I binge watched the show and although I appreciate the message it appeared to be sending, there were too many things that affected the credibility of the show and therefore my enjoyment of it. First of all, as one familiar with the criminal justice system, there were too many times proper procedures were not followed, or ignored. For example, if the DA has the key witness for grand jury testimony, one who your entire case rests on, you guard against any possible event that will prevent the witness from testifying. Take Naomi. To have her in a youth center holding, even though ordered by child protective services, is absurd. You get a protection order from the grand jury and have her under lock and key until she testifies. Another bothersome detail was that it was concluded that she died of a self-induced heroin overdose, but later, Fish references one of the accused cops having scratch marks on his arms. If you suspect that, you get DNA samples from Naomi's fingernails to indicate that it might have been a forced overdose which raises the question of foul play by the dirty cops who would benefit from her "going away". There were just too many forced plot twists to mention that harmed the prosecution that could have been avoided. And finally, the trial was unrealistic from a legal standpoint. As an attorney, I was objecting on every question and found most of the trial scenes to be nearly laughable. I know it's necessary to try to condense a trial to a couple of episodes, but a trial of that magnitude and community importance would have lasted weeks, if not months. It also struck me that there was a similarity in some scenes that seemed to be taken right out of "The Wire", which in my mind was the most realistic depiction of urban struggle between the street drug life versus the police/legal/political machine.
Review of Seven Seconds
