First things first - fuck the Oscars, this is a damn TV show and I've tagged it as such.
Okay, second things second - was it the twentieth anniversary of the verdict that made 2016 the year we revisited the O.J. trial wholesale? I was six for the Bronco chase, seven for the verdict (yeah I'm dating myself here) so most of the grizzly details of the case weren't things I was aware of the first time around, but still - I've spent more time in the past calendar year learning about this case through documentaries and dramatizations than I had in the twenty years prior. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that. What the hell?
Third thing - yes, what a story. Worthy of a seven-hour documentary for sure. So many things made it such an interesting case, but it's the context surrounding the case that has become the real story, obviously, the race relations in America and in Los Angeles in particular in the '90s, and come on, of course this still rings true today. In some regards, it's worse.
Fourth - the most fascinating part of the miniseries for me was the fifth and final installment, which spans from the trial verdict to the present day. Here's the lowkey fall from grace, from O.J.'s neighbors turning on him, to his loss in civil court, to his bankruptcy, to his eventual arrest for just the dumbest Vegas heist where he stole his own memorabilia back after losing it in his financial ruination. One thing the docuseries never quite touched on that I'd be fascinated to know is whether or not his own kids ever turned on him for, you know, murdering their mother. (Gotta be a horrible situation to be in. Can't even imagine it. Respect their privacy, no question. Still! I wonder...)
Last, and certainly least, my own two cents on this whole damn mess. Of course he did it. The prosecution fucked up on a few big things. It's almost like Hillary and the election - do you blame the electorate and jury for Trump and "not guilty," or do you roll your eyes at the opposition for biffing on such a slam dunk? Ito is Comey in this metaphor, making things harder but by no means improbable, let alone impossible. And black anger in Los Angeles here parallels white anger in rural America, sort of. Okay, election metaphor over. Let's talk real politics. It's possible to see O.J.'s trial victory as an individual miscarriage of justice that also metaphorically serves as a victory for a black community that had just endured the Rodney King verdict and riots in stunned sadness. This is, of course, the most tepid take I can imagine having. It's a shrug and a "let's change the subject, this bores me." But to bring it back to Trump and Hillary - Jesus, will I be doing this forever? - I can see how the Trump win was a weird victory for the disenfranchised white people of Middle America even if Trump doesn't do a damn thing to help them. It's not so much "yes, this is the best thing for everyone involved" as much as a big old middle finger and a "fuck you" to the existing establishment. And that's maybe what the O.J. verdict was.
But again - not a movie. Not at all. And that's what's really important here!
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