Emmy FYC: The People v. O.J. Simpson for Best Limited Series
Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 8:00PM We're sharing Emmy FYCs as nomination balloting continues. Here's Lynn Lee...
When promotional clips first started appearing for The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, I found myself wondering what on earth FX could be thinking. The whole thing seemed like an obvious misfire: Cuba Gooding, Jr. didn’t look or sound anything like O.J.; John Travolta seemed to be channeling his inner alien under layers of makeup and Botox and a perpetually, awkwardly raised chin; and who was going to be interested in a dramatization of a trial that had saturated the media over 20 years ago and was now being produced by Ryan Murphy, the king of camp? How could it be anything but terrible?
Well, turns out FX knew what it was doing. Not only was The People v. O.J. Simpson not terrible, it just may turn out to be the best drama series of the year. There are many reasons why the show worked as well as it did, and why it deserves Emmy recognition, but three stand out...
First, it made the “trial of the century” relevant again by framing the story in terms of issues that have become more, not less, resonant today: race, gender, and the inevitable churn of the 24-hour news cycle into an insatiable hunt for infotainment. Right from the get-go, the establishing image is the video of the Rodney King beating that eventually led to the 1992 L.A. riots and exposed the deep fault lines between whites and blacks in their experience with the police. It’s the first hint that the trial that follows will end up being a trial not of Simpson but of the LAPD. Far from oversimplifying, the show engages in a really thoughtful exploration of that theme from the varied perspectives of the major black characters: Johnnie Cochran and Christopher Darden, the two black attorneys on opposing sides of the case, each driven by a complicated mixture of desire for justice and desire for personal validation, and Simpson himself, who the show makes painfully clear was the unintended beneficiary of black anger against the police despite his own wholesale adoption of the rich white circles of his L.A. celebrity lifestyle.
At the same time, the writers don’t just focus on the role of race alone in the Simpson trial. They also offer an equally nuanced treatment of gender and the way in which sexism tends to get coopted without comment into societal and cultural norms, from the negative reactions stirred by a woman in the public eye (here, prosecutor Marcia Clark) who’s perceived as overly aggressive or hard-edged or having bad hair or bad fashion sense, to society’s effective tolerance of domestic abuse. Indeed, it’s the latter point that proves Clark’s blind spot: to her, it’s so clear that the murders were the final culmination of a long cycle of abuse and violence, she can’t see that other factors and narratives are taking over the case.
Second, perhaps even more importantly, The People v. O.J. Simpson manages to make events that still linger in the public memory, at least in their broad strokes, newly entertaining and suspenseful. Based in large part on Jeffrey Toobin’s The Run of His Life, the series captures the most momentous and noteworthy beats of the trial, including developments so outlandish you’d be forgiven for thinking they were added for dramatic effect—except they weren’t, proving anew that truth can be stranger than fiction. Most admirable is the economy of the storytelling: in just ten crisply paced episodes it distills everything about the months-long trial that made it such a media feeding frenzy, without losing sight of the underpinning social tensions that made it actually significant.
Third, and perhaps most important of all, is the acting. There’s no doubt that the three MVPs of the cast—Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, Sterling K. Brown as Chris Darden, and Courtney B. Vance as Cochran—deserve Emmy nominations of their own. They’re outstanding. But almost as striking is the consistent quality of the entire ensemble, from Nathan Lane’s canny, unexpectedly understated turn as the calculating F. Lee Bailey to the always-reliable Bruce Greenwood’s harried district attorney Gil Garcetti, to David Schwimmer’s surprisingly poignant performance as Rob Kardashian, who goes from being “the Juice”’s most stalwart supporter to racked by serious doubts about his friend’s innocence. And despite being completely physically miscast as Simpson, Cuba Gooding, Jr. does a creditable job conveying the ex-athlete’s odd mixture of self-pity, self-aggrandizement, and shrewd self-promotion. Even Travolta’s kabuki act as defense attorney Robert Shapiro grew on me after awhile: something about its mannered, off-putting artificiality seemed to channel the surrealness of the overall spectacle Shapiro inadvertently helped launch.
I don’t know where American Crime Story will go from here. Word is it’s turning to Hurricane Katrina for its next season, which is potentially promising, and that Ryan Murphy will take on an more active role, which is less so. (Although I wouldn’t object to his relying heavily on the same cast again, as he’s done in his other “American” franchise, especially if he includes Paulson, Brown, and Vance.) But it’s hard to imagine season 2 will top The People v. O.J. Simpson for sheer strength of both conception and execution. Here’s hoping that Emmy recognizes the series in its freshman outing rather than waiting for it to bottle lightning again.
Reader Comments (22)
Great write-up.
Although in my book, as excellent as it was, American Crime Story can't hold a candle to American Crime when it comes to gut-punching limited series.
(And it's still too soon after Treme for me to imagine Ryan Murphy tackling Katrina as a more active co-creator.)
