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Netflix’s Seven Seconds Is a Timely, Flawed Drama About American Injustice

TV dramas don't get much timelier than Seven Seconds . The new Netflix series, which arrived on Friday, is about the far-reaching consequences of a horrible incident in which Pete Jablonski (Beau Knapp), a white cop, accidentally runs over a black teenager named Brenton Butler on a bicycle. In a panic, Jablonski covers up the evidence with the help of his fellow officers. Over the following 10 hours, we follow along as an ever-increasing number of people are drawn into the aftermath of the crime.

The racial and political elements of Seven Seconds could hardly be more relevant in 2018, and it certainly doesn’t shy away from digging into them them. Early on, when Jablonski swears he’s going to come clean about what he did, his sergeant explicitly warns him against being at the center of an incident like the ones in Ferguson and Baltimore, where incidents of police violence against black citizens have led to national outcry. Later episodes tackle everything from the laziness of the courts system to the cruelty of a medical industry that would bankrupt a family trying to save their son’s life.

Seven Seconds was created by The Killing ’s Veena Sud, and it shares much of The Killing ’s strengths and weaknesses. The most obvious (and wisest) shift Seven Seconds makes to The Killing ’s formula is that there’s no mystery that kicks the story into motion. We know the identity of the criminal upfront. We’re just waiting for the rest of the show to catch up to us.

And that’s where Seven Seconds stumbles. Almost every Netflix drama is a few episodes too long. Even the really good ones end up spinning their wheels for an hour or two, in what feels like an effort to meet some prearranged quota. So it’s frustrating to see a show like Seven Seconds —so rich with potential—lose much of its power due to narrative bloat, which will likely derail plenty of would-be binge-watchers before the finale rolls. Does Seven Seconds have individual scenes that pack tremendous power? Definitely. Could it be exponentially more powerful if it had condensed its story into eight hours instead of 10? Definitely. Maybe six.

10 hours is a lot of time to fill, and Seven Seconds slackens when it should be at its most propulsive, repeatedly branching into third-rate subplots that delay the story’s logical climax. It’s not enough that Jablonski has a near-breakdown in his guilt about the cover-up his sergeant demands. He has to have a pregnant wife. (In what feels like a weird effort to goose our sympathies, he’s literally rushing to the hospital to see her when he hits Brenton Butler.) And his pregnant wife has to have an annoying cousin. And sure, why not a deadbeat dad who emerges from the gutter to hit him up for money?

There’s a cumulative effect to the sheer number of storylines Seven Seconds packs into its narrative—the ever-expanding ripple effect that a single, horrible crime can have on an entire community. In theory, that might sound like an empathetic, open-hearted way to explore this kind of tragedy, and it’s particularly heartbreaking when the situation gets so thorny that Brenton Butler, the actual victim of the crime, almost becomes an afterthought. You could, charitably, argue that that’s the point—that crimes, and our responses to them, can become so personal and abstracted that the inciting incident gets lost in the frenzy. Or you could argue that Seven Seconds would simply be a lot more powerful if it felt like we ever got to know the real Brenton Butler.

At its best, Seven Seconds is suffused with empathy for the lives of black Americans, and outraged at a legal system that fails, at literally every level, to protect them. It has a particular contempt for the institutions that discriminate out of laziness, indifference, and unexamined racism—a system that neglects the poorest and most ill-treated because no one with any actual power has spent a second thinking about them.

If only that were the whole show. By casting the net so wide, Seven Seconds ends up taking the spotlight away from its best stories, which center on the oddball pairing of the prosecutor (Clare Hope-Ashitey) and the detective (Michael Mosley) trying to solve the case, and the Butler family as they attempt to process this sudden, shocking twist in their lives (with Regina King, as Brenton’s mother, plumbing depths that see her veering between despair and fury). I audibly groaned whenever Seven Seconds cut away from these compelling characters to focus on the bland brotherhood of Jablonski’s corrupt police unit, which plays like a third-rate knockoff of The Shield.

By telling this story from so many perspectives, the ultimate message of Seven Seconds is that we’re all people, messy and complicated in our own ways. But this seemingly generous ethos has the unfortunate side effect of flattening out the narrative, as the story’s laziest and least thought-provoking elements are intermingled with its best. It also robs Seven Seconds of the moral urgency that fuels its finest moments. As a culture, we already spend too much time empathizing with the Pete Jablonskis of the world, and too little with the Butlers.

I Binge-Watched Seven Seconds on Netflix: My Review

I have a problem with art that imitates life so well, it leaves us with the message that there is no WINNING. It punches you in the gut and reminds you that even when you think you might win, you will lose. And that is my main problem with Seven Seconds , a drama offered up by Netflix , and created by Veena Sud .

TRIGGER WARNING: police brutality and death

When Seven Seconds starts, we see a white dude driving while on the phone. He’s distracted when he hits something and his car spins around a couple of time and finally stops. When he gets out his SUV, he sees spinning bicycle wheels under his tire. He didn’t hit something; he hit someone. He looks around and his truck’s guard is half off and bloody. He looks a few feet ahead and sees blood leading to a ditch. What does he do? Surely, calling 911 would be too much like right. He calls a buddy who shows up with 2 others and we see they’re all cops. His superior (Mike DiAngelo) walks to the ditch and looks down. There’s a body there. DiAngelo tells him to drive off, because they cannot let it out that a white cop has killed a Black boy. Especially not in this age of Ferguson.

Shaken up by the magnitude of what he just did, Petey Jablonski drives off, leaving the 3 officers behind to handle the rest. They “handle” it by leaving the scene, as if nothing happened.

And that’s in the first 10 minutes of the show. Later on in the day, a dog finds the body in the ditch, and that is when the story really starts. We find out the person that Officer Jablonski hit is a 15 year old Black teenager named Brenton Butler. His parents Isaiah and Latrice have to pick up the pieces, and an assistant prosecutor (KJ Harper) is assigned the case. KJ is a Black woman who is overworked, messy AF in her personal life and a barely functioning alcoholic. Her partner on the case is a gum-loving, jokester white dude detective who goes by “Fish.”

The show spends 10 episodes (each an hour) getting KJ and Fish caught up on what we already know. They start connecting the dots of what happened, who did it and why Brenton was left for dead. With the help of Latrice Butler’s compulsion to find justice for her son, the case starts to come together, but it is no easy feat.

Seven Seconds is definitely timely in the theme of police brutality and our assertion of “ BLACK LIVES MATTER ” even as the justice system tells us otherwise. The show is gripping. I was drawn in before the first 15 minutes and was invested in what would happen. These fucked up cops, the innocent Black boy victim and the parents whose lives are torn apart with grief. I was IN and over 3 days, I binged all 10 hours because I needed to see it through.

Seven Seconds had some character development problems, in my opinion. The character, KJ, in all her shenanigans often came off as a self-saboteur and we were barely given a reason why. I found mysef screaming at the screen at her behavior often. Although I had to root for her, it felt like she was just set up to fail. Also, HER HAIR. What the hell was that? It was a limp wig with terrible bangs and a thin ponytail. I never got over how bad it was, as I watched the show. It was almost offensive, how bad it was. Anyway…

The highlight for me was Regina King’s portrayal of Latrice Butler. It felt so real how she vacillated between crippling grief and blinding rage, as a mother who needed answers for why her son Brenton’s life was cut short. The event, which took about 7 seconds, changed her life and seeing how she wanted to jump out her skin from the pain was heartwrenching. I think it was an award-winning performance. Regina King is a quiet force.

