The Netflix Series “When They See Us” will linger on your mind for weeks after watching.

 In this 4- part mini series I became enthralled by the true story of the Central Park Five, in which five teenage African American males were wrongfully convicted of  the assault and rape of a midde-aged woman in 1989.

Korey Wise. Antron McCray. Yusef Salaam. Kevin Richardson. Raymond Santana. These 5 young men ranging from ages 14 to 16 suffered from the injustice of the New York Police Department and spent years in prison. For a crime they had no part in.

Now 30 years later, we see it all unfold with some of the most phenomenal acting you could ever witness.

The series starts with a few scenes from each boy’s personal life, which reflected their youth and innocence very well. However, we quickly get right into the actionof the night of the attack in Central Park, and later how those boys were brought in and interrogated for a crime they had no idea had even occurred.

The series provokes anger, confusion, upset, and such sympathy in its audience.

 Not only does this series account for the events occurring the night of the attack, the false accusations of the boys, and the upsetting trialing process, but it also includes the disturbing time the boys spent locked away for years of their life and what they experienced in the adult years following their sentence.

There was a particular focus on Korey Wise, who spent the longest sentence in the “hardest” prisons due to him being the oldest. Only months older than the other boys. He was still serving time when he was exonerated, unlike the other four.

Korey was played by actor Jharrel Jerome, who received an Emmy for his performance. That was well deserved.

Jerome’s acting was absolutely phenomenal. He managed to pull off playing Korey Wise at the ripe age of 16, as well as at the age of 30 when he was eventually exonerated in 2002. I remember thinking to myself, “wow, the producers did a great job choosing the adult actor to play Korey, it looks so accurate!”…yes, that’s because it was Jharrel Jerome shown again.

There was never a dull moment in this series. Each scene was as riveting as the last, and provoked such emotion in me. I watched this series with my dad, and I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times we found ourselves yelling at the TV screen while watching.