When They See Us Has Been Netflix’s Most Watched Series In The US Since It Premiered

Netflix

When They See Us has been Netflix’s most watched series since its release, the streaming service announced on Wednesday (May 12).

As of yesterday, the miniseries exploring the wrongful arrest and conviction of five black teenagers known as the Central Park Five has been the most watched show on the platform every single day.

That’s no small feat, with When They See Us fighting off strong competition from Black Mirror, Dead to Me, and What/If for the past two weeks.

Take a look at the trailer below:

The miniseries tells the tragic story of five teenagers – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise – who were wrongly convicted for raping a woman jogging in Central Park in 1989.

The boys were aged between 14 and 16 at the time of their arrest and served between six and 13 years in prison, each one maintaining their innocence throughout.

When They See Us tells their story, as well as that of their eventual exoneration, across four parts and has made headlines for bringing this case into the limelight.

Netflix

The impact of the miniseries is indisputable; achieving critical acclaim across the globe, When They See Us has touched the hearts of everyone.

So much so that Netflix recently took to Twitter to provide evidence for the fact that the series has quickly become one of (if not) the most must-see series of the year.

The tweet read:

When They See Us has been the most-watched series on Netflix in the US every day since it premiered on May 31

The four part series was created by Ava DuVernay, who co-wrote and directed the popular show. Obviously, she was more than a little excited at the news her programme was being so greatly received.

Retweeting Netflix’s post with a simple, ‘*faints*’ DuVernay’s glee was evident. And who can blame her?

Not only has the show received glowing reviews across the board, it’s also led to backlash against Linda Fairstein (played by Felicity Huffman in the series), Variety reports.

Fairstein, former head of the sex-crimes division of the Manhattan district attorney’s office overseeing the case, has been dropped by her longtime publisher. She has also resigned from several other positions at non-profit organisations.

As of yet, Netflix doesn’t release their viewership numbers and so it’s not known exactly how many people have been tuning in to When They See Us or which other shows are hot on its tail.

Regardless, it’s clearly a well deserved feat for DuVernay and the rest of the cast and crew.

Congrats, guys.

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Lucy Connolly

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).