Main

• Asante Blackk as Kevin Richardson
  • Justin Cunningham as adult Kevin Richardson
• Caleel Harris as Antron McCray
  • Jovan Adepo as adult Antron McCray
• Ethan Herisse as Yusef Salaam
  • Chris Chalk as adult Yusef Salaam
• Jharrel Jerome as Korey Wise
• Marquis Rodriguez as Raymond Santana
  • Freddy Miyares as adult Raymond Santana
• Marsha Stephanie Blake as Linda McCray, Antron McCray's mother.
• Kylie Bunbury as Angie Richardson,^{[upper-alpha 1]} an older sister of Kevin Richardson.
• Aunjanue Ellis as Sharonne Salaam, Yusef Salaam's mother.
• Vera Farmiga as Elizabeth Lederer
• Felicity Huffman as Linda Fairstein
• John Leguizamo as Raymond Santana Sr., Raymond Santana's father.
• Niecy Nash as Delores Wise, Korey Wise's mother.
• Michael K. Williams as Bobby McCray, Antron McCray's father.

Recurring

• Omar Dorsey as Elombe Brath, a community organizer and activist who appears in the media to defend the five
• Suzzanne Douglas as Grace Cuffe
• Christopher Jackson as Peter M. Rivera, lawyer who represented Raymond
• Joshua Jackson as Michael Joseph, lawyer who defended Antron
• Famke Janssen as Nancy Ryan, a Manhattan ADA originally assigned to the case before it was given to Lederer and later oversaw the overturning of the five's convictions
• Adepero Oduye as Nomsa Brath, a community organizer and activist who takes on her husband Elombe's cause after his death
• Aurora Perrineau as Tanya, girlfriend of Raymond Santana Jr. (adult)
• Storm Reid as Lisa, girlfriend of Korey Wise
• William Sadler as Michael Sheehan
• Blair Underwood as Bobby Burns, lawyer who represented Yusef
• Len Cariou as Robert Morgenthau
• Chukwudi Iwuji as Colin Moore, lawyer who represented Korey
• Frank Pando as Detective Gonzalez
• Alexandra Templer as Trisha Meili
• Jayce Bartok as Detective Hildebrandt
• Dascha Polanco as Elena, new wife of Raymond Santana Sr.

Guest

• Allan Greenberg as Howard Diller, lawyer who represented Kevin
• Isis King as Marci Wise, Korey's sister, who is a transgender woman
• Logan Marshall-Green as Roberts
• Gary Perez as Manuel Santana
• Reece Noi as Matias Reyes

Special

Development

On July 6, 2017, it was announced that Netflix had given the production Central Park Five a series order consisting of five episodes. The series was created by Ava DuVernay who was also set to write and direct. Executive producers were expected to include DuVernay, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh. Production companies involved with the series were set to include Participant Media, Harpo Films, and Tribeca Productions.^[8] On July 9, 2018, it was reported that the series would consist of four episodes, Bradford Young would serve as the series' cinematographer, and Robin Swicord, Attica Locke, and Michael Starrbury would cowrite each episode with DuVernay.^[9]

On March 1, 2019, DuVernay announced the series had been retitled When They See Us and would be released on May 31, 2019. The announcement was accompanied by the release of a teaser.^[10]

Casting

In July 2018, it was announced that Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Jharrel Jerome, and Jovan Adepo had joined the series' main cast.^[9][11] On August 3, 2018, it was reported that Niecy Nash, Aunjanue Ellis, Kylie Bunbury, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and Storm Reid had been cast in supporting roles.^[12] A week later, it was announced that Chris Chalk, Ethan Herisse, Marquis Rodriguez, Caleel Harris, Freddy Miyares, Justin Cunningham and Asante Blackk had filled out the main cast, both as adults and as teenagers.^[13] By the end of the month, it was reported that Joshua Jackson, Christopher Jackson, Adepero Oduye, Omar Dorsey, Blair Underwood, Famke Janssen, William Sadler, and Aurora Perrineau had also joined the cast.^[14]

Filming

Principal photography for the series began during the week of August 6, 2018, in New York City, with cinematography by Bradford Young.^[13] On August 10, 2018, filming took place on Madison Avenue in the East Harlem area of Manhattan.^[15]