HERE IS WHERE REAL SPOILERS START. IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT AND WANT TO, TURN BACK NOWWWWWWW.

OK YOU GONE? Lemme finish.

I usually like to finish things I start, and up to episode 6 or 7, I was excited to keep watching. And then something happened once the show got into the courtroom. KJ and Fish finally got to the point where they found out the cop who hit Brenton, and the 3 others who helped cover it up. This is where it gets painful to watch because it’s the part that got TOO real.

In the end, the 3 others get off and Jablonski is sentenced to less than a year behind bars. For killing a Black boy, leaving the scene and hiding evidence.

I was pissed. PISSED. Not because this is unexpected but because this is how it would have played out in real life and I don’t think we needed to see that. What did Seven Seconds want us to feel? Because I don’t think it accomplished anything but to remind us that life sucks, Black lives don’t matter to the state and there’s no winning for us.

It felt gratuitous, and somehow exploitative to be put through that. Even in fiction, ain’t no win for us. There wasn’t justice for Brenton. Just like there hasn’t been justice for Trayvon. Alton. Rakia. Sandra. Eric.

That is why I wouldn’t recommend anyone who is Black watch it. Not because the show wasn’t good, but because it is triggering AF. I audibly said “whew” so many times during the drama that I had to take a few deep breaths.

This is the same problem I had with Poussey’s death on season 4 of Orange is the New Black . It’s the reason I am really thankful that Get Out didn’t use their alternate ending where Chris ended up in jail. Then I realize that MAYBE, just MAYBE, the difference is that a Black man ( Jordan Peele ) knew that he didn’t need to use his film to break our hearts further. Meanwhile, Jenji Kohan and Veena Sud are creators who can write these stories of tragedy from the detached space they occupy as non-members of the groups whose heart they can break over and over again with their stories that lack triumph for Black people.

Nothing good happened in this show. The marriage of the Butlers fell apart too, on top of all that. TEW. MUCH.

Jenji is a Jewish woman and Veena was born to parents of Filipino and Indian heritage. They can write these and stomach the tragedy porn because they aren’t TRULY connected to the pain of what they’re creating. They can write sympathetic storylines for the white cops who take Black lives, and spend time showing “both sides.” I feel like it’s callous because what we need less of is finding out how the Pete Jablonskis became monsters. What we need more of is finding out how the Latrice Butlers triumph over their tragedies.

In a world where we just found out that Alton Sterling’s murderer will not even be charged, I didn’t need “Seven Seconds” to proverbially punch me in the face. I did not. And I ask WHAT WAS THE POINT? To rub the reality of our lives in our faces? Because well done. Mission accomplished.

Maybe I’m just hypersensitive right now but I need more art that challenges me but doesn’t make me feel like everything hopeless. Ultimately, the hopelessness is what made Seven Seconds lousy, to me.

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Opening closed doors (with vanessa k. de luca) - episode 3 of rants & randomness, not even me can stop me (with jenifer lewis) - episode 4 of rants & randomness, 41 comments.

This is why I didn’t watch it. I knew it would be too real. I don’t need to see us lose as entertainment. I see that on the daily. ????

Absolutely! I can NOT! It’s too much ????.

I’m on ep. 3 and the only reason I want to continue is because: Regina King. Her portrayal of the intense emotional rollercoaster which comes with gut wrenching grief is realer than reality tv. But like others said this ain’t no ‘feel good sries’

I really loved the show but I cannot sit through it again. I was definitely triggered the whole time and it took me a lil while to get over it lol

I feel exactly as you Luvvie. Family members who are watching it asked if I was watching. NOPE. I got enough sad ish in my life don’t need to heap on the fictional woes.

As painful as it was to watch, we need constant reminders of our reality so we don’t loosen our grip on change. As hard as it was to see the white cop get off for taking yet another young Black man’s life, I will continue to watch so I will never get comfortable. Don’t be mad at the truth; create a new one.

I understand and complete respect the need to stay focused on our grip and not getting comfortable. -Here is comes- BUT if we can’t relax and enjoy a dramatized, scripted series what’s the point in watching. We should be assembling the next march or designing more signs for that march. Why sit at home and get reminded of the injustice in the world, we could be out there in the fight. NO we need a break from the reality and show a different kind of life for the black community. If we saw it more maybe we would start to believe it is possible.

I LITERALLY slammed a stack of books down onto my living room floor end of last episode. I hated the cops, I hated the wives, hated the defense attorney. It was like rubbing salt and then sprinkling lemon on a fresh wound. Regina saves the day as always but I was praying for a better ending.

This was actually filmed in my neighborhood right outside my building and I saw some of the scenes being filmed. I was excited to watch the series when I heard it was finally going to premier. But while watching and especially after completing it, I was disappointed in the ending. It left me feeling empty after all of the buildup.

I had trouble watching Chi for the same reason – it’s too real and too sad; creates feelings. Don’t we do anything happy?? Sigh.

There is a part of me that wonders if more series and movies are telling the “way too much truth” so that ‘other’ folks can see what’s real. Seems like everything is about them and their comfort. And most films/tv are all about letting them believe in a happy ending. So perhaps this is a small way of making them confront the reality of our lives (or loss of lives)?

I don’t know. And it hurts to even think about watching. Still, I think we can all agree on two things: 1) Regina King is THE QUEEN; and, 2) We are grateful that Luvvie wrote this!!!! :o)

I haven’t seen it but I hope that this is exactly what the take away is. Let the cold truth we are constantly slapped with touch those who fix their mouths to say “it’s not as bad as you say/think/feel it is”.

Thank you for your service, Luvvie. I didn’t think this was for me and you just proved it. I’d only watch this if I was an actress or the like, studying Regina King’s performance.

You didn’t like it? I loved it! One of the things I liked the most was how real it felt. Yes, it sucked to watch that. I too had moments when I wanted to throw something at my tv. (Which I promptly calmed my happy ass down cuz I wasn’t about to mess up my flat screen) It was a reminder that my life truly has very little value in the eyes of America. And like you said, that’s not news. BUT it was Nina Simone that said “an artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” I think this woman, even not being black, did that. She showed you exactly what happens in today’s America! No fantasy, no bullshit, no mincing of words or ideas….just the ugly face of justice system as it relates to the police and African Americans. My favorite part was how the influence of religion in the black household was examined. Having grown up in the south, with a mother that had me in church at least 3 days a week, ALL WHILE being black and GAY, I identified a lot with the show. I loved how the director showed how tragedy can effect faith. How it brings some closer to god and pushes others away. I LOVED LOVED LOVED Regina King! She was OUTSTANDING!! I had my problems with the series too….that wig miss KJ had on was just down right disrespectful! Come on now! In the era of Cynthia Bailey, and Nicki Minaj, and RUPAUL….they couldn’t find mother some better hair? And it took too long for them to give us her story! Like I knew she was sleeping with ol boy when she showed up to his house and the wifey wasn’t feeling it but some earlier insight into her drinking would have been nice. But overall, I truly liked it. At the end of the day, art should make you feel. I think this series did its job.

