When They See Us movie review (2019)

A lack of evidence to convict the five irks Linda Fairstein (Huffman), a crime novelist who runs the Sex Crimes unit of the NYC District Attorney’s office. Despite having Elizabeth Lederer (Farmiga), the lawyer prosecuting the case, and DA Robert Morgenthau (Cariou) as characters, Fairstein is the most villainous representation of the prosecution. She points out that NYC has been rife with sexual assaults, none of which she appears to pursue as vehemently as this particular case. She’s willing to bend the truth and reshape the pieces to make them fit her narrative. She also accurately predicts that the press will demand blood and a quick turnaround because Melli was the kind of victim who sold papers—young, blonde, White and wealthy. Huffman plays the antagonistic Fairstein quite broadly, and while it’s an effective performance, it’s also “back row of the theater” big. A little of her goes a long way, and some may find her problematic.

The two separate trials that resulted in convictions for the five teenagers occupy episode two. We’re introduced to the defense lawyer team that includes divorce lawyer Blair Underwood and this round’s MVP, Joshua Jackson as Mickey Joseph, a Legal Aid rep who explains the legal process to us while scoring points against Lederer in court. We also see the uneasy coalition between the parents, some of whom can afford better lawyers than others. Another theme in “When They See Us” is how the defendants were victims of, or catalysts for, a series of opportunists. Joseph points out that despite his motley crew of colleagues, this is a major case and a win for any of them would send a career into the stratosphere of fame. Speaking of opportunists, we also see actual footage of a certain fake-news spouting real estate mogul who took out an $85,000 ad in all the New York papers demanding the return of the death penalty specifically for The Central Park Five.

Though the outcome is well-known, this is the most suspenseful of the four parts of “When They See Us.” The courtroom drama benefits from its scenes of testimony, most memorably from Melli (Alexandra Templer) herself. Templer is haunting in her short scene, haltingly speaking about the memory loss and mobility issues that resulted form her attack. The episode later culminates in a powerful array of shots of grieving parents (editor Spencer Averick, who cut two of the four episodes, does his best work here) as the verdicts are read and the young men are dragged away to begin their stints in juvie or, in the case of 16-year-old Wise, Rikers Island. Wise disappears from the series until the last episode, as does the prosecution.

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