Seven Seconds (2018)

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Regina King Won an Emmy for Her Portrayal of a Distraught Mother Looking for Justice After a White Police Officer Kills Her Son. We Have Your "Seven Seconds" Review and Complete Series Guide.

This one-off series is only 10 episodes, but it is chilling. "Seven Seconds" features great writing and performances. This is one of the final projects Jonathan Demme directed shortly before his death in 2017.

Everything you want to know about "Seven Seconds" is here. We have detailed series information and the 88-second review and summary. And, be sure to check out our images gallery and read the episode scripts.

season 1

In an instant, life is forever changed for Brenton Butler and his family. After a white cop accidentally hits and critically injures a black teenager, a northeastern city explodes with racial tensions, an attempted cover up and its aftermath, and the trial of the century.

Seven Seconds (2018)

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technical

:88 review & briefing

cast

filmmakers

season 1

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Seven Seconds (2018)

Seven Seconds poster season 1

details

what's all this stuff about Seven Seconds ?

...here's all the important details we have on the series so far

CURRENT STATUS:

- Streaming worldwide on Netflix

- Feb. 23, 2018

PRODUCTION STATUS:

- Closed

- Series cancelled (Apr. 18, 2018)

GENRES:

- Crime; Drama

- Social & Cultural Issues TV Shows; Race Relations TV Shows; Award-winning TV Shows

- TV shows based on movies

CONTENT RATING:

-

- For mature audiences

- May not be suitable for children ages 17 and under

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

- United States

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE:

- English

ALTERNATE LANGUAGES:

AUDIO:

- English [Original], French, Spanish, English - Audio Description, German, Italian

SUBTITLES:

- German, Spanish, French, English, Italian

THIS SHOW IS:

- Emotional

- Gritty

SEASONS:

- 1

EPISODES:

- 10

RUNNING TIME:

- Approximately 54 to 80 minutes /episode

TOTAL BINGE TIME:

- 614 min (approx. 10.5 hrs)

AWARDS:

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe Award.

Another 5 wins & 4 nominations, including:

- NOMINATED, Golden Globes, USA

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television (2019)

Regina King

- WON, Primetime Emmy Awards

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie (2018)

Regina King

For playing "Latrice Butler"

- WON, Black Reel Awards for Television

Outstanding Writing, TV Movie/Limited Series (2018)

Veena Sud, Shalisha Francis

Episode: "A Boy and a Bike"

PRODUCTION BUDGET:

- (>)$4,000,000 US (per episode, estimated*)

INTERNATIONAL RELEASE DATES:

Country	Also Known As	Release Date
United States	Seven Seconds	Feb 23, 2018 (internet)
Spain	Seven Seconds	Feb 23, 2018 —
Sweden	—	Feb 24, 2018 (internet)
Russia	Семь секунд	— —
Greece	Εφτά Δευτερόλεπτα	— —

* based on production budgets of similar shows + the "Netflix Factor"

technical

:88 review & briefing

the 88 second 8FLiX review & binge briefing on Seven Seconds

...here's everything you'll want to know before binge-watching

Seven Seconds is a Netflix Original series, produced by East 2 West Entertainment. There are 10 episodes over 1 season. Each episode is around 60 minutes in length. Netflix has said there will not be another season.

Seven Seconds stars Clare-Hope Ashitey (KJ Harper); Michael Mosley (Joe 'Fish' Rinaldi); David Lyons (Mike DiAngelo); Russell Hornsby (Isaiah Butler); Raúl Castillo (Felix Osorio); Patrick Murney (Manny Wilcox); Zackary Momoh (Seth Butler); Michelle Veintimilla (Marie Jablonski); Beau Knapp (Peter Jablonski); Regina King (Latrice Butler); Nadia Alexander (Nadine); Jeremy Davidson (James Connelly); Coley Speaks (Vontrell 'Messiah' Odomsr); Adriana DeMeo (Teresa); and Corey Champagne (Kadeuce Porter)

For more information on who's in it, click on the "cast" tab!

The spoken language is English, and Netflix offers subtitles and audio dubbing in several languages, such as French, German, Italian, and Spanish. There may be more language options available in your area.

Seven Seconds is rated TV-MA. This series contains coarse language, violence and scenes and situations that are intended for a mature audience.

Seven Seconds, in short, could have easily been a reality show. It's not your ordinary ho-hum police procedural. It is a good, if not great, binge watching experience that will leave you with so many mixed emotions. The series focuses on race relations between a mostly black community and its mostly white police officers, specifically a corrupt unit within the department.