I liked it…It was too real, ugly…But that is art…Wish the ending could have been different…Had a fit about that wig KJ worn too…I kept staring at it, wondering why her hair couldn’t look better…Regina can act her behind off…and to a certain extent, even agree with Luvvie…We need more stories with happy endings.

Yes Luvvie! I watched all 10 episodes & would have been perfectly happy if they had ended at episode 6 when the cops got arrested. It was 4 episodes too long. This is why I haven’t watched Frutvale Station or 12 Years a Slave because I just can’t take heartbreak for entertainment. And about that wig….it was SO DAMN DISTRACTING!!!! I kept thinking there was some deeply hidden secret up under there that would eventually be revealed along with more of KJ’s back story. And as good as Regina King is in it, I fear she is getting typed into the suffering black mother role (American Crime) which I would hate to have stifle her abilities. Naw. I’m too old for this kinda real as entertainment.

I watched it. A couple of times I had to turn it off to deep breath and remember this was from someone’s imagination. As stated by Luvvie, still TOO REAL. i watched until the end in hopes that this would be a grandioso ending of what we hope for in real life. All officers sentenced justly and the wives prosecuted for helping hide what they knew. Butttttt, Nope. Not what we got. What we did get, i was hoping that the writers were hoping to tug a some wipipo heart strings and make them see what damage is done after these types of incidents occur. That hopefully one of these viewers would end up on a jury and be a voice of reason that says NO! This can’t happen again under my watch. Cause a hung jury, make the other jurors think “if we were black” I doubt any of that was done but in my little Libra heart, me hoping for all to be fair at some point. That is what I hope it was meant for.

Excellent review and it was gut wrenching to go through the whole series. You are so right about the creators/directors and the implications of not being African-American.

It was so heart wrenching that I cried. This was too real. The wig, the wig and the wig..WTH

I knew something was not going to be right about this one and I’m glad I didn’t watch it. I wonder (again, didn’t watch) if the equation of “oops, I was careless and killed a Black child” and cops killing Black boys (and girls and men and women…) bothered people too. If this is supposed to be an allegory for real life, how are those the same? Are the IRL cops just careless? Just took their eyes off the morality road for a second? That doesn’t sound right, right there.

It was a good show. Regina King was incredible but at the end all I could think was, I could have just watched the news. I was left with the same empty and hopeless feeling. Maybe the movie wasn’t made for black people. Maybe the hope was to get others to understand our plight.

Luvvie I feel like KJ is the way she is b cause of her relationship with her uppity, self-absorbed Dad. He looks down on her and has pressured her to “be like him.” I left feeling like she tried to drink his disappointment away. Oh and I thought about Erika Alexander the actress the whole time.

I have followed and stalked you on all social media for a few years now. (Began with Scandal). This review right here is so on point. I have not watched and couldn’t bring myself to watch because of how it’s so true and my rage us soooo “whew”. Thank YOU Luvvie for this heartbreaking true review.

Why didn’t KJ introduce Jablonski’s cell phone records that would’ve proved the other cops involvement? Other than that I felt Verna Sud just wanted to create a tragic finale even though there was enough evidence at least in a Northeastern state to produce guilty verdicts. Just as in the Killing she can not finish

Yes! I 100% agree. KJ’s storyline seemed like an afterthought. The cop who always wore a fitted was a trash version of white ppl’s perception of urban blacks. The PR cop was an ultimate trader to The People. The storyline dragged on unnecessarily for Brenton’s family not to come out on top. There should have been some black/brown people with a seat at the Seven Seconds table.

I see your point and I disagree. Our stories are real and need to be told. Fairy tale endings where positive results are rarely achieved are already present in the lexicon. Although, difficult to watch I felt authenticity every moment (even rarer). From not-quite-right hair to not enough character development, I was drawn in.

I didn’t it like for those same reasons. Then people wonder why Black Panther was such a huge success. It’s because when you are constantly depicted in film as being helpless and powerless then to witness yourself being depicted as kings and queens with power, that speaks to the soul of a person. It’s like living in a house where you constantly told your stupid, then your parents make a movie about how stupid you are. Really, was that necessary? How does that help? Educate me because the reality of whats going in the world is enough drama for me.

“It’s because when you are constantly depicted in film as being helpless and powerless then to witness yourself being depicted as kings and queens with power, that speaks to the soul of a person.”

Oh Luvvie, you took the thoughts right out of my head. The difference is I saw where it was going and had to stop. I simply can’t take the trauma of seeing in my fictional entertainment what I have to live in real life. You are much braver than I, and I sooooo appreciate this review… I’d been vacillating on whether or not I should finish watching, but now I know I don’t have to – and don’t WANT to. (And YASSSSSS on that wig!!! I mean, WTH?!?!?)

I’m ok w the wig bc I think it fit in w her hot mess character/alcoholic. I’m gutted by this show.

The part that had me the MOST pissed was when she lost the racial bias argument. When the white female lawyer RIPPED her argument to shreds. I mean, did it have to be that brutal?! I threw a shoe at the TV.

And don’t get me STARTED about the fact that the star defense attorney was a WHITE WOMAN. Not only do you wanna slap us in the face, but you’re pitting two women against each other AND the white lady wins?

Bruh. Get off my Netflix.

RIGHT!!! RIGHT.

Very on point. I expected the outcome, so I had to stop myself from exhaling and saying whew! and/or from getting excited about little victories. I would have been insulted if the cops had gotten their just dues because it would have turned this series into a fairy tale.

I enjoyed this show up until the trial. It became clear to me at the end that this was about sensationalism and exploitation for ratings. How else do the directors explain the decision to portray a black female prosecutor as so incompetent? Because that is why the case was lost; she had good intentions but could not execute. Let’s go down the list: (1) Screwing your married boss instead of working on trial strategy; (2) Not demanding your boo give you experienced co-counsel (nobody in the real world tries big cases like this solo); (3) Not demanding that your boo keep your star witness under lock and key and with an escort when you know she’s prone to run away to get a fix and the bad cops have been after her; (4) Not thoroughly reviewing your evidence to see the missing grill (cause you were busy with your boo and getting beat down by his wife or getting wasted cause you got played); (5) Falling into that ridiculous trap with the dummy and giving the jury a clear visual of your extremely weak race theory; (6) Not excluding testifying witnesses from the courtroom (why were the cops there the entire time); (7) Calling Pete’s no-good daddy as a witness (seriously who would rely on that scumbag); (8) Failing to actually take a written statement under oath from a defendant who wants to confess (you never know what the hell he’ll say on the stand, as you sadly discovered the hard way); (9) Telling Brenton’s father the defendant is going to testify against his boys (did she seriously think he wouldn’t say something); (10) Losing your $hit while questioning the defendant to the point where you are forcibly removed from the courtroom in handcuffs in front of the jury and still did not get the tea you need from the witness (cell phone records girl!!!)…etc., etc.,

We (the audience) knew the full story of the dirty cops, their wives and the cover-up so the verdict stabbed us in the heart. The judge and jury had no clue. The judge simply saw a prosecutor with a bad reputation who was always drunk and poorly prepared so she wasn’t taken seriously at all. The jury saw an unprofessional black woman who could not keep her cool and was outwitted at every turn by her opponent. I wouldn’t have believed KJ’s case either!

