‘When They See Us’ is the most watched show in the U.S. since its debut, according to Netflix
The series, which depicts the ordeal endured by five young men at the hands of an overzealous prosecutor in New York, has exploded on the streaming service
Netflix announced on Wednesday that Ava Duvernay’s four-part drama based on the Central Park Five case, When They See Us, is the most-viewed content on the streaming platform for the past 13 days.
Duvernay, who directed and co-wrote the series that focused on the wrongful 1989 arrest and conviction of five Black and Latino boys who were accused of attacking a white woman in New York’s Central Park, replied with a simple cation with the word, “*faints*”.
*faints* https://t.co/3W6GbOZpMG
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) June 12, 2019
READ MORE: The Central Park Five Case: Where the racist cops and prosecutors are now
The platform did provide any additional information following up to the post, but Variety noted that, in the past, Netflix “has selectively doled out self-reported numbers to tout the popularity of some of its original series and films.”
Since its release, people who were involved in convicting the “Central Park Five” have faced extreme backlash, including former Manhattan prosecutor Linda Fairstein and Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lederer.
Fairstein formerly served as the head of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office sex-crimes unit during the case. As a result of the controversy, she has since resigned from her position from the boards of Vassar College and Safe Horizon, a victim-assistance organization. She was dropped by Penguin Books’ Dutton imprint, Fairstein’s longtime publisher as well, the site states.
Fairstein wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday saying that the show, “wrongly portrays [the exonerated defendants] as totally innocent — and defames me in the process.”
Lederer also stepped down from her part-time teaching position at Columbia Law School after a petition against Lederer began circulating by the school’s Black Law Students’ Organization.
Oprah Winfrey hosted a special called When They See Us Now on Wednesday, interviewing the cast and producers of When They See Us, along with the exonerated men, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam. The special was shown on Netflix and Winfrey’s network, OWN.
