By Juan C. Ayllon We’ve all been there. A relative in distress. A baby on the way. We rush to the hospital in a panic. In a hurry. And, by the grace of God, we arrive, unscathed, to tend to our loved one. Only in this story, it does not play out that way. A frantic rookie policeman, Peter Jablonski (played by Beau Knapp), speeds down an icy Jersey City road in his SUV, talking on his cell phone, anxious to get to the hospital for his wife and the birth of their baby.
Bang! He’s struck something. His truck spins out of control and after it slides to a rest, he opens the door to find a mangled bike below. Yards away, in a roadside embankment, there’s a large patch of blood in the snow and the bludgeoned body of a black youth (mortally wounded, but not dead, as Jablonski believes). Distraught, he calls his grizzled sergeant, who runs a corrupt undercover drug sting operation. Jablonski’s told that unless he sets aside his ideals and covers it up, he will never, ever be able to be there for his wife and kid. In a moment, principle succumbs to expediency as the young man is left in a bloody ice patch for someone else to find. “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.” The parents of the victim, Isaiah (Russell Hornsby) and Latrice Butler (Regina King) are committed church choir members. After they receive the news that their son, Brenton, is at a hospital in critical condition, they find solace in faith and prayer with their fellowship. Holding hands, heads bowed down, the mantra, “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good,” comforts them like a warm blanket. However they experience a bone jarring collision of their own when Brenton dies. Their world, their marriage and their faith are sent on a frightful, slow motion skid, and as the search for the their son’s killer intensifies, questions, character flaws and long suppressed resentments surface. “How can you leave my son to die in the cold like that?” Latrice asks. Why are the deaths of African American youth so easily dismissed, while those of whites are deemed tragic? Then, as news breaks of possible police cover up, racial tensions give way to protests. And, of course, there’s the age old question of “If there’s a loving God, why do bad things happen to good people?” Broken People in a Broken System The movie is rife with flawed characters. The protagonist, Assistant State Prosecutor K.J. Harper (Clare-Hope Ashitey), is an alcoholic, sex addict and adulterer who’s slept with her boss, the State Prosecutor, while her investigator, Joe “Fish” Rinaldi (Michael Mosley), having failed as a father and husband is now the male equivalent of a “cat lady”, living with a small pack of dogs; Isaiah Butler is a workaholic, strict and sometimes abusive disciplinarian, while Latrice who’s done her best to hold the family together, coddle and love on their son, is falling apart. And their church, for all its faithfulness, serves them with a bill for bereavement services, which Isaiah’s brother, Seth (Zackary Momoh) -- a model ex-gang member who leaves the gang to serve his country, only to return to selling drugs on street corners when he cannot find a job as an armed services veteran -- laments. Then there’s Jablonski, a “straight arrow” fresh from the police academy, who loses his way in trying to protect his wife and child from the traumas he’s suffered as the son of an abusive alcoholic. Despite his egregious sins, he’s humanized, as are his more seasoned compadres on his undercover team. As reptilian as is his sergeant, Mike DiAngelo (David Lyons), he shows a tender side, embracing Jablonski and telling him that he’s got a great future, but in order to survive, he must harden his heart towards the riffraff and put family first at all costs -- a point he demonstrates by putting a hit order on him when his continued existence threatens their freedom. As decency slam into inequality, injustice and corruption, the characters muddle through, fleshing out their faith or credos, seeking to make sense out of the moral morass and, in the end, though wrongs are not righted as they should, there is a small moral victory that, like a sculptor’s chisel, chips away at the status quo, bit by bit, with the potential to reshape culture --- or maybe not. As with life, there’s no tidy ending, but a glimmer of hope. Padded Fluff? The 10 episode series, captained by creator and executive producer Veena Sud, has great production value, but drags out a bit, as Scott Medlow said in his recent GQ critique. I am reminded of when John Cleese went off script as the crowd hissed on a live filmed episode of Monty Python: “Do you know how hard it is to pad a show to last a full 30 minutes?” That said, it’s a television series for goodness sake! As with other popular serial dramas like 24 or Blindspot, its storyline stretches on, yet scintillates and leaves the viewer hanging, waiting for the next episode to start. Taking it over our hi-fi system with tower speakers, a 15 inch subwoofer and 4K TV, my wife and I were so engrossed that we passed on the first two live episodes of our favorite singing competition, The Voice, (we recorded them) in order to catch the ending. We just couldn’t wait. And although their characters are a tad extreme at times, I did not find them cartoonish like as Liz Raftery claimed in her TV Guide review, but well articulated and acted. Convicted murderer and ex-cop Drew Peterson comes to mind as a real life example of the hubris and disregard for human life that Mike DiAngelo -- and to a lesser extent, his crew -- demonstrate time and again. Having spent most of my life in Chicagoland reading and watching periodic news of Windy City police corruption and brutality, I do not consider these villains a stretch. The saying, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” applies, and a glance at national and international news bears out the notion that whenever there are relationships of innequal power without accountability, bad things often happen, whether it’s in sexual, racial, spiritual or political arenas. Bottom line, at our core, we are all flawed human beings with choices that define us -- and consequences, which can be further reaching than we’d imagine. Hopefully, as a society, we will continue to make inroads towards restorative justice for the less powerful and, then, the tragedies of the real life Brenton Butlers will not be in vain. Netflix’s ‘Seven Seconds’ delivers the goods with impact and relevance, but don’t take my word for it. Watch it and decide for yourself.
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