When We Rise

Did You Know?

• The miniseries won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series at the 29th GLAAD Media Awards.
• The scheduling was shifted to accommodate live coverage of President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on February 28, 2017.

Production

The series consists of seven parts totaling eight hours. Gus Van Sant directed the first two-hour part, Dee Rees directed parts two and three, Thomas Schlamme directed parts four and five, and Dustin Lance Black directed parts six and seven. The miniseries is partially inspired by the memoir When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by LGBT activist Cleve Jones. Van Sant and Black had previously collaborated on Milk, which also featured Cleve Jones as a major character.

Casting announcements began on March 15, 2016, with Carrie Preston cast as Sally Gearhart. On April 26, 2016, additional principal cast members were announced, including Guy Pearce as Cleve Jones, Mary-Louise Parker as Roma Guy, Rachel Griffiths as Diane, Michael K. Williams as Ken Jones, Ivory Aquino as Cecilia Chung, Kevin McHale as Bobbi Campbell, Dylan Walsh as Dr. Marcus Conant, Rafael de la Fuente as Ricardo, Austin P. McKenzie as young Cleve Jones, Emily Skeggs as young Roma Guy, Jonathan Majors as young Ken Jones, Fiona Dourif as young Diane, Whoopi Goldberg as Pat Norman, Rosie O'Donnell as Del Martin, Denis O'Hare as Jim Foster, and David Hyde Pierce as Cleve's father, Dr. Jones.

T. R. Knight was cast as Chad Griffin and Richard Schiff as Judge Vaughn Walker on June 22, 2016. Guest stars included Rob Reiner, Pauley Perrette, William Sadler, Phylicia Rashad, Alexandra Grey, Mary McCormack, Arliss Howard, and Henry Czerny. Charlie Carver was cast as Michael on November 21, 2016. Chris Bacon and Danny Elfman composed the music, and the soundtrack album was released on Hollywood Records, Inc and iTunes.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 82% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The site's critical consensus states that the series works as a well-meaning outreach project with a decent cast, even if the script's ambitious reach slightly exceeds its grasp. Metacritic gives the series a score of 67 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that in a film festival environment, stories of otherness and barrier-breaking are part of the expected tapestry, and When We Rise might play as a bit quaint, muted, and smoothed out for mainstream audiences, which it very clearly is; but even in 2017, when boundaries have been pushed and voices are as diverse as ever, the series feels like a rather astounding thing to find on network TV.

James Poniewozik of The New York Times described the series as a rebuttal, noting that as a television drama it often plays like a high-minded, dutiful educational video, but at its best moments it is also a timely statement that identity is not just an abstraction but a matter of family, livelihood, life and death. Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times observed that a scene could have been from recent protests in the stormy first weeks of the Donald Trump presidency, but peering closer at the 1970s garb and cameras recording the scene reveals a re-creation of another tumultuous time; the writer-director remained optimistic that the series would appeal to a mainstream audience, including Trump supporters, because of its focus on family, emotion and perseverance.

Danette Chavez of The A.V. Club wrote that the series tries very hard to bring all of those moments and history makers to light, tracing the converging paths of gay activists who thwarted Prop 6, were later devastated by the rise of AIDS, and then rallied back to win marriage equality in 2015; a central trio of characters anchors the story, which runs through four decades from 1971 to 2015 roughly.

Historical accuracy

Cleve Jones, a gay activist featured in the miniseries, noted that minor factual adjustments made to the decades-spanning story of certain individuals and events do not undermine its authenticity. The script was researched and written over four years by Black, who consulted many real-life figures. Several actors also met the people they played. Archival footage of real events appears throughout the episodes.