TIME: The Kalief Browder Story

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Season 1
User Score
6.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 3 out of 10
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User Reviews

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  1. Bertaut1
    Apr 23, 2019
    8
    Unbearably painful

    Created by Julia Willoughby-Nason, Jenner Furst, and Nick Sandow, directed by Furst, and with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Harvey Weinstein serving as executive producers, this six-part documentary tells the almost unbearably tragic story of Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old who was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. With his family unable to afford the $900 bail,    Unbearably painful

    Created by Julia Willoughby-Nason, Jenner Furst, and Nick Sandow, directed by Furst, and with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Harvey Weinstein serving as executive producers, this six-part documentary tells the almost unbearably tragic story of Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old who was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. With his family unable to afford the $900 bail, Browder spent 1,111 days in Rikers, despite never being convicted of a crime. Turning down nine plea deals, Browder refused to admit to something he didn't do just so he could go home. With his case brought to court and delayed multiple times, Browder spent over 800 days in solitary confinement, where his mental health rapidly deteriorated. Indeed, the episodes dealing with his time in Rikers, and the experience and effects of long-term solitary confinement, are almost too horrific to bear.

    Were this fiction, the litany of abuses he suffers, and the details of how the system failed him, would be rejected as ridiculous, with his nightmare continuing even upon his release; in two separate incidents, he was shot and stabbed, and was later sectioned, as he became increasingly paranoid and unstable. Telling the parallel story of the anguish of his doting mother, if I had one criticism, it would be that the narrative is stretched too thin. Much like The Keepers, there isn't enough material here to warrant this many episodes, and it does lapse into repetition at times. Nevertheless, this is harrowing stuff; highly recommended.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Universal acclaim - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    Mar 7, 2017
    100
    Remarkable film.... Based on a look at the first two episodes, this particularly well-produced film insists that even in death, Kalief Browder can still change a broken system--and must.
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  2. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    Mar 1, 2017
    90
    I watch some disturbing things in this job, but I can't remember the last time anything left me as shaken as Time: The Kalief Browder Story.
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  3. Boston Herald
    Reviewed by: Mark A. Perigard
    Feb 28, 2017
    83
    Time’s biggest takeaway is that cases like this--indigent defendants being abused by the judicial and then the corrections system--are more the norm than the exception.
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