One of the proudest moments of my life was as a young lawyer in a majority law firm when the OJ verdict was announced. Everybody was shocked. I ran to my office and called my girl and we both talked about how that Johnnie Cochran was amazing!!! I learned then the importance of being a top notch lawyer and I see sistas doing that everyday.

By making KJ such a screw-up, the whole point of the movie (the flawed justice system) is lost. It made for a good story (they assumed) but she (and our cause) once again became the joke. As usual, we were playing checkers while everyone else was playing chess. I love Regina King but not even she could make me sit through this fiasco again.

Next time the directors should talk to Shonda about portraying black women lawyers who may be flawed personally but know how to handle their business professionally. That was an embarrassment to me and my girls who bring it day in and day out to give us a fighting chance! Directors, do better next time when you attempt to tell our story.

Such a good point this: “By making KJ such a screw-up, the whole point of the movie (the flawed justice system) is lost. It made for a good story (they assumed) but she (and our cause) once again became the joke. As usual, we were playing checkers while everyone else was playing chess. I love Regina King but not even she could make me sit through this fiasco again.”

“By making KJ such a screw-up, the whole point of the movie (the flawed justice system) is lost. It made for a good story (they assumed) but she (and our cause) once again became the joke. ”

GREAT POINT!

We really not gon’ talk about KJ’s basic AF sears suit and t-shirt tho? Was I really the only one that noticed?

Regina King and Russell Hornsby are the only reasons to watch.

The show gutted me too but the last few minutes have me hope. It started during all that verdict ish at the end was when KJ gave her last stand (I was straight weeping from here on out). Then when the entire right side of the courtroom didn’t stand up for the judge. And then when she walked out of the courtroom, and they all stood for her. It showed me the redemption in her character. And I literally threw my fist in the air and yelled, “Fight fight fight fight!!!” Because what can we do but keep fighting until they hear us. Fight until they see us. It’ll take time and sometimes looks fruitless but they deserve it. They are worth us fighting for. Even when we’re deeply flawed and broken, we gotta do all we can to fight for them. Fight. On.

A whole lot of people have to say “Yes” for this to have reached @Luvvie ‘s eyeballs in the first place. I always wonder when storytelling is problematic, “Who agreed to pay for this? What is the story you think you are telling? Why do you think this is the way to tell the story? Who is the intended audience? What response is the storyteller hoping for, best case, from the audience?” I just can’t imagine the people who said “Yes” to all the choices Luvvie decries would have Luvvie-approved answers to those questions.

I binge-watched the season Friday and Saturday, all the while hoping that the black community and family would get justice. It really SUCKS that the black stories in these types of shows have to stay so tight in reality and white stories portrayed in everything else seem to get their problem or problems resolved and are allowed live happily ever after… We can’t catch a break even in fake stories about fake crimes and crooked cops that really desired to get killed or at the very least put in jail. The one that did go to jail gets 30 days, SERIOUSLY! It’s the continuous production of shows like “Seven Seconds” that made “Black Panther” a billion dollar movie. Entertaining to all – black, white or purple and for a few hours as a black viewer -WE WIN PROUD AND WITH HONOR! Why Hollywood can’t seem to understand we need that more than seeing life with unfair odds over and over again… Sorry, I will not be watching season 2. I want to be entertained, not reminded.

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Review: ‘Seven Seconds,’ a Grim Account of Whose Lives Matter

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By James Poniewozik

• Feb. 22, 2018

“Seven Seconds” is a crime story in which you know immediately who did it. Pete Jablonski (Beau Knapp), a Jersey City police officer, is driving through a park on the way to the hospital to meet his pregnant wife, when he hits something. Or someone, it turns out: There’s a bicycle in the snow, and a trail of blood.

In shock, Pete calls Michael DiAngelo (David Lyons), his sergeant in his narcotics unit, who finds the victim: an African-American teenage boy. They have to cover it up, DiAngelo says. Otherwise, he adds, Pete will be crucified, payback for “Ferguson, Chicago, Baltimore — every white cop who ever killed a black kid.”

The boy is in a deep coma. We never hear him speak, see only a few glimpses of him taking his last bike ride. But we hear his name again and again: Brenton Butler, which hangs over the story like others — Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray — that have become totems and rallying cries.

The cover-up leads inexorably to further crimes. But the true mystery in “ Seven Seconds ” is, Will Brenton get justice? What would justice look like? And how many other lives will be destroyed in the wake of Brenton’s?

These are timely questions emerging from a too familiar tragedy, even if “Seven Seconds” is ultimately not as well executed as it is well intentioned.

“Seven Seconds” comes from Veena Sud, whose last series, “The Killing,” was at its best a mournful look at murder’s toll on the survivors, the accused and the investigators. (Just as “The Killing” was based on a Danish series, “Seven Seconds” is based on the Russian film “The Major.”) But in its initial case, which stretched beyond the first season, “The Killing” became a grim slog of red herrings and implausible twists. It later rallied , but never wholly recovered.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Seven Seconds’, A Netflix Drama About A Racially-Charged Police Cover-Up

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• Seven Seconds

We were fans of Veena Sud’s previous show, The Killing , but it was a love-hate relationship that we shared with many fans and critics. Sud is back with the Netflix drama Seven Seconds ; is it as good-but-frustrating as her previous show?

SEVEN SECONDS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot:  Shots of what we assume is Liberty State Park in Jersey City, given the fact that we see the back of the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline from across the Hudson River. An SUV drives down a snowy road in the park, with a guy on the phone, worried that he can’t get in touch with his pregnant wife.

The Gist:  The guy on the phone is worried because he hasn’t heard from her; as he gets off the phone with one of their friends, he hits something and skids out in the snow. He walks out of the SUV, trying to see what happened. He sees the wheels of a bike under the car and realizes he hit someone.

He calls his co-workers for help. Those co-workers are cops; you see, Peter Jablonski (Beau Knapp) is a detective in the Jersey City PD’s narcotics division. His commander, Mike Diangelo (David Lyons), walks over to where the kid is lying and sees it’s a black teenager; he immediately tells his guys to start covering up evidence, and he tells Jablonski to drive away like nothing happened. He feels that, even if it was an accident, the optics of a white cop killing a black kid will just make things horrible for Jablonski, as well as his division.

Meanwhile, we see Latrice Butler ( Regina King ), a parochial middle-school teacher, rush to church choir practice after spending some time helping a teenager find her sixth-grade brother. Her husband Isaiah (Russell Hornsby) is playing piano. When they get home, there’s a message from the police: their son Brenton has been in an accident. They rush to the hospital to find out he’s in surgery. Jablonski, wracked with guilt, goes to the crime scene when he hears about it on his radio, and he’s shocked to hear the kid is still alive.

We also see assistant prosecutor KJ Harper (Clare-Hope Ashitey), who likes to get her drink on and is very much in a mode where she doesn’t give a shit about her job anymore, get called in on this hit-and-run. The cops have a suspect, a homeless man who lives in his car, and he’s already being questioned by Det. Joe “Fish” Rinaldi (Michael Mosley), who just moved to J.C. from the big city across the river. They visit the Butlers in the hospital, and go look at the homeless guy’s impounded car. Something about this doesn’t feel right, and KJ misses the arraignment because she’s at the crime scene, trying to figure out what really happened.

