FX’s new anthology series, American Crime Story, is off to a stellar start.
It’s telling that the opening scene of The People v. O.J. Simpson, the first season of FX’s new American Crime Story anthology series, doesn’t directly relate to the O.J. Simpson trial. Instead, it’s news footage of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the six-day fallout of the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, that sets the tone for the story being told.
In that way, it’s especially fitting that The People v. O.J. Simpson debut in 2016, a time when racial tensions are again especially high in the United States. As the creators of the series explained recently, their intent with this reexamination of O.J. Simpson’s trial wasn’t to determine whether he was guilty or innocent, but to strive to explain why the case wasn’t an easy win for the prosecution.
Cuba Gooding Jr. and Joseph Butler in The People v. OJ Simpson
After watching the first six episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson’s 10-episode arc, it’s clear that creators Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt), as well as producers Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk (American Horror Story) and Brad Simpson, have delivered on that intent. Each episode explores a various facet of the case — from the Bronco chase to Johnnie Cochran’s ascension in the defense team to the hubbub over Marcia Clark’s perm — in an effort to showcase the way many elements outside of the trial of O.J. Simpson played a role in its outcome.
The roots of those issues are integral to the series’ first episode, “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” which premieres Tuesday, February 2nd. After the L.A. Riots prologue, The People v. O.J. Simpson’s premiere plays out the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were found murdered, and explores the immediate aftermath of that. The depiction of the night of the murder sets up a number of key moments that are later called into question — the glove, that O.J. didn’t ask how Nicole died when the police alerted him of her death, etc. — later in the series.
Sarah Paulson and Christian Clemenson on The People v. OJ Simpson
The night of the murder plays through in real time until the mysterious glove is found, at which point the police on site determine “this is a crime scene.” From there, “From the Ashes of Tragedy” establishes each of its key players: O.J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), who is clearly in a spiraling emotional state throughout the entire episode; District Attorney prosecutor Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson), who is juggling a case that seems like a slam dunk with divorce proceedings in her personal life; O.J.’s best friend and moral compass Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer); Robert Shapiro (John Travolta), who comes in to lead O.J.’s defense team; and Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance), the lawyer who became integral to O.J.’s eventual “not guilty” ruling but who at this point is staying away from a case that is clearly “a loser.”
Though the casting of people like Gooding as Simpson and Schwimmer as Kardashian might not seem like an immediate fit, each of the casting decisions in this series are fully validated by the end of the first episode. Like The People v. O.J. Simpson’s creators and writers, Alexander and Karaszewski, it’s clear that each of the members of the cast understood the weight and significance of the story they were telling, and that’s reflected in their performances. American Crime Story isn’t a documentary, but it also isn’t slipping far into fiction; the primary source of information being drawn upon is Jeffrey Toobin’s The Run of His Life: The People v. OJ Simpson, and each of the key cast members read the books their real-life characters wrote about the case and kept it on hand for reference throughout filming.
David Schwimmer and John Travolta on The People v. OJ Simpson
But The People v. O.J. Simpson is about more than just O.J.’s story; it’s about how issues such as race and celebrity made the case be about more than just murder, and that’s a situation that still feels culturally relevant more than two decades later. Beyond the Rodney King framing, those subjects come through in the interaction between Cochran and District Attorney prosecutor Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown), who Cochran challenges to “choose a side” on the subject of race. “The world needs more black men willing to make a difference,” he says. This comes into play later in the season, especially as Cochran and Darden find themselves on the opposite sides of the courtroom.
The writing and acting of the series is phenomenal in shading in the grey, and that’s highlighted in Gooding’s depiction of O.J. Many people will bring to the show whether they think he is guilty or innocent, and Gooding specifically doesn’t play into either expectation. The People v. O.J. Simpson isn’t out to slap a guilty verdict on him, but instead continue the public’s fascination with true crime and failures in the judicial system, and from the start it excels at that. It only helps that it’s innately watchable and addictive.
