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American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson (FX) (1 Viewer)

questrider

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FX has a new series where they will dramatize an American crime story in an anthologized miniseries. The first season is the O. J. Simpson murder case and trial for ten episodes based on Jeffrey Toobin's book The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson.

http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/american-crime-story/episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Crime_Story

It's getting good reviews and so far last night's first episode, "From the Ashes of Tragedy", was intriguing. I thought the casting was well done with Cuba Gooding, Jr. as O. J. Simpson, John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden, and David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian. This could be so over the top with melodrama but they seem to have kept that in check and are presenting it as a gritty dramatization of both the public and private events surrounding the crime and the trial of the century.

The first episode was about the murders and O. J.'s arrest ending with the start of the Bronco chase. It remains to be seen whether they can keep it up for ten episodes once the trial begins in balancing the character drama with the court room procedural.


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It's interesting in that this was all a part of our daily lives back in 1994 and really was the first endeavor into reality TV that permeates the television landscape since then. Seeing it dramatized like this is a bit of pulling back the curtain on the drama of it all while being nostalgic at the same time.
 
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Stan

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Missed it, thought it started later in the month, but being FX, will be about 17 repeats, one of them tonight.

Kind of like AMC and "The Walking Dead". They have re-run that show so many times it's almost like Gilligan's Island. If you miss something, don't worry, they'll show it again in a few months.

Wasn't going to watch, can't stand O.J., and everybody knows he did it. But like watching a train crash, just can't turn away, so I'll give it a try.

Had no idea it was ten episodes. I'd swear I read somewhere that it was a four hour, two part mini-series. Oh well, thank goodness for the DVR.
 

Hollywoodaholic

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Thought I wouldn't be interested and wouldn't want to relive the media experience and frustrating outcome, and because I'm mostly over director/producer Ryan Murphy's usual over-the-top stuff, but the writing and acting in this was great and I'll stick with it until the bitter, and I mean, hard-to-swallow, end.
 

Joel Fontenot

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I really didn't plan on watching it. My wife really did want to watch it. I figured I'd just do something else, but I stayed for the opening and ended up watching to the end.

I remember much of everything from when it all happened - being 29 at the time. But, I merely kept up with the days events listening to NPR while driving home from work. I didn't sit there watching it all as the trial was on TV. My wife (who, at the time, was still a year away from becoming my wife) did, however, watch it almost every day. That's why she had a big interest in seeing this all along.

Everyone pretty much imbued their real life counterpart convincingly enough from the very start... except for Cuba as O.J. That took me a bit longer to accept. But, I think he finally had me by the end - the whole sequence of events at Kardashian's house.
 

JohnMor

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Thought it was great. Very well written, directed and acted. The Rolling Stone review I had read really panned Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s performance, but I thought he was fine. Unlike the others performers, I don't "see" OJ when he's on screen, but the performance is quite good nevertheless. Everyone nailed their parts. And I loved the dialogue which was fresh without being disrespectful. "10:45, OJ yells at the Salad Bar Lady." LOL.
 

questrider

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The Rolling Stone review I had read really panned Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s performance, but I thought he was fine.

Overall it was a positive review. Here it is:

'American Crime Story': Race, Murder and Ryan Murphy's Pulp Nonfiction
Squeezing fresh 'Juice' out of the craziest celebrity trial ever with 'The People v.s O.J. Simpson'



http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/feat...der-and-ryan-murphys-pulp-nonfiction-20160113


I too agree that Cuba Gooding, Jr. might be the weak link in the cast. But I'm sure there weren't a lot of actors lining up to play O.J. It might be a no-win situation for an actor. Regardless, I'm still giving this series a chance because I'm lovin' Travolta eating up the scenery as Shapiro and Paulson was really nailing Marcia Clark.
 

TravisR

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I didn't think of it before seeing the show but the best thing about it is that, even if it were complete fiction, it was still interesting and attention grabbing. You could have never heard of O.J. Simpson or his murder trial and the performances and storytelling almost immediately get you interested in the story.

What I found frightening about this (beyond the horror of the crime and the lack of justice) was how much of it that I still remembered. I didn't obsessively watch the OJ trial like it was some kind of fun & fucked up TV show but the media coverage was so ubiquitous that more than 20 years later, there wasn't one name/person that I didn't know.

About the only thing I didn't like was the less than subtle Kardashian references. We get it, Schwimmer is Kim Kardashian's dad.
 

Stan

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Never knew where the faux celebrity Kardashians came from. Now I get it.

Remember watching the verdict with about 25 other people I worked with. All of us were shocked. And that snarky, smarmy attitude he showed when trying on the glove, what a jerk. I would've punched him if I'd been in the courtroom.

There is so much more I could say, but I'm quite sure I'd be banned.

At least he's in prison now, not for the murders, but something for whatever he did in Vegas that obviously didn't "Stay in Vegas". A horrible man, hope he's never freed, keep him locked up until he dies.

Isn't he still receiving money from past endorsements, movie roles, etc.? How is that not going to the families who won the $33M civil suit again him?
 

jcroy

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Isn't he still receiving money from past endorsements, movie roles, etc.? How is that not going to the families who won the $33M civil suit again him?

If such residual revenue streams are leaving behind a paper/data trail and is not untouchable by any laws (ie. homestead exemption, etc ...), then most likely the Goldman and Brown families are getting it.

Under the table sources of income are a lot harder to trace and seize.

