TV: The People Vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story

[spike]

guys, this is solid television. tune in for a good time.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Yeah we like it

[The Argonaut]

C'mon rudd...

[spike]

i knew you wouldn't let me down, ruddo.

[spike]

C'mon rudd...

i'm not shocked the camp aspect is lost on you

[The Argonaut]

You should also thank rudd's wife.

[spike]

oh, i'd love to.

[epilogue]

It gets better and better with each episode. This last one, ep 6?, was fantastic. And a tough watch. Sarah Paulson is killing it.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[Strat]

So this is seriously good and worth watching? Like, not in a campy way? Does it add anything to the narrative that's not already there for someone who was a teenager during the trial?

I can't decide. Im going to watch it all the way through and ive enjoyed it, but it feels like it should maybe be ont he lifetime movie network instead.

Also, Travolta's face is - Something else.

[epilogue]

So this is seriously good and worth watching? Like, not in a campy way? Does it add anything to the narrative that's not already there for someone who was a teenager during the trial?

There are some campy elements, but that's all part of the concept/narrative. So they work. It gets less campy as it goes along. Once Ryan Murphy steps away from behind the camera the show gets better. Episodes 5 and 6 are riveting, compelling storytelling.

It tackles all the things that were going on at the time and it paints the events into the fabric of society. This trial changed everything. And the show is examining all of it. They tackle the complexities of the race issue in a fresh, honest, and thorough way. They examine what this trial did to tabloid journalism and the birth of reality tv.

The show is less about OJ and the trial than it is the others people (the attorneys specifically) involved. It's expansive and has tremendous depth. There are brilliant performances (Sarah Paulson, Courtney B Vance, Sterling K. Brown, Connie Britton). It's really outstanding tv that is talking about this massive cultural phenomenon and examining all the social aspects as well as the ethics involved at all levels, and the complete impact on our society today.

I highly recommend it. The first two episodes are the cheesiest/campiest. But bear with it. Enjoy the camp. It's there for a reason. It's high melodrama but so was the actual event itself. When I think back on what actually happened... when I remember the events, the circus... it was melodramatic and absurd. The show captures all of it without feeling biased or exploitative or cagey.

[Jorge]

David Schwimmer is in this and I fear I won't be able to get over how much I hate him and everything he's ever been in

[Strat]

David Schwimmer is in this and I fear I won't be able to get over how much I hate him and everything he's ever been in

Travolta's face is much much worse.

Also that speech he gives his daughters (the kardashians) about being good people was kind of a.....jab on them, yes?

[epilogue]

David Schwimmer is in this and I fear I won't be able to get over how much I hate him and everything he's ever been in

He's laughable in this. But, again, that's part of the point. You'll love hating him in this.

[epilogue]

David Schwimmer is in this and I fear I won't be able to get over how much I hate him and everything he's ever been in

Travolta's face is much much worse.

Also that speech he gives his daughters (the kardashians) about being good people was kind of a.....jab on them, yes?

A jab? I don't know. But it was definitely tongue-in-cheek. And another reference to how this trial gave birth to reality television. We likely don't know who the fuck the Kardashians are if not for OJ fucking Simpson (allegedly) killing Nicole Brown.

[Strat]

lol @ allegedly tho

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

lol @ allegedly tho

Spoiler: show

[Strat]

Its fun for me because i think i was in 7th grade during this? Some memories come back but i dont recall the racial aspect of it all. I was young and white.

[epilogue]

David Schwimmer is in this and I fear I won't be able to get over how much I hate him and everything he's ever been in

Travolta's face is much much worse.

Also that speech he gives his daughters (the kardashians) about being good people was kind of a.....jab on them, yes?

A jab? I don't know. But it was definitely tongue-in-cheek. And another reverence to how this trial gave birth to reality television. We likely don't know who the fuck the Kardashians are if not for OJ fucking Simpson (allegedly) killing Nicole Brown.

I'm definitely intrigued by the crime/reality tv aspect of this, but this last comment seems like a stretch. Aren't they basically famous because one of them made a sex tape?

But why did anyone care that a Kardashian made a sex tape? Why did the Kardashians go into reality TV? It all goes back to OJ and the fact that Robert Kardashian was one of OJ's lawyers and best friends. It's all complex but the show does a great job of tying everything together. The whole country shifted during that trial. Things were never the same.

Angry Los Angeles jurors, large personality lawyers, a judge that clearly pines for the camera, the "Dancing Ito's" on The Tonight Show, all the while the trial is televised 24/7 for nearly a year.

DNA evidence becomes a household phrase, which spawns a new genre of TV shows, the "medical procedural" along with the Kardashian family and the boom of Reality programming. It's all there.

There's also some great in depth stuff into Marcia Clark. They dig into the way the public perceived her during the whole thing. They get into the gross misogynistic politics of the whole thing. You really care about these people and root for them in surprising ways.

You should check it out.