Want more? Read on for a spoiler free review.

88 Second 8FLiX Briefing & Review

Seven Seconds

Netflix Original Series

February 26, 2018

The binge worthy Seven Seconds centers on a Jersey City PD narcotics team, and their possible cover-up of the hit and run of a black teenage boy. The team is headed by Sgt. Mike DiAngelo (a chilling & believable David Lyons), resilient and respected among his team, and officers within the department. Mike, who has no children of his own, takes young, and mostly naïve, officers under his wing and shows them the ropes with some tough-love and conditioning. Think Denzel Washington’s character in Training Day and you’ll get a good idea of Mike DiAngelo’s personality.

DiAngelo’s newest recruit is the young, soon-to-be-a-daddy, Pete Jablonski (Beau Knapp), a cop transferred in from a “better part of the city”, at DiAngelo’s behest. The two share a loose familial bond; but that’s enough for DiAngelo to vouch for Pete and to know that he can trust him to fall-in-line when needed. Narc veterans “Manny” Gary Wilcox (Patrick Murney) and Felix Osorio (Raúl Castillo) round-out the four-man Special Investigations and Gang Unit of the JCPD. This team will do virtually anything for their leader…no, scratch that, will do anything at all for DiAngelo. He is a god in their eyes.

...he's nothing

It’s the early-morning hours after Valentines Day, and Pete is rushing to the hospital to meet his pregnant wife. The roads are slick, the snow is falling. Pete is distracted on the phone. Without a visible cue to the audience, Pete slams on the breaks and wipes out. He’s fine, but what’s under the car is not. Thankfully, we’re spared from the gory view. All we see is a bicycle tire spinning, and a homemade paper seagull attached to the frame...the significance of which becomes quite compelling when we do learn the nature of the two.

The driver of the bicycle is a young, black teenager named Brenton Butler; a suspected “banger” from Jersey City’s most feared gang. DiAngelo, with the rest of his team in the backseat of his seized-from-a-drug-dealer sports car, arrive on scene to find Pete still behind the wheel of his slightly damaged SUV, and a blood trail leading to a ditch. It’s one’s moral duty to render aid to someone who is injured. This thought would cross anyone’s mind when seeing someone critically hurt, but a cop….well, they’re obligated to help.

DiAngelo follows the blood trail to a ditch where he finds Brenton’s broken body, and a serious pool of blood. What does he do? What any selfish cop would do. Fearing an incredible backlash from the (mostly black) community over the recklessness of a white cop’s actions against a black kid, DiAngelo orders Pete to leave the scene, and instructs the rest of the team to clean up the evidence. Forget about the kid in the ditch, “He’s nothing.”

...no, you don't know

The boy’s parents, devoted and pious Latrice and Isiah Butler (Regina King and Russell Hornsby) also become victims - right from the get go. Victims of an anachronistic system where the black population are at a disadvantage starting from birth. Does anyone care about their rights? Does anyone care about Brenton? As the story plays out over the full 10-episodes, we discover the answers to those questions and get an intimate look at why “Cops don’t go to jail”, especially if the victim is black.

The series has many twists and turns, most will be of the “blind-sided” type. This isn’t your typical, “I know what’s coming next” kind of plot, even though the story may seem similar to you. For whatever reason, we have this insatiable appetite for police procedural TV, going back at least 60-years with 77 Sunset Strip (1958 – 1964). Hawaii Five-0, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Law and Order, LA Law, CSI, to name a few more. Certainly, there are a lot of shows on TV that “play the race card” and attack police for their bias. I admit I was a little skeptical of Seven Seconds at first because of that. Like those silly “coming of age” movies I’m so sick of watching, has this topic not been done enough? Are we not yet bored by dramatizations of white vs. black, race on race, BS shows? Why do we need to see another?

According to Rotten Tomatoes, of the last two-decades, ¼ of the top-40 shows on television are police-procedural. I’ve seen them all (shows like NYPD Blue, Law and Order, Homeland, The Wire) and there isn’t a single show within the group of 10 that, at some point, didn’t deal with race-relations and police bias. Most were fictional, some based on true events. The sad truth is, without real life stories, the writers would have nothing to write about, and we’d have a lot less TV to watch.

...so, what I'm saying is this

There is an element of truth to Seven Seconds. The series seems plausible, especially to those (black or white) who have had some dealings with the law. Mentions of the Ferguson, Missouri shooting come up, as do other similar real-life occurrences that have happened. We are reminded, again, of how archaic some things, some people are.