Fred Goldman seems to be a huge monkey on OJ's back, where he is tracking down every source of OJ's cash that is traceable by the paper trail.
.
 

Ken H

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Overall I thought it was very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the upcoming episodes.

I wondered how the story would be approached, how it would start, and so on, and I wasn't disappointed. I give the cast a lot of credit for helping the dialog up a few notches, which was the weakest link for me. Gooding seemed fine, Schwimmer was a little weak, The only thing that seemed somewhat over the top was Travolta's portrayal of Shapiro. Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance were great.
 

Ken H

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Isn't he still receiving money from past endorsements, movie roles, etc.? How is that not going to the families who won the $33M civil suit again him?
Any money he has coming in goes to pay the damages in the civil suit he lost, but it's a drop in the bucket.
 

Stan

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Overall I thought it was very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the upcoming episodes.

I wondered how the story would be approached, how it would start, and so on, and I wasn't disappointed. I give the cast a lot of credit for helping the dialog up a few notches, which was the weakest link for me. Gooding seemed fine, Schwimmer was a little weak, The only thing that seemed somewhat over the top was Travolta's portrayal of Shapiro. Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance were great.

CBS just announced during the Superbowl that this will be the Final Season. Thank goodness.

What has Travolta done that's not over the top. Don't think he understands the words sensitive or subtle. I've enjoyed his films, but you go in knowing what to expect. When he does things like "Hairspray", fits his style, but he's certainly not Meryl Streep when it comes to his acting skills.
 
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TravisR

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To be fair, John Travolta is playing a guy that is basically lying and putting on a show for his clients 24 hours a day so Travolta is right to play him BIG. I have no clue what the real life Shapiro was like but the TV one is a hair less disgusting and horrible than O.J.
 
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Ken H

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I was basing my opinion of Travolta's portrayal on what I remembered of Shapiro from the trial and surrounding media circus; that he was relatively low key and professional.

Here's an interview he did with Barbara Walters in 2011. After watching it, I believe my memory serves me well on this subject.

 

Ken H

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The other thing that stood out from episode one, was the song used to close; I Shall Be Released by Nina Simone. It seemed out of place, but by the end as the Bronco drove off into the distance, it fit right in.
 
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Ken H

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Just watched Episode 2. I think it built well on Episode 1 and was actually better. Again, the cast seemed to improve the lines they were given, Gooding was solid, Schwimmer was much improved, and less Travolta = better; a little of him in this roll goes a long ways.....

Much like when watching The Jinx, I'm starting to think that with this much real life crazy, unpredictable stuff happening, it might be hard to go too far wrong. The expression 'truth is stranger than fiction' definitely applies here.

A side note: Just before I tuned in, I was watching Barry Lyndon on TMC - the only other film I remember that uses the Piano Trio in E-Flat ,Op 100 (Second Movement) by Franz Schuber, which closed out tonight's episode. A peculiar coincidence to say the least. (No, I didn't know what the music was, I had to google and youtube it.)
 

ScottH

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Watched the first episode. Thought it was SUPER cheesy, but can't say I didn't enjoy it. Glad to hear at least someone panned Cuba Gooding Jr for his portrayal as OJ because I'm not buying it at all. He'd probably be fine if OJ wasn't such a well known public figure but he doesn't seem anything like OJ to me at all. Also don't understand why Travolta felt the need to go all Larry Flynt with his voice inflection. Shapiro doesn't sound anything like that.
 

Paul D G

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I'm on the fence on this. When all this went down I was in my 20s and bogged down at work training a team of new people and working nights. I was only aware it was happening, but couldn't keep up to date on it all.

I watched the first episode Monday night and felt it came off a little too cheesy. Travolta was way over the top (no idea if Shapiro is really like this). I'm not sure about the portrayal of Marcia Clark either. They're portraying her as the tough-as-nails prosecutor but that was never my impression of her. Far from it. She had a radio show briefly in LA and I listened to a few shows but she was horrible. Again, I could be wrong on how she really was.

I dislike the shaky-cam work here. It looks like they actually added more shaky-cam digitally when Robert Kardashian showed up at OJs - there were a couple instances as he's weaving through the crowd where the camera suddenly and smoothly panned way to the side then back. It looked awful.

With the Bronco chase last night... I'm not sure how I feel about it. OJ was being portrayed a little too sympathetically, but I reminded myself they're probably trying to be unbiased. And OJ was having a complete mental breakdown. None of it realistic to someone grieving but more along the lines of regretting what he did.

I'll stick around for it, but last night I found myself more annoyed than invested in the story.

...and if they show the Kardashian girls one more freaking time I'll probably just dump the show right there. I get their little cameo at the funeral, but they were completely unnecessary in Ep2.
 

JohnMor

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Thought last night's ep was a big bore. An entire hour of the Bronco chase? Really? The most tedious aspect of the entire circus. A real ho-hum, imo. I did like the scene with Darden and his neighbors, though. Still looking forward to next week's though.
 

Ken H

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I did like the scene with Darden and his neighbors, though.
Yes, that was the best line so far.

Before Darden was involved with the case, he was watching the Bronco chase and throwing barbs over the fence to his neighbors about Simpson’s innocence or guilt. “I don’t know what you guys are cheering for,” he says. “O.J. never gave back. Once he made his money he split and never came back. He became white.”

His neighbor says “Well, he’s got the cops chasing him. He’s black now.”
 

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