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*Regina King has slayed another role…this time playing a mother looking for answers following the brutal death of her son in the Netflix anthology series “Seven Seconds,” due Feb. 23.
Latrice Butler (King) and her husband Isaiah (Russell Hornsby) are faced with every parent’s nightmare when their 15-year-old son is found left for dead in a ditch. Not only was young Brenton the victim of a hit-and-run, but also a cover-up that leaves everyone involved spiraling into chaos.
Race inevitably bobs and weaves throughout the 10 episodes – the victims are black, the assistant prosecutor is black and the cops are white and Hispanic. But nothing about “Seven Seconds” is black and white. The corrupt Jersey City cops struggle both to stay ahead of the investigation and suppress their own guilt over the cover up. The Butlers, meanwhile, begin to turn on each other over the strain of their loss and the frustration of not knowing how it happened.
King will make you feel every ounce of Latrice’s heartbreak and desperation as it bumps up against repeated lies from the police and her own husband’s tough love. Also, consider this a breakout moment for U.K. actress Clare-Hope Ashitey as KJ Harper, tasked with prosecuting the case while fighting her own alcohol-fueled demons. Her character’s lack of emotion may initially come off as one note, and her flashes of drunkenness more over the top than sad, but as the source of KJ’s depression crystalizes, her flatness deepens and offers a jarring payoff the few times she does decide to go off.
A storyline involving Brenton’s uncle (Zackary Momoh), a returning vet with gang ties, was unnecessarily stuffed into an already busy plot to underscore the case’s racial element. But what’s most interesting about “Seven Seconds” is that every character is trying to cover up something, no one is a saint and the abandonment theme is not restricted to just Brenton being left in the snow to die.
Inspired by the Russian film “The Major” and developed for Netflix by Veena Sud (“The Killing”), “Seven Seconds” is at its core an exploration of forgiveness, and how the lack of it – whether for yourself or others – causes lives to be cut short.
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