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When They See Us

6/5/19
When They See Us
On May 31, Netflix released the series When They See Us. The four episodes are based on the true story of five teenage boys of color being accused of crimes they didn’t commit. The 14-16 year old boys spent years in prison because of the unfair law system. The story took place in 1989, but was recreated for Netflix recently. This four episode series goes into depth of the boys, detectives, and prosecutors that were involved. This series has been big in the media since it came out just four days ago because it is a true evaluation of our judicial system and overall society in America. Already the show has received much positive feedback and recognition for shedding a light on this little known problem that is rarely talked about. Personally, I enjoyed this show because it was entertaining as well as educational and I would advise anyone to watch it for either purposes.

I think When They See Us is a great example of media being used in a positive way. On social media, I have seen people talk about their experiences of watching the episodes. Many admitted it was hard or scary to watch. People were actually afraid to watch a series about our justice system as if it was a horror film. It is concerning to me that a documentary on our justice system is hard to watch because it proves how we don’t really know what is going on as we are hidden too much from it. The series is known to make the viewer feel pain for these five boys as you get to know their families and they potential they had. I think this may be the worst part- these boys could have been successful, happy, made good change for our society, but instead they were locked up for years. Their life was practically taken from them because of our unfair system and after finally being taken vout, they were still traumatized. I encourage everyone to watch this show and watch the suffering these boys had to go through.

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