Our Take:   Seven Seconds is based on a Russian film, and it’s interesting that the locale has been shifted not to New York or other major city, but to Jersey City, NJ. As a smaller city that’s across the river from New York, its got its own share of problems and racial tensions, but the scale is definitely more intimate. We wonder why that choice was made by the show’s creator, executive producer and writer, Veena Sud; is it because of Hudson County’s history of corruption? Is it just because it’s a city but smaller? Either way, it’s a fascinating choice.

All of the acting in the pilot is top notch. We’ll watch Regina King do pretty much anything, so watching her as the injured teen’s aggrieved mother was the highlight of the pilot, especially scenes where she and Isaiah question where Brenton got the expensive bike and why he was in the park. Her interaction with Isaiah’s brother Seth (Zackary Momoh), whose return from deployment is dampened by his nephew’s accident, is also interesting to watch, as it seems the two of them have a longer history than initially thought. Ashitey and Mosley have good chemistry as the ad hoc partners who start to figure out what really happened; Ashitey does an especially good job portraying someone who has seen too much and now is just trying to figure out how to manage in her job and life.

It all looks great, and the snowy motif makes a harsh environment dark and dreamy all at once. But we thought all of that about Sud’s previous show,  The Killing , and we came away after four seasons annoyed and frustrated with how much we were jerked around by Sud’s penchant for red herrings, false finales, narrative dead ends, and head-smacking plot twists. We’re afraid this will happen on  Seven Seconds , already shown a mini red herring or two as we figure out who the kid who Jablonski hit is. Also, her stylistic choice to not show Brenton, either on the crime scene or in the hospital, until the very end of the pilot, built up an expectation that was never delivered upon.

However, two things are in this show’s favor: There will be a new story every season and it’s on Netflix. Anyone who watched  The Killing  on the streaming service had a lot better viewing experience than the people (like us) who watched the first three seasons week-to-week on AMC, and it seems like Sud’s writing is well suited for binge-watching. Let’s hope that’s the case here.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot:  Harper standing over the massive blood stain in the snow where Brenton was found, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.  

• Stream It Or Skip It

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Watchers’ on Max, Ishana Night Shyamalan's Twisty, Underwhelming Directorial Debut

Stream it or skip it: ‘trap’ on vod, in which an inspired josh hartnett carries another love-it-or-hate-it m. night shymalan endeavor, stream it or skip it: 'a-list to playlist' on netflix, where a korean acting star challenges himself to write and record an album in 100 days, stream it or skip it: 'greg fitzsimmons: you know me' on youtube, finding the comedian reflecting comfortably in his fifties.

Sleeper Star:  Felix Castillo as Det. Felix Osorio is an interesting presence; at first he seems like he’ll follow the lead of his boss, Det. Diangelo, but might have a lot of regrets doing it.

Most Pilot-y Line: “They’re going to fuck you for Ferguson, Chicago, Baltimore, for every white cop who kills a black kid,” Diagnelo tells Jablonski after he gets wind that Jablonski was thinking of admitting to the accident. Uh, yeah, we got his viewpoint when he decided to cover things up at the beginning of the episode.

Our Call: Stream It. We recommend it with the caveat that we have no idea where Sud will be going with this story, and with her history, we’re not sure we want to invest the time, only to get no payoff. But the visuals and acting are so good, that it’s worth watching just for that. Dammit, Veena, you sucked us in again!

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com , Playboy.com , Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Seven Seconds on Netflix

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'Seven Seconds' is Netflix's new well-acted downer

The grim tale of a child’s murder being solved by troubled people, Seven Seconds is this Friday’s new prestige Netflix project. Binge on this one over the weekend, and you might be excused by your boss for not showing up on Monday thanks to an emotional hangover. One bright victory for this new 10-part series is that it’s a great showcase for Clare-Hope Ashitey as a lawyer with a drinking problem and a complicated personal life.

The crime and who committed it are revealed early on in Seven Seconds . An off-duty cop (Beau Knapp) accidentally drives into a kid on a bike, killing the youth. His cop colleagues persuade him to cover up the incident. Why? The most corrupt officer explains his thinking succinctly: “A white cop and a black kid? Don’t you read the news?” All of the drama flows from this setup, with race and class and the vagaries of the judicial system providing the subtexts.

The agonized family of the dead boy is headed by Regina King, whose sorrow and fury have been tapped in similar ways in recent years in ABC’s American Crime and HBO’s The Leftovers . As the matriarch of a Jersey City lower-middle-class family, King’s Latrice Butler is a strong-minded churchgoer, but her strength and faith are sorely tested by grief and her encounters with the legal system. Ashitey’s K.J. Harper is the assistant district attorney assigned to the case, and the first time we meet her she’s drunk, so we know she’s not going to be the most efficient public servant to aid Latrice and her family in seeking justice for their son’s death.

Between the corrupt cops and the drunk lawyer, the movie comparisons start piling up. I began to wonder whether K.J. was going to be like Paul Newman in The Verdict — an alcoholic who pulls himself together long enough to secure a win. I started looking at all the scenes of cops sitting in crappy cars talking crudely and being reminded of films like Training Day and Copland . Seven Seconds was created by Veena Sud, the writer-producer who also oversaw The Killing , the show that made many of us aware of Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos for the first time. But The Killing had its flaws, so Sud is not a rookie when it comes to slow pacing and frustrating plot turns. Like The Killing , Seven features some great acting, and there are numerous strong scenes spread over its 10 episodes that periodically make you think, “Gee, this cast is awfully good. So why am I a little bored?”

Whether you get caught up in Seven Seconds depends on how impatient you are with its nods to other TV shows and movies it reminds you of. The series would certainly benefit from some editorial tightening — reducing its number of episodes to five or six would have made it considerably more exciting. As its stands, Seven Seconds is admirably acted, but it’s a slow grind.

Seven Seconds is streaming now on Netflix.

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Entertainment

How Systemic, Real-Life Violence Inspired Netflix’s Latest Crime Drama

Instances of police brutality, particularly against men and women of color , are unfortunately a recurring event in America. Social media is littered with hashtags created in a memory of slain children and adults who many believe never received the justice they deserved. And on Feb. 23, Netflix’s new crime-thriller, anthology series Seven Seconds (executive producer: Veena Sud) will pull straight from the headlines — many headlines. Although Season 1 isn’t based on one particular real incident, creator Veena Sud drew inspiration from numerous real-life cases to create the series.

According to production notes provided by Netflix, Sud was especially moved by the death of Tamir Rice, who was only 12 in November 2014 when he was shot by a Cleveland police officer after he mistook Rice's toy gun for a real weapon, per The New York Times . No charges were be brought against either the officer who fired his weapon or his partner, who was also on the scene. Additionally, the cases involving Trayvon Martin , Michael Brown and Freddie Gray — all black men and reportedly unarmed at the time of their deaths — really stuck with Sud.

“I was inspired to write Seven Seconds after turning on the news every night, watching in horror all the seemingly endless stories of police violence,” Sud said in a press release for the series. “There were so many questions, and I needed to understand the story behind the headlines. How does something as systematic as this happen, over and over and over? That was the real heart of Seven Seconds . What I saw on TV, in front of my eyes, made telling this story crucial and necessary.”

