When I started watching this I found it a bit too frightening, because I'm an Indian man, and this could so easily happen to me, or any of us.
The show deals with the issue of assumed culpability, especially nowadays against people of Muslim heritage (or who look Muslim), and also the systematic criminalisation of the poor, as fodder to be pumped into the for-profit jail system.
But the show is surprisingly even-handed. True, cops need to make their quotas, but they're not all evil dumbasses - they've seen it all and they can read who's a killer and who's an innocent kid in the blink of an eye. But someone has to be charged, and it just so happens that oftentimes that someone turns out to be someone non-white.
John Turturro's arrival in the first episode was one of the best hero introductions I have seen in years and years. It was like he showed up on screen and I breathed an audible sigh of relief - John Turturro's here now and everything's going to be OK - or is it? He's a drunk, fuckup, ambulance chaser who's down on his luck with no one looking after him. Can he really save the day?
The show has already made me cry a few times - like when Nasir's mother made him some home food when they were first allowed to visit him, and she took it there so carefully, but the guards wouldn't let her give it to him.
The casting on this show is outstanding. John Turturro it goes without saying, but this is definitely Riz Ahmed's best ever performance - even better than in Nightcrawler. And it's lovely to see the wonderful Glenne Headley again.
I have only watched the first four episodes, so don't have any idea how the story will unfold, but so far this is one of the best new shows I have seen for ages.
The show deals with the issue of assumed culpability, especially nowadays against people of Muslim heritage (or who look Muslim), and also the systematic criminalisation of the poor, as fodder to be pumped into the for-profit jail system.
But the show is surprisingly even-handed. True, cops need to make their quotas, but they're not all evil dumbasses - they've seen it all and they can read who's a killer and who's an innocent kid in the blink of an eye. But someone has to be charged, and it just so happens that oftentimes that someone turns out to be someone non-white.
John Turturro's arrival in the first episode was one of the best hero introductions I have seen in years and years. It was like he showed up on screen and I breathed an audible sigh of relief - John Turturro's here now and everything's going to be OK - or is it? He's a drunk, fuckup, ambulance chaser who's down on his luck with no one looking after him. Can he really save the day?
The show has already made me cry a few times - like when Nasir's mother made him some home food when they were first allowed to visit him, and she took it there so carefully, but the guards wouldn't let her give it to him.
The casting on this show is outstanding. John Turturro it goes without saying, but this is definitely Riz Ahmed's best ever performance - even better than in Nightcrawler. And it's lovely to see the wonderful Glenne Headley again.
I have only watched the first four episodes, so don't have any idea how the story will unfold, but so far this is one of the best new shows I have seen for ages.