“When They See Us” is a miniseries that aired on Netflix this past Summer that told of the accounts of the infamous Central Park Five case that happened in 1989. If you know anything about this case, you know how extremely sad it was to see what Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise went through at the hands of the NYPD and the New York City criminal justice system.
Ava DuVernay did an excellent job of directing the miniseries and the entire cast did a wonderful job at portraying each of the young men in the show. On Sunday, actor and Bronx native, Jharrel Jerome won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for his portrayal of Korey Wise. I watched the netflix show, and it was so emotional and heart-breaking to watch. Each episode I cried and Jerome’s performance was truly an award-winning. Not only that but it was so emotional to watch because seeing what Korey went through made me imagine the trauma he endured in real life. Also, Jerome’s acting was so intense and such acting takes so much mental training. His Emmy’s win was also a historical one because Jharrel Jerome is the first Afro-Latino actor to win. And Jerome’s win was not only so meaningful for himself and the cast of “When They See Us” but it was so meaningful for the Exonerated 5.
Image: tvinsider.com
Jharrel said during his speech that his award was “…for Raymond, Yusef, Antron, Kevin, and King Korey Wise.” “When They See Us” is a miniseries that documents 5 young men who were terribly wrong by the criminal justice system and by Jerome winning this Emmy shows that they portrayed the Central Park 5 case in a way that showed the men’s humanity and as well shined a light on the changes that further need to made in our broken criminal justice system.