In Seven Seconds , the main character’s name – Brenton – was also inspired by a real-life victim of a flawed justice system. As reported in a 2000 article in The Guardian , a Florida teen named Brenton Butler was arrested while on his way to submit a job application to a local Blockbuster video store. He was charged with robbery and murder related to a shooting death at a motel. Butler testified that the police coerced a confession out of him using physical abuse, which formed the basis of the prosecution's argument. The teen was eventually acquitted of all charges, and both State Attorney Harry Shorstein and Jacksonville Sheriff Nat Glover admitted that the arrest and charge were wrongful , per News4Jax.

"His name was inspired by the real Brenton Butler because his story was so intensely heart wrenching and illuminated the travesties of the justice system criminalizing innocent young Black men,” Sud said in a statement provided to Bustle by Netflix.

Seven Seconds tackles the controversial issues of race relations between law enforcement and the people they serve in this New Jersey-set series. In an instant life is forever changed when 15-year-old Brenton is run over in Liberty State Park by a white police officer, who flees from the scene after his fellow officers arrive. Brenton lies in a pool of blood in the park the middle of February for 12 hours before being found. And while Brenton’s family and the unlikely duo that is Prosecutor K.J. Harper (Ckare-Hope Ashitey) and Joe “Fish” Rinaldi (Michael Mosley) search for answers, the officers responsible for the cover-up attempt to keep their secret under wraps.

“The only kind of story I wanted to tell about police violence in American would have to be no-holds-barred,” Sud said in the release. “It had to be a thoughtful examination of the issue, open to the truth of the racial history of this country, and honest about the brokenness of the criminal justice system. Nothing easy or feel good or simplistic.”

The series is also loosely based on a Russian movie, The Major , which depicts an incident involving a police officer offer who accidentally hits a teen with his car while frantically driving to the hospital for his child’s birth, according to Den of Geek. Similar to what happens in Seven Seconds , the accident subsequently leads to a cover-up by the cops’ colleagues.

Fortunately, Seven Seconds holds true to Sud’s promise on holding nothing back. Focusing not just on the harrowing crime at hand, the series also hones in on the aftermath of the tragedy and the devastating toll it takes on everyone involved. And while the characters might be fictional, the things they go through are very much real.

7 Seconds (2005)

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Seven Seconds Ending Explained: What Happens In The Netflix Show?

Seven Seconds (Credits: Netflix)

Seven Seconds, a criminal drama on Netflix, enthralled viewers with its compelling plot and nuanced characters. The show, which Veena Sud developed, centers on what happens following a hit-and-run collision between a white police officer and a young African American boy.

Racial conflict, corruption, and the search for justice are all topics that are explored during the series. The conclusion of Seven Seconds leaves viewers feeling a range of emotions as unresolved issues are resolved and the characters’ futures are made clear.

The suspenseful crime drama series “Seven Seconds” will keep you glued to the screen! The hit-and-run tragedy in which a black kid is abandoned to perish by the side of the road is the plot of the show.

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As the plot develops, we see how the police department tries to cover up the sad incident’s consequences. But when the victim’s family seeks justice, they must face the consequences. Enter Assistant Prosecutor KJ, a young attorney with a fiery determination to hold the offender accountable for both a hate crime and a negligent killing.

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Seven Seconds Ending Explained

The beginning of Seven Seconds’ final episode is filled with apprehension and discomfort. The suspense is obvious as Peter Jablonski, a police officer, and the trial approaches its conclusion.

The audience is left wondering whether justice will be served or if the victim and his family will once again suffer systemic failure as the prosecution and defense make their closing arguments. The series highlights the complicated workings of the legal system and the difficulties people seeking responsibility confront during the trial.

Clare-Hope Ashitey portrays the defense attorney KJ Harper admirably as she works tirelessly to reveal the truth. She is a likable and intriguing character because of her tenacity and vulnerability, and her journey is one of the program’s highlights.

There is more to the case than initially appears as the trial moves forward. The police force is committed to defending its own at any cost, led by the morally dubious Lieutenant Breeland, played by David Lyons. The plot is further complicated by the network of corruption and cover-ups, which keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

Many viewers may be confused and maybe upset by how Seven Seconds finishes. Despite overwhelming evidence that three police officers were responsible for a hit-and-run accident, they were cleared of all charges. Only Mike Jablonski, the cop who attempted to conceal what occurred, receives a sentence of less than a year in prison.

This causes us to question the judicial system’s fairness and whether or not a young black boy’s life is truly important to it. It’s crucial to analyze these issues and what this resolution signifies for justice in our society.

You might feel that there is no resolution, given the way the episode concludes, but it could be done on purpose. It’s attempting to get us to consider how unjust things can be in the actual world. The show forces us to confront some sobering truths about the judicial system, including how it occasionally fails to force influential people to take responsibility for their actions.

The realization that this narrative occurs frequently is the scariest aspect of the conclusion. Injuries to young black boys by powerful individuals have historically occurred in America and continue to do so now. Even if Seven Seconds’ conclusion isn’t neatly wrapped up, it serves as a reminder that this isn’t just a made-up story. It demonstrates the harsh reality that many communities with little resources must face.

In the drama, it is revealed that the hit-and-run wasn’t a mistake. Police officer Peter Jablonski, acting out of racism and prejudice and harboring a personal vendetta towards the victim’s family, committed the brutal crime on purpose. Just as intriguing as the trial itself is what occurs after it.

The show meticulously examines how the trial affects the lives of the major characters as they must deal with the results of their decisions. KJ Harper, who was deeply involved in the case, tries to accept responsibility and come to terms with it.

KJ Harper stands on a bridge at the show’s conclusion and surveys the city. Although the camera reveals how vast the world is and how many untold stories of injustice there are, she has last found some closure. It serves as a reminder that there is still much work to be done in the struggle for justice.

To sum up, Seven Seconds’ ending is a suitable end to a compelling and thought-provoking series. It does a subtle and intriguing job of examining issues like racial conflict, corruption, and the search for justice.

The viewers can relate to the characters’ complicated and sympathetic paths. The conclusion serves as a reminder of the harsh reality of the world we live in, even though it may leave some people feeling unfulfilled. Anyone who appreciates thought-provoking shows that address significant social issues ought to see Seven Seconds.

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Arin Tripathi

Arin Tripathi, a dedicated final year BCA student, resides in the vibrant city of Bangalore. During his leisure hours, he immerses himself in the world of manga and enjoys watching TV shows on platforms like Netflix and Hulu. His specialization lies in crafting content related to U.S-based shows and series.

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Action star Wesley Snipes (the Blade trilogy, U.S. Marshals, Passenger 57) is a professional thief whose high-stakes caper goes murderously wrong in this explosive, brilliantly unpredictable crime thriller. Captain Jack Tolliver (Snipes) is an ex-Delta Force commando leading what should have ben a clockwork-perfect armored car heist. Instead, he ends up with a priceless Van Gogh painting - and one of his crew ends up held hostage by the sadistic Russian gangsters who muscled in on the heist. Tolliver's only option: a suicidal rescue mission where enemies become allies, your best friend can be your worst nightmare, and survival is deadliest art of all.

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Seven Seconds Is a Grim But Hypnotic Crime Drama

Seven Seconds,  the new Netflix drama about crooked cops covering up a hit-and-run accident and investigators trying to punish them, is another TV series about how a murder affects a community. It’s not the best or the worst of the lot, but at its most intelligent and heartfelt, it generates empathy for its characters, sadness at the culture that shaped them, and anger at the institutions that protect the worst among them. The unaffected emotion in every lead performance saves the bad scenes and elevates the good ones, and the overall spirit of the thing is unimpeachable.

