, this isn’t always true across the board. There are plenty of shows, like Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown, that are seen as a lot of fun by viewers, but fail to impress critics thanks to their lack of depth and innovation. Compared to other prison-set dramas like Orange is the New Black and Oz, or, more broadly, crime dramas like The Wire and The Shield, Mayor of Kingstown is a silly, lightweight piece of escapist entertainment despite its downbeat, dour tone and moments of brutal violence. Similarly, there are a lot of great TV shows that are not necessarily easy or fun to watch. The Leftovers is a downbeat mediation on loss and grief with no easy answers, Succession’s protagonists are almost all unlikable and spiteful, and Netflix’s superb true-crime series When They See Us is one of the most tragic and frustrating condemnations of the US judicial system ever to hit the small screen. Compared to Netflix’s divisive true-crime series Monster, this four-part drama is no fun, but it’s also a masterpiece. When They See Us Is A 'Must-Watch, But Hard To Rewatch' Show Credit: MovieStillsDB Directed by Selma’s Ava DuVernay, When They See Us is a four-part drama based on the 1989 Central Park jogger chase. Five Black and Latino boys were falsely accused of the rape of a white woman in Central Park and were subsequently arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned for the crime despite the absence of any evidence proving their guilt. The quintet were only released when the actual culprit confessed to the crime years later, and the series chronicles the devastating impact this miscarriage of justice had on their lives and the lives of their families. When They See Us humanizes Asante Black’s Kevin Richardson, Caleel Harris’s Antron McCray, Ethan Herisse’s Yusef Salaam, Jharrel Jerome’s Korey Wise, and Marquis Rodriguez’s Raymond Santana, but the show is as much about their fight for justice that their families undertook as it is about their nightmarish false imprisonment. All but one of the Central Park Five were sentenced to the maximum terms for juvenile offenders, and their convictions weren’t vacated until 2002. Fortunately, the real-life victims of this miscarriage of justice successfully sued the city in 2003 and were awarded a settlement in 2014, something covered by the final episode of When They See Us. When They See Us was met with almost universal acclaim upon release, although numerous real-life figures represented in the series objected to the show’s depictions of their role in falsely imprisoning innocent children. Is When They See Us Based On A True Story? When They See Us is based on a true story, and was commended by critics upon its original release for tactfully handling the unimaginable nightmare faced by the real-life victims of this appalling miscarriage of justice. Former criminal prosecutor Linda Fairstein, played by Felicity Huffman in the series, was instrumental in ensuring the conviction of the Central Park Five, but felt that the show’s depiction of her was unfairly negative and attempted to sue Netflix upon its release. In both the Netflix series and reality, Fairstein directed the interrogations of the innocent boys, and continued to defend the investigation even after the real rapist confessed and was proven guilty. Thus, it is not a major surprise that When They See Us depicted her as a figure largely responsible for the imprisonment of these innocent children, as this unambiguously is the role she played in the real-life case despite Fairstein's concerns that a handful of minor details were altered in the show. Release Date 2019 - 2019-00-00 Network Netflix Directors Ava DuVernay