I agree with what everyone else is saying. I also had to press pause several times because it was so hard to watch. Your heart bleeds for those kids, and you feel so incredibly frustrated and angry because you know that this is just ONE example of something that keeps happening over and over, i.e. Racial profiling.
BUT - I was also really shocked by the portrayal of Linda Fairstein. She is made out to be a complete monster. In fact, she comes across as so evil, it's almost a caricature. Now, having watched The Preppy Murder (documentary on Netflix) with/about Linda Fairstein, this portrayal of her is hard to believe. I can't help feeling angry on her behalf. Even if she made some horrible mistakes, there's no way I can believe that she acted with such malicious intent, framing the boys whilst knowing full well that they were innocent. To portray her like the embodiment of evil OBVIOUSLY makes for much 'better' television. But perhaps it's also misleading to tell the story like this. We get the impression that all of these terrible things happened, essentially, because of one horrible person. Which, in a way, is more 'comforting' than saying that this happened as a result of widespread, ingrained, perhaps also subliminal, prejudice and human error (because if that was the case, then, even in the absence of Linda Fairstein, this could happen again). I've given it 8, but I'm actually torn between 10 and 0. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe she IS a monster. I just don't think so.
BUT - I was also really shocked by the portrayal of Linda Fairstein. She is made out to be a complete monster. In fact, she comes across as so evil, it's almost a caricature. Now, having watched The Preppy Murder (documentary on Netflix) with/about Linda Fairstein, this portrayal of her is hard to believe. I can't help feeling angry on her behalf. Even if she made some horrible mistakes, there's no way I can believe that she acted with such malicious intent, framing the boys whilst knowing full well that they were innocent. To portray her like the embodiment of evil OBVIOUSLY makes for much 'better' television. But perhaps it's also misleading to tell the story like this. We get the impression that all of these terrible things happened, essentially, because of one horrible person. Which, in a way, is more 'comforting' than saying that this happened as a result of widespread, ingrained, perhaps also subliminal, prejudice and human error (because if that was the case, then, even in the absence of Linda Fairstein, this could happen again). I've given it 8, but I'm actually torn between 10 and 0. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe she IS a monster. I just don't think so.