The title describes the span of time in which Jersey City police officer Peter Jablonski (Beau Knapp) could’ve done the right thing after running over a teenage cyclist, Brenton Butler, in a snowy park while rushing to attend the birth of his first child. Instead of officially reporting the accident, Peter phones his supervisor on the drug task force, Mike Diangelo (David Lyons), who arrives at the scene with Jablonski’s two colleagues, Felix Osorio (Raúl Castillo) and Gary Wilcox (Patrick Murney), and instantly conspires to erase the crime. The men will later argue that they thought the boy was already dead — as if that excuses their behavior. The plain fact is that Peter is one of theirs, period, and they don’t want his life to be destroyed for what they perceive as a stroke of bad luck. There’s an element of racial resentment here, too: They’re convinced that, in the era of Black Lives Matter, the whole department will take an unjustified public-relations hit if news gets out that a white cop ran over a black teen, even though Peter didn’t mean to hit him.

What ensues is a cover-up that’s as cynical as it is stupid .  It shatters the lives of Brenton’s churchgoing parents, Latrice (Regina King) and Isaiah (Russell Hornsby), and his uncle, Seth (Zackary Momoh), a former gangbanger who just got out of the Air Force. An assistant prosecutor and alcoholic screwup named K.J. Harper (Clare-Hope Ashitey) partners up with recently divorced internal affairs detective Joe “Fish” Rinaldi (Michael Mosley) to solve the crime. Their investigation leads them to a possible witness, a Catholic school girl named Nadine (Nadia Alexander), who’s addicted to heroin and turns tricks to support her habit.   The case builds and the plot thickens. K.J. is determined to prosecute the hit-and-run as a hate crime as well as a negligent homicide. The tactic feels morally right: Peter didn’t run over the boy because he was black, but he devalued his life because he was, and we see how instinctively racist most of the cops are, including the nonwhite ones. But it’s hard to prove in court.

Seven Seconds  is overseen by Veena Sud, the showrunner of AMC’s The Killing , and it displays a similar inability to quit while it’s ahead, often having characters explicate psychology verbally even though anyone who’s been paying attention can already guess which demons drove certain decisions. If you’ve seen or read an epic urban potboiler, you’ll recognize most of the types and many of the story beats. Some of the characters discover that they’re far worse than they’d imagined, while others discover an idealism they thought had vanished, or never existed.

At the same time, though,  Seven Seconds  has mostly freed itself from  The Killing ’s addiction to generating contrived surprises by withholding key facts, sending investigators down blind alleys, and pulling the rug out from under viewers at regular intervals. Here, what you see is what you get: a grim but hypnotic mini-series that plays like a hypothetical Richard Price rewrite of  The Bonfire of the Vanities , with grubby New Jersey locations and no rich people. There are three, maybe four big twists, but for most of its running time,  Seven Seconds  is not about what happened, but  why  it happened — a distinction that the series never loses sight of. The only mystery in the first five episodes is who leaked the identity of the driver to the media, and the series is less interested in answering that question than in watching what happens to the characters when the news gets out.

Sud, her writing staff, and her understated directors (including Ernest Dickerson and the late Jonathan Demme , who helmed the second episode in his final work as a filmmaker) show how hard it is to get even the most basic justice in the United States when you aren’t white and/or rich. Race and class are at the heart of each scene, even when the characters aren’t openly discussing them. “His life does not factor into the equation of this city,” an attorney tells Brenton’s mother, shortly before deciding not to represent her. The story is held together by the overlapping codes and jurisdictions of various tribes — including the Jersey City police department; the drug squad and their significant others; the local gangs, headed by Vontrell “Messiah” Odoms (Coley Speaks), who’s in a wheelchair but still formidable; and Letrice and Isaiah’s church — and by the desperation of people who instinctively close ranks to protect what they have, even when their actions confirm that they don’t deserve to have it.

There are elements that are needlessly overdone, like the many repetitious scenes of K.J., who’s cut from the same sour-smelling cloth as Paul Newman in  The Verdict , getting soused and humiliating herself, and the alpha-dog glowering of Diangelo, which is a shade too melodramatic for a tale that otherwise aspires to realism. (Lyons is a powerfully focused actor with star quality; it’s the show’s failure to modulate his intensity that’s the problem.) The first three episodes are rough going because of all the exposition that has to be laid out. But by the time you get to episode four, the gears are purring. The long stretch in the middle — episodes five through seven — is superb, and just when you think that the story has reached a logical, if too-pat stopping point, it keeps going in a way that complicates things, and emphasizes the fact that in life, the story isn’t over just because a few bad people got arrested.

The story becomes more intriguing the further away it wanders from the criminal investigation, which is rarely the case in this kind of project. The crime doesn’t just ignite the black community’s rage and put the police on notice, it shatters marriages and families, dredges up old resentments, rips the scabs off old wounds, and makes the more self-aware characters ask what, if anything, they’re going to take away from an event so momentous. This is a rare ten-hour story that justifies its running time and makes the heroes’ many victories and setbacks feel like acknowledgments of how tedious and frustrating cases like this can be, rather than Pavlovian chain-jerks designed to keep the audience watching whether they’re invested or not.

The commitment to showing a heightened version of life as it is, with a splash of Dickensian showmanship, makes  Seven Seconds  stand out. In the spirit of Sidney Lumet’s cop corruption films — and TV shows that obviously learned from them, like  The Wire  and  Show Me a Hero — Seven Seconds  is shot in real locations. There are no stars, unless you count Regina King and Gretchen Mol (who appears in a small role as an attorney representing the police), and these are actors who are famous mainly for being able to blend in to whatever woodwork happens to surround them. The shock of seeing so many plausibly real-seeming people wandering through real settings amplifies emotions that would’ve been wrenching even if they’d been expressed in a glossy, Hollywood manner.

King, in particular, is staggeringly powerful here, portraying a woman whose faith in God, her marriage, and her family are all upended by the loss of her son. The scene where she chastises her minister and rejects his faith is so raw that you feel as if you shouldn’t be watching it. “I was in a church singing His praises when my son was in a ditch,” she says. “I’m done praying to a God who answers a murderer over a mother.” Nearly as impressive, and sneakily so, is Knapp as Peter Jablonski, a performance so lived-in that if you’d told me he was a cop who’d never acted before but was cast because he was so comfortable on camera, I might have believed it. He captures the specific torment of a man who was raised in a macho culture and has no language with which to describe his feelings going through an existential crisis. Peter plainly sees what he has to do in order to live with himself, but can’t seem to do it. Knapp never asks us to sympathize with the character, just to see him as a weak, screwed-up, self-serving human being.

Although the story does build to something like catharsis, with shreds of hope, it’s not an “all’s well that ends well” finale, because we’ve seen during the preceding nine hours how broken the system is, and we’ve watched so many of its participants covering their asses because honoring the letter or spirit of the law might take away their comfort. It’s rare to see a story of this type that acknowledges how insular, clubby, and easily corrupted the sad remains of American civic government can be.

