The Abyss: Linda Fairstein, “When They See Us,” and the Central Park Five

The new Netflix mini-series, “When They See Us,” is the best kind of grenade. Its four episodes, expertly directed and co-written by Ava DuVernay, dissect the infamous case of the “Central Park Five,” five young men who were tried and convicted of beating and raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989 — only to have their convictions vacated thirteen years later.

DuVernay’s narrative is complex, and yet it speeds along. The first episode is a master class in cross-cutting between the boys rousted off the streets and forced into interrogation rooms, where NYPD interrogators unleash a full barrage of techniques — beatings, lies, physical intimidation — to get them to confess. These early scenes also show Linda Fairstein, head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, as a key orchestrator of the railroading: Once she locks on the boys as potential suspects, she’s more than happy to rearrange the facts to suit her narrative.

(That Fairstein is played by Felicity Huffman, who recently pled guilty to fraud and faces serious jail time, is an irony not lost on anyone.)

For months before “When They See Us” debuted, Fairstein’s supporters rumbled about the show’s unfairness, and now it’s easy to see why: As portrayed by Huffman, Fairstein is a psychopath’s…