This week on American Crime Story, Marcia and Chris get flirty and O.J.'s gloves do not fit Bob's hands. My review is after the jump.
Side note: isn't that a great picture of John Travolta at the top of the review? He is an American treasure. He is so goofy and absurd. This doesn't have anything to do with the review, but I thought that picture was sort of hilarious.
Anyway, this was a packed episode. There were a lot of different elements being juggled around and different theories being posed. Unlike the past few episodes, there was not a big "message" that the episode was tackling. Instead, it decided to move the plot forward exclusively. That is not a bad thing, but I feel that the episode was a bit jumbled and some moments did not get the amount of time that they deserved.
For example, the issues surrounding Cochran's murky past sort of just zoomed by. We had a couple of scenes of fall out after the TV interview, notably with him and his wife. However, there did not seem to be a pay off to any of it and it seemed to distract from the rest of episode's focus on the theories of what actually happened the night of the murders. It seemed to be the one section of the show that felt tonally off. It had some great moments for Sterling B. Vance in the acting department, but other than that it seemed out of place.
I did enjoy the scenes of Marcia and Chris at the birthday party having drinks. When the friend confronts Marcia about O.J.'s possible innocence and she lays down the facts and how absurd that prospect was, it was rather riveting. It makes me wish that the "People" were able to have some shots in the court room before presenting evidence. Never before had it been laid out so clearly than it was here with Marcia and the shot glasses. Put in that perspective, there is absolutely no way that O.J. was innocent. The scene in the context of knowing that they lose the trial eventually is especially frustrating. Add in Chris rubbing Marcia the wrong way after not spending the night with her after the party and we have quite the uncomfortable time going forward in the episode between the two. It probably will not get better after seeing what happens in the courtroom.
The scene with Chris getting set up for failure and O.J.'s hands not fitting the gloves on the witness stand was incredibly anxious. Chris was played like a simple chess piece with Shapiro's idea proving to be a good one for the defense. He got them to present the evidence instead of the defense coming out with it. It was a tremendous blow for Marcia and Chris. Not knowing all the details of the trial, I would be surprised to see Chris and Marcia still working together in the next episode after that debacle.
I sense that the show is eventually going to reveal its hand. For a while I thought the show would play devil's advocate and present everything without taking a stance on what actually happened. However, seeing how they are depicting each scene is making me think that the show will actually end with some sort of theory about who is innocent and who is not. That worries me slightly, but as long as the show does it with some sort of artful finesse without being exploitative with its story, I will be interested to see what the show has to say about all of these conspiracy theories and conflicting evidence.
Grade: B.
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story airs every Wednesday night on FX.
No comments:
Post a Comment