Why American Crime is better than Crash

Season 1 of American Crime - it will be back next year they say, though obviously with a completely new cast of characters, as this season ended with multiple deaths - is a lot better than I would have hoped or expected. I think it's by the team that made the award-winning movie Crash - if not, it's influenced by that movie, which I found manipulative, overdetermined, and fake at its heart - but I never felt that about American Crime, and I think the difference is that the movie relied too heavily on the convention of dramatic unities - all unfolding on one night - whereas this series, working in the long form, can develop the repercussions of a single crime across a range of characters, an entire community, and season of time. Essentially, it is a character-driven drama, and what struck me the most is that it's a series told almost entirely through close-ups - there are few if any location shots, wide angles, etc. - we see little of the city of Modesto and the interiors are bland and convention, intentionally: generic motel rooms, wood-paneled courtrooms, cubicle offices, etc. But we see a lot of faces, close-up, all of them scarred, pitted, the faces of working people and addicts and thugs, ruined by time and by battle scars. The lead, Felicity Huffman, super-brave, letting herself be filmed with no make-up, a totally harsh and deliberately unlikable characters; her ex, Timothy Robbins, much more likable though completely feckless, seen throughout with greasy, stringy hair - all told, a completely anti-Hollywood series. The characters may be types, but they tend to surprise us in various ways, and the concluding episode is full of unusual twists and encounters - without ever feeling forced or fake - and the series ends with suitable ambiguity. We never actually learn what happened in the murder that set off this series - and never will learn - except we learn that it doesn't matter, it's not about who dunnit but about the effect of the crime on the many people it touches (none of them lawyers or law-enforcement officers - just the victims, the accused, and their families). Not a perfect series by any means - for one thing I could never quite buy into the central love relationship (between the two addicts) nor could I see why the community would rise as one in defense of someone who was obviously involved in the murder if not the actual killer. Still, very underplayed, very honest for commercial TV, consistently engaging, a big step above most American network TV shows.