The phrase “depraved indifference” shows up during a courtroom scene. The term describes people so lacking in regard for the lives of others that they merit the same punishment as those who intentionally cause harm, and it resonates backward throughout the whole story. The sight of Peter and his wife Marie (Michelle Veintimilla) doting on their newborn child is already sickening because we saw what happened before Peter arrived at the hospital. As  Seven Seconds  goes on, and Marie learns the truth but fails to hold Peter accountable, their scenes become nauseating and ultimately obscene. But Seven Seconds is adamant that while it’s impossible to make a bad situation good, it is possible to make it right, if one is wiling to be honest and accept punishment. It’s only at the very end that we realize that the main story, the prosecution of four men who covered up a teenager’s death, is a distillation of the challenges facing a nation that has gotten way too comfortable with moral, legal, and political failure, and has adopted depraved indifference as way of life.

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Seven Seconds

• TV Mini Series

Tensions run high between black citizens and white cops in Jersey City when a black teenage boy is critically injured by a cop. Tensions run high between black citizens and white cops in Jersey City when a black teenage boy is critically injured by a cop. Tensions run high between black citizens and white cops in Jersey City when a black teenage boy is critically injured by a cop.

• Clare-Hope Ashitey
• Michael Mosley
• 304 User reviews
• 17 Critic reviews
• 8 wins & 12 nominations total

Episodes 10

Top cast 99+

• Peter Jablonski

• Joe 'Fish' Rinaldi

• Mike DiAngelo

• Isaiah Butler

• Felix Osorio

• Manny Wilcox

• Seth Butler

• Marie Jablonski

• Latrice Butler

• James Connelly

• Kadeuce Porter

• Vontrell 'Messiah' Odoms

• Crystal DiAngelo
• Brenton Butler

• Sam Hennessy
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• Trivia According to series creator Veena Sud , the choice of the particular New Jersey location was intentional because the rear view of the Statue of Liberty was somewhat symbolic of how welcoming 'she' is to immigrants from Europe and the East, and how ironic it is that her back is turned to those already settled here, particularly those in dire need of justice in this storyline.
• Connections Featured in The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards (2018)

User reviews 304

• Apr 19, 2018
• How many seasons does Seven Seconds have? Powered by Alexa
• February 23, 2018 (United States)
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• New York City, New York, USA
• East 2 West Entertainment
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• Runtime 1 hour

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Another Chance: On the Sustained Power of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds

John Frankenheimer ’s “Seconds” will linger a lot longer than the title suggests in the mind of anyone who chooses to watch it. In fact, it might be one of the most haunting American films to come out of the 1960s, or any decade for that matter. James Wong Howe’s expressionistic cinematography plays a huge part in making this nightmarish vision so memorable. His work was deservingly nominated for an Academy Award, despite the film’s poor reception at the time of its release. Howe uses many different angles, techniques, and lenses to visualize this story, and the opening scene alone makes inventive use of the stead-cam, a distorted 9.7mm fish-eye lens, and plenty of tilted low-angle shots.

The photography instantly puts viewers at unease. It feels like the camera itself is having an out of body experience, which is fitting given the central theme of this cult classic deals with rebirth and fabricated reincarnation. After receiving a call from an old friend who was once thought to be deceased, Arthur Hamilton ( John Randolph ) gets talked into leaving his old life behind to lead a youthful one. His friend tells him about this company that can grant you a second life. If you still haven’t seen this film, I recommend doing so before continuing to read on, as I’ll discuss the film’s philosophical themes. 

Once Hamilton gets lured into this dark underground world, there’s no turning back. The company blackmails him into paying for the procedure. He has no other choice. First, they fake his death, then transform the way he looks, and finally they reintegrate him into society with a new job and a new identity. Although the premise itself sounds miraculous for the old man, it’s quite ironic that his existential crisis occurs after the procedure is done not before. Perhaps, “rebirth” only succeeds when an internal awakening sparks the need for a transformation beforehand. 

There’s a great scene midway through the film, when the younger version of himself, now played by Rock Hudson , attends a free-spirited festival. Everyone starts to take their clothes off, and they begin stomping grapes while drinking wine. It’s a pivotal moment in terms of character development, yet very few words are ever spoken. It’s quite clear that our main character or “second” feels very uncomfortable by the bohemian nature of this generation. After all, he is an old man in a young man’s body, and he is clearly part of a much more conservative generation. When we were young, we wanted to grow up. When we grew up, we wanted to be children again. Maybe, we would accept the idea of aging if we considered that the times change too.

Frankenheimer’s masterpiece grows in stature with each passing year due the relevant themes of existentialism, and free-will. But much like the main character, the film starts off as one thing, reinvents itself, and becomes something else entirely in the brutal, yet necessary, final moments. In a span of a few seconds, it evolves into a film about the devastating inhumanity caused by corporate greed. The fictional company uses tactics that are very much in line with what is practiced today by mega-corporations. “ The Company ” uses a referral program as its recruiting strategy to encourage more clients to join the false promises of a second chance at life. Customers get rewarded for each new user that signs up, so they very much become a slave to the system. Only this time, each referral is a matter of life and death, so everyone involved is gambling with the lives of others. In 1966, this premise may come off as dystopian, but today, with thousands of lives dying at sweatshops all around the world, the idea of big corporations sacrificing human lives for profit isn’t that far-fetched at all.

Frankenheimer’s third entry of the “paranoid” trilogy also taps into the relationship between physical appearance and personality in a psychological exploration of identity. Does your personality influence your appearance, or does the way you look have a direct effect on the way you are? Through the physical transformation from Arthur Hamilton to Antiochus Wilson, our main character alters not only his face but his vocal cords as well. After the drastic changes take place, I couldn’t help but notice that his demeanor and personality gradually changed too. He becomes more lively, confident, and outspoken, especially in the party sequence. The way people react to the way he looks has a direct effect on the way he responds to them. 

In the scene where Wilson visits his former wife, Frankenheimer poses questions on the effects the procedure has on memory. Do the memories of his past self grow more distant the more he spends time as a second? Will they eventually feel like they belonged to another person, another man? Are his current actions and behavior being dictated by his old self or his second self? It’s fascinating how appearance has a direct impact on identity. Frankenheimer once explained, “What the picture really says is that you are who you are; as soon as you try to erase the past, you’re doomed.”

It is said that Frankenheimer included several shots of an actual rhinoplasty operation in the plastic surgery sequence, and when the cameraman fainted, he had to pick the camera up and finish the job himself. Not surprisingly, when it first screened, several viewers were spotted throwing up. Like Antonioni’s “L’Avventura,” Scorsese’s “ Taxi Driver ,” and Malick’s “ The Tree of Life ,” Frankenheimer’s “Seconds” was booed at the Cannes Film Festival for all the wrong reasons—for being way ahead of its time. And while it had a premature death on its initial release, in an ironic twist of fate, “Seconds” found poetic justice. Like its main character, it is reliving a second life.

Wael Khairy

Wael Khairy is an Egyptian film critic. He has written several reviews and essays for two World Film Locations books published in the UK. His revolution-related tweets were published in the bestseller, Tweets from Tahrir. The Cinephile Fix .

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Featuring dazzling, disorienting cinematography from the great James Wong Howe and a strong lead performance by Rock Hudson, Seconds is a compellingly paranoid take on the legend of Faust.

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John Frankenheimer

Rock Hudson

Tony Wilson

Salome Jens

Nora Marcus

John Randolph

Arthur Hamilton

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