Audience viewership

On June 25, 2019, Netflix announced that the miniseries had been streamed by over 23 million viewers within its first month of release.^[16]

Critical response

When They See Us received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the miniseries has an approval rating of 97% based on 86 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Ava DuVernay pulls no punches in When They See Us, laying out the harrowing events endured by the Central Park Five while adding a necessary layer of humanity to their story that challenges viewers to reconsider what it means to find justice in America."^[17] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[18]

Daniel D'Addario from Variety mentioned in a glowing review of the miniseries, that "When They See Us immerses viewers in a tale with none of the gaudy fun that true crime often offers. It's an achievement and, given its pride of place on a streaming service despite its difficult subject matter, a worthy use of its director’s star power."^[19] Roger Ebert's Odie Henderson awarded the series a rating of 3 and 1/2 out of four stars, noting that "there’s a lot to recommend When They See Us. It does as much as it can to recast the gaze on Black and brown people, eliciting empathy and the desire for justice. It demonizes the right people and demands your fury over the events presented."^[20] Daniel Fienberg from The Hollywood Reporter recommended the miniseries in his review by highlighting that "When They See Us is a rigorous attempt to chronicle an epic legal failure and to help restore a sense of the men as individuals, rather than faceless members of a wrongfully accused collective." Commending DuVernay's thematic and thoughtful approach to the subject matter and content, he adds that the series avoids the "typical triumph-over-adversity narrative tropes".^[21]

Matt Goldberg of Collider gave it a very positive review, writing: "The emotional impact of When They See Us cannot be understated." He said further, "I watched The Central Park Five earlier this month, and it's a good way to understand the case and its basic facts, but even though [it] has interviews with all five men, it doesn't come close to what DuVernay does here with this cast, her craftsmanship, and Bradford Young's stunning cinematography."^[22] Lucy Mangan from The Guardian complimented the miniseries, saying it is

[A] dense, fast-moving series that examines not just the effects of systemic racism but the effects of all sorts of disenfranchisement (though you could argue they all have that same root cause) on people with the boys' background. The lack of money that leads to inadequate lawyers and mothers unable to visit their sons incarcerated in distant places. The lifetime of fear and vulnerability that causes one parent to encourage his son to sign the confession so they can leave the station and sort things out later. The powerlessness in the face of an authority that doesn't look like you or care about you.^[23]

In a positive review of the miniseries, Jen Chaney from Vulture wrote that, "When They See Us, Ava DuVernay's sensitively wrought Netflix miniseries about what happened to those boys, strips away the dehumanizing tendency to bunch them together and instead shows what each of them dealt with individually when they were coerced into giving false confessions, forced to do time for a crime they did not commit, and, eventually, exonerated when their convictions were vacated in 2002."^[24]

Willa Paskin of Slate gave the series a positive recommendation, writing that "When They See Us may be making an appeal to our duty to attend to this not-at-all-ancient history—but is not, itself, dutiful. In one aspect, in particular, DuVernay's approach is refreshingly unencumbered."^[25] Robert Lloyd from Los Angeles Times praised the series, stating that it is "a story about parents and children as much as it is about justice and race — the series has plenty of contemporary resonance on the latter account — and there is strong work from Niecy Nash, John Leguizamo, Aunjanue Ellis and Michael Kenneth Williams among the older generation."^[26]

Armond White from National Review criticized the series in his review, unfavorably contrasting its portrayal of racial tension and violence to period films like Boyz n the Hood and Do the Right Thing.^[27]

Accolades

Fairstein reaction and lawsuit

Linda Fairstein, the original New York prosecutor of the case, wrote of the Netflix series in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal that it was "so full of distortions and falsehoods as to be an outright fabrication." The lawyer-turned-New York Times bestselling author said she agreed with exonerations of the rape charges against the five — but said "the other charges, for crimes against other victims, should not have been vacated."^[43]

John E. Reid & Associates took DuVernay, ARRA, and Netflix to court in October 2019 because the series called the company's once widely used trademark controversial interrogation technique as "universally rejected." A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit "Because the First Amendment protects non-factual assertions".^[44] In March 2020, Fairstein filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Netflix, DuVernay, and Locke for defamation based on her portrayal in the series.^[45][46] In August 2021, the District Court ruled that some of Farstein's claims of defamation and civil conspiracy may proceed to trial.^[47]