Geekscape Recaps: ‘American Crime Story: The People VS OJ Simpson’
Not Guilty. The 9 month trial of The People vs. Orenthal James Simpson had come to a close on Tuesday morning and O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the brutal stabbings that resulted in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Based on the book by Jeffrey Toobin, “The Run of His Life: The People vs. Orenthal James Simpson”, FX brings to the screen, American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson. The show is set to explore the chaotic behind the scene activities from both the prosecution and defense teams of this case. The show will explore the workings of how the defense team got what they needed to maneuver the case in their favor, providing reasonable doubt and thus winning their case.
The first part of this ten-part series opens on the night of the murders in which Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Furman were found brutally murdered. OJ Simpson apologizes to his driver outside of his home, not his ex-wife’s home, and is taken to LAX for a trip to Chicago, which is where the LAPD calls him to inform him of his wife’s death.
The defense team that will work with OJ Simpson is comprised of Robert Shapiro, played by John Travolta, who has all the right answers and very calculated in how he wants things done. Robert Kardashian, played by David Schwimmer (Ross from Friends) is a long time friend of OJ’s. Schwimmer plays Kardashian with a very nervous composure. Disbelief that his friend could do this, fuels the performance. Courtney B. Vance, who plays Johnny Cochran, the lawyer who historically said, “If the glove does not fit, you must acquit,” is introduced, despite not being on the Defense team. Yet.
On the opposing side is Marcia Clarke, played by Sarah Paulson, who was playing double duty with American Horror Story: Hotel. Marcia Clarke was one of the people who did not know who O.J. Simpson was. To her he was “the guy in the Heinz commercials.” Not the Heisman trophy winner from USC. His celebrity-dom did not deter her from going after him with the full force of the legal system, seemingly on her side, in what should be an open and closed case. There was blood on and in the white bronco that belonged to O.J., there was blood leading up to the house, and the LAPD found a glove at the Nicole’s home and Simpson’s home with blood of both parties. She had everything she needed to arrest him.
The LAPD shows up to the location where Shapiro told Clarke they would be and they, Shapiro and Kardashian were fully prepared to cooperate with the authorities. As was O.J., if he was there.
Where could O.J. be? Speeding down the freeway, with his friend A.C, played by Malcolm Jamal Warner, weaving in and out traffic determined to get away.
To further feed the possibility that OJ was an abusive man and the plausibility that he did in fact kill his wife conversation at Nicole’s funeral between Connie Britton and Selma Blair, who portray Faye Resnick and Kris Kardashian, where the women reveal that Nicole was brutally abused by OJ Simpson and that she was afraid of him and would hide the abuse. The two women are waiting for O.J. Simpson to show up, which he does, and presses a kiss to his dead wife’s forehead.
In most instances, we the audience know more than the characters. In this case, it can be argued that yes, the audience does know more than the characters, given the fact that this takes place in the past and we have already lived it.
With the information that is presented in the first episode, regardless if we know absolutely nothing about the case or watched the news every day while the trial was happening, the writers have made us the third party. They have presented key pieces of evidence that will help us at a later date come to our own conclusion. At the beginning stages, we know very little, and it could be argued that this show, is a visual trial and we the audience are the jury. We have been presented with facts and it up to us to determine if it’s important and does it answer the question; Is OJ Simpson Guilty?
American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson airs on Tuesday nights at 10pm on FX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTXovOaVQqE
