The Watcher is bad, Dahmer is worse, but there are still a number of great Netflix series inspired by true stories that are worth your time. Here, Vogue rounds up seven of the best to watch as the nights close in.
Maid
Ava DuVernay’s masterful four-part miniseries is undeniably harrowing—but it is also essential viewing. It casts the infinitely talented Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Ethan Herisse, Jharrel Jerome, and Marquis Rodriguez as the Central Park Five, the teenage quintet who were wrongfully accused of the rape and aggravated assault of a white woman in 1989. With steeliness and compassion, we’re taken from that fateful day to the boys’ arrest, distressing interrogations, trials, and eventual convictions, despite conflicting accounts and a lack of evidence. We then watch as they each complete their terms in juvenile facilities—except Korey Wise, the eldest, who is in adult prison—and struggle to readjust to the outside world. More than a decade later, the real perpetrator confesses, the five are exonerated and later awarded a settlement, but their lives are, of course, never the same again.