This series is powerful, and moving, make no mistake. The characters are deep and complex. They have flaws and secrets. They are like you, me, and our neighbor. The production value is what you would expect from Netflix; no expense is spared to make everything as realistic as possible.

A favorite quote of mine is by Dante. It goes, “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” That moral crisis is race relations within our own community, specifically with police. This has always been an issue during my lifetime (I’m middle-aged), as it was during my parents’ and my grandparents’. Whether the place you call home is Jersey City, like this series, or Ferguson, or where I’m from, we have all seen parts of Seven Seconds play-out in real life. I know I have, in more ways than one. That’s what makes this series hurt so much.

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cast

who's in Seven Seconds?

...a look at the main credited cast

Clare-Hope Ashitey

KJ Harper

Michael Mosley

Joe 'Fish' Rinaldi

David Lyons

Mike DiAngelo

Russell Hornsby

Isaiah Butler

Raúl Castillo

Felix Osorio

Patrick Murney

Manny Wilcox

Zackary Momoh

Seth Butler

Michelle Veintimilla

Marie Jablonski

Beau Knapp

Peter Jablonski

Regina King

Latrice Butler

Nadia Alexander

Nadine

Jeremy Davidson

James Connelly

Coley Speaks

Messiah

Adriana DeMeo

Teresa

Corey Champagne

Kadeuce Porter

Londi Brooks

Church Member

Lesli Margherita

Crystal Diangelo

Corey Marshall

Church Member

Rachel Navarro

Hennesy's Assistant

Daykwon Gaines

Brenton Butler

David Zayas

Medina

Gretchen Mol

Sam Hennessy

Fredric Lehne

Peter Jablonski, Sr.

Ron Canada

Pastor Adler

filmmakers

who made Seven Seconds?

...it takes hundreds of creative people and thousands of hours to produce something like Seven Seconds, this is only a partial list of those talented people

directors

|Ed Bianchi

... director

|Jon Amiel

... director

|Daniel Attias

... director

|Jonathan Demme

... director

|Ernest R. Dickerson

... director

|Coky Giedroyc

... director

|Tanya Hamilton

... director

|Victoria Mahoney

... director

|Gavin O'Connor

... director

writers

|Evangeline Ordaz

... writer (created by)

|Rhett Rossi

... writer

|Francesca Sloane

... writer

|Veena Sud

... writer (created by)

|John Lopez

... writer

|J. David Shanks

... writer

|Yuriy Bykov

... writer (original screenplay)

|Shalisha Francis

... writer

|Dan Nowak

... writer

producers

|Aleksey Ageyev

... co-producer

|Mando Alvarado

... co-producer

|Lawrence Bender

... executive producer

|Kevin Kelly Brown

... executive producer

|Jonathan Filley

... producer

|Shalisha Francis

... supervising producer

|Shana Fischer Huber

... co-producer

|Dan Nowak

... co-executive producer

|Gavin O'Connor

... executive producer

|Alex Reznik

... executive producer

|Veena Sud

... executive producer

|Zaur Bolotaev

... consulting producer

composer

|The Haxan Cloak

... composer

cinematographer

|Yaron Orbach

... cinematographer

editors

|Joel T. Pashby

... editor

|Philip Fowler

... editor

|Rosanne Tan

... editor

|J. Kathleen Gibson

... editor

casting

|Ross Meyerson

... casting director

|Julie Tucker

... casting director

|Libby Goldstein

... casting director

|Junie Lowry-Johnson

... casting director

production designer

|Carey Meyer

... Kalina Ivanov

art director

|Alison Ford

... supervising art director

set decorator

|Lydia Marks

... set decorator

costume designers

|Joshua Marsh

... costume designer

|Abigail Murray

... costume designer

makeup department

|Rebecca Hickey

... key makeup artist

|Linda Kaufman

... department head: makeup

|Adenike Wright

... department head: hair

|Mandrill Hardge

... hair stylist

|Milagros Medina-Cerdeira

... additional makeup artist

|Monique Benoit

... makeup artist

|David Presto

... special makeup effects artist

|Tamara Delbridge

... makeup artist

|Nancy Nieves

... hair stylist

|Tomasina Smith

... makeup artist

season 1

what's Seven Seconds about?

...here's the episode guide from the first season

The death of a 15-year-old African American boy in Jersey City sets off a police cover-up and a search for the truth.

Seven Seconds episode guide s1ep1