FX network tops its Emmy-winning miniseries “Fargo” with the crazy and riveting “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” premiering Tuesday.
Producer Ryan Murphy takes viewers behind the scenes to the private homes, conference rooms, offices and courtroom chambers of all the involved parties to show how justice — in the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman — never stood a chance in Hollywood’s church of fame.
The O.J. trial was an embarrassing example of how Americans cherish their illusions about athletes and celebrities, and Murphy and co-creators Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski provide telling details to drive that home — from the gold statue O.J. erected to himself in his back yard to the spectacle of O.J.’s white Ford Bronco chauffeur, A.C. Cowlings (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), telling the police where and how O.J. (Cuba Gooding Jr.) will allow himself to be arrested after leading them on a 60-mile wild goose chase.
The first two episodes — which track the night of the June 12, 1994, murders and the day after — are the best of the six (out of 10 total) available to reviewers. They are also the most visually interesting, showing how TV got everyone talking about the case, with scenes of Simpson fans cheering him on from freeway overpasses as he fled the police, and sports fans who were outraged when coverage of the NBA playoffs was interrupted to air the now-infamous chase.
Once the trial gets under way, the show can seem like a collection of sedentary scenes of egomaniacal lawyers sitting around tables outmaneuvering each other, talking to O.J. in jail or scowling at each other in the courtroom. Fortunately, a first-rate cast makes the procedure seem as dramatic as possible.
As Johnnie Cochran, Courtney B. Vance wastes little time in taking over the series, just as the defense attorney did in the courtroom. Here is a peacock so pristine, he keeps his rainbow-colored suits on a dry cleaner-like rack. Vance easily upstages John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, dismissing him as a “plea-bargain guy” who doesn’t have the spine to endure a long trial.
As Marcia Clark, Sarah Paulson conveys the prosecutor’s initial overconfidence, and then her growing vulnerability in court when she’s vilified in the tabloids for something as minor as changing her hairdo. Watch her carefully in Episode 6, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.”
Everybody remembers where they were when the Bronco chase was on TV and where they were when the not-guilty verdict was announced. “The People v. O.J. Simpson” is a sober, hilarious and shocking reminder of that day when justice took a back seat to fame.