Features

What Price Innocence?
‘When They See Us’ Recounts the Journey of Five Wrongfully Convicted Teens

In 1989, five teenagers of color were arrested and accused of the rape and brutal beating of a white woman who had been jogging in Central Park. Although the DNA on the rape kit didn’t match any of the young men, they were first coerced to “confess” and convicted by juries in two separate trials in 1990. Dubbed the Central Park Five, the boys became men during their six to 13 years in prison before a convicted serial rapist confessed to the attacks in 2002. […]

Features

When They Hear Us: Creating the Period-Specific Soundtrack for a Tragedy of Justice

The Netflix four-part miniseries When They See Us, which dropped May 31, was originally called Central Park 5. That working title identifies the overarching plot trajectory: The notorious case of five teenagers of color who were wrongly convicted of raping a white female jogger in New York, and which resulted in the use of the term “wilding” to describe out-of-control gang activity. The revised title better reflects the fate of the young people unjustly ensnared in the criminal justice system by embracing their humanity and not their politicized role. […]

Features

La ‘Vida’ Familiar: A Latinx Homecoming

I had forgotten just how much of myself my work asks me to leave at the door until I worked on Vida. The Starz network show, which had its second season premiere on May 23, was the first network television show on which I’ve ever had the pleasure of being asked to assist. My head didn’t stop spinning from the offer until several weeks into working on the series’ debut season last year. When it finally did stop, it landed smack-dab in the middle of the significance that Vida would have not just for me, but for television itself. […]