On last week's American Crime Story, SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE SARAH PAULSON AN EMMY ALREADY. My more coherent thoughts are after the jump.
Sorry for the delay in this post! I got over a terrible flu during the weekend and could not get myself in front of a computer to write my thoughts on the episode. So I will be playing a bit of catch up to get my television reviews up before the new ones air.
This was a fantastic episode. The plot did not move too far ahead since we are still in the very long court proceedings, but the show was able to extend its reach past race this week and also include gender discrimination in a way that was infuriating and ultimately heartbreaking.
This show is fascinating in its depiction of this absolute clown show of a trial. You would think that a trial about crimes this serious would not let itself become distracted and would focus on the fact that murders could have happened and this trial is deciding what could happen to the possible suspect. The fact that the media is spending more time on Marcia Clarke's appearance rather than the decent job that she is doing is completely frustrating. The sad fact is that it has not changed all that much today. It is crazy how women are still grouped into these trivial and dehumanizing topics that men are never subjected to. Brad Pitt will walk down the red carpet and be asked about his career. Angelina Jolie will walk down the red carpet and is instead interrogated about her outfit and how she feels about her husband and kids. This would not sting as much if we did not also have entire TV programming blocks devoted to pitting women against each other at these events based on their looks (looking at you E!). And this is just celebrities. It can be even more subtle and dangerous in the work place. It is so silly that this is still going on and that nothing is being done about it.
Sarah Paulson portrays the frustration and the desperation of Marcia so well. She wants to cast it all aside because it all "doesn't matter" but it is when she starts to realize how invasive and controlling it all is. It is getting to the point where her side is suffering during the trial because she is coming off as a "cold hard bitch" because she does not smile every second while the men on OJ's dream team is praised in their defense for being "strong and tough". Something as important as the outcome of this trial could come down to how a woman makes herself presentable in the courtroom. The scene where Marcia gets the haircut was devastating. She seems to really like it at first and is so proud of her new look. She lets herself enjoy the vanity and the femininity of it. She finally caved, but she is finding the joy in having new found surface level beauty. It is exactly what everyone wanted in the media, but she can live with it. She walks into work with a smile on her face but is instantly seized upon by judging eyes and hurtful comments. Even the judge makes a demeaning comment about her new appearance. The smile on her face slowly fades throughout the scene until she is finally reduced to tears. When at first she was so proud of herself, she eventually becomes ashamed of it. This was an amazing sequence and Sarah Paulson deserves all the praise that is inevitably coming her way. Her work throughout the entire episode (I did not even get into the whole "naked photo" bit) was tremendous.
The last thing I wanted to mention was the scene of Nathan Lane's Bailey pulling out that race card again and explicitly using the word "nigger" multiple times toward the now infamous Nazi praising cop witness. There was a big build up to this moment and to whether or not he would actually go through with it, but it did not seem to lead to much. The witness handled it just fine and denied every accusation he made. The bigger conceit here may have been to just get that word into people's heads because of how taboo it is. They were hoping it would earn some sympathy votes for OJ even if the cop responded well to the questions. Just saying the word was enough. I found that scene fascinating but I am wondering if we are getting a bigger pay off to it later. I am sure we are.
This show cannot do any wrong in my eyes. Every episode is just getting better and better and it is thrilling to witness. I am starting to think that this season may stick its landing. If it does, this complete season will be a powerful piece of work.
Grade: A.
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story airs every Tuesday at 10 PM on FX.
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