Sarah Paulson for Best Actress and Sterling K. Brown for Best Supporting Actor!
I will riot if Sarah Paulson doesn't win an Emmy this year.
This is Sarah Paulson's
OscarEmmy. Sterling K Brown is so handsome and Vance proves he's the alpha thespian in his household.Is this show on Netflix or Amazon? I would have given Sarah Paulson an award for that witches story arc on AHS. Pure camp, but she was golden. Very great actress. I am super excited for Florence Foster Jenkins. The news recently has been so heavy and dreary.
"Poignant" and "David Schwimmer" just don't go together in the same sentence.
It was on FX, like American Horror Story. Paulson's up for Lead on Crime and Supporting on Horror (in two roles).
I do so hope that Sterling K. Brown gets some awards love. Of course Sarah Paulson for ALL THE AWARDS, but Brown had to play perhaps the most complicated character and did it superbly.
I think Tom was asking if the show is available now on Netflix or Amazon? I believe it's available on Amazon.
And Paul, I hear you on the difficulty of topping Treme, which is/was such a terrific (and underrated) show. I was originally thinking ACS would focus on the Danziger bridge shootings/trials (which was just one plot thread in Treme), but it sounds like they're going broader than that.
Re: Schwimmer, I stand by "poignant." He's actually quite solid in this, though not at the level of the Paulson-Brown-Vance trio.
I thought Travolta was great as Shapiro. His performance was no more odd than the man himself.
I absolutely loved the series with Paulson and Vance the standouts.
However, I am divided by my love for American Crime... the acting was superb... I cannot think of the young boy's name... but he was amazing.
Also, I really loved Freddie Highmore and Vera in Bates Motel.
TV is becoming so much better than movies.
Sarah Paulson better win her overdue Emmy for this! She was absolutely amazing and moved me to tears in the episode, "Marcia Marcia Marcia."
She should have 2 Emmy's already: One for Asylum and one for Freak Show
did you not see fargo?
Will ROOTS be competing in the same Emmy category as ACS: PEOPLE V OJ? If so, I'm worried Emmy voters will confuse importance/history with greatness and give it to ROOTS. Don't get me wrong, ROOTS is good and deserves Emmys in many technical categories (and maybe even Directing) but it's not transcendent like the original miniseries and ACS PEOPLE V OJ is one of the greatest television programs of all time.
There is so much competition in the limited series categories this year that they have become the ones to watch this year over the drama and comedy categories which just seem like it's going to repeat with Veep and GOT. The fact Fargo, American Crime, American Crime Story, Roots and Show Me a Hero are in the same category is beyond me because there all so great and picking one is really difficult.
Don't even get me started on the acting categories because they are so full of worthy work that it almost would need it's own separate post just to list the best.
With that makeup job, Travolta should be playing latter day Joan Crawford in Murphy's "Feud," not Jessica Lange!
Roots is indeed eligible and competing.
Also, the actors in all the above named miniseries will be competing against the ones in TV movies like Bryan Cranston, Bradley Whitford, Anthony Mackie, Frank Langella, Stephen Root, Melissa Leo, Kerry Washington, Wendell Pierce, Jennifer Hudson, Greg Kinnear, Eric Stonestreet, Grace Gummer, Zoe Lister-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Jennifer Nettles, Ricky Schroder, Gerald McRaney, Ian McKellen, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Rose Leslie, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Mark Gatiss, Rupert Graves, Andrew Scott, Maggie Grace, Uzo Aduba, Adam Brody, Cicely Tyson, Elizabeth McGovern, Kenneth Branagh, Ricky Gervais, Eric Bana, Vera Farmiga, America Ferrera, Benjamin Bratt, Kelly Macdonald, Kevin Pollak, Bill Murray, George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Paul Shaffer, Rashida Jones, Michael Cera and Maya Rudolph...
I still feel like Sterling K Brown was MVP for such an understated performance. It took some time for me to realize how good he actually was. I want him to win.
I can't tell what to think of Travolta. It feels like he was playing one of his 90's bad guys. But where is the man that made Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He was so good in those films.
The next season is going to be based on the book The Great Deluge, by Douglas Brinkley (I haven't read it), as this season was based on The Run of His Life, by Jeffrey Toobin (I did read it and would recommend it to anyone wanting to supplement the series - it's outstanding). I believe it's going to be about government corruption in the wake of Katrina.
Paul Outlaw, you missed Oscar Isaac and the rest of the cast of Show Me a Hero.
Oh wait - *I* missed that Show Me a Hero was already mentioned. I am just nervous that it's going to be overlooked. It wasn't very flashy.
Suzanne, my list is actors in *only some* of the TV movies—Hero is one of the limited series...
it's clear that if Sarah Paulson doesn't win an Emmy for this, then she never will win one (but the irony would be if she ends up winning for AHS: Hotel instead of this)