The series that defies expectations: American Crime

American Crime wrapped Season 3 - probably the last season, as the New Yorker reported -and I have to state once more that I'm blown away by the quality of this series, far better than we have any reason to expect from a network broadcast. Time and again, we expect, from a lifetime of conditioning, that these seasons (each season is a completely separate drama, with no overlapping characters, but with many actors appearing in two or all 3 seasons, notably Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton, both extraordinary in very different, and demanding, roles) will go for reconciliation, for some form of a happy resolution at least in some of the plot lines, but John Ridley's vision is always more dark and, frankly, more honest. One example among many, in the final episode Huffman engages in a heart-to-heart with her drug-addicted, imprisoned sister, explaining how she and her husband are seeking custody of her sister's two young girls; we expect something like thanks, gratitude, a pledge to overcome the addiction and step back into the family on release from prison - but, no, the sister is angry and accusative and bitter. This scene - and many others - have the trademark Ridley attributes - extreme close-ups, really focusing in on what the characters are saying, focusing on expression - a true stage actor's talent - and, as Emily Nussbaum noted inthe NYer, very little use of music, and these scenes could be used in an acting class: limited by highly charged text, what can different actors make of these scenes, now far can they push them, in what directions? What should their faces say? As in each season, Season 3 was not about a single "American Crime" but about several crimes; the plot strands - death and murder in migrant labor camp, runaway teen addicted to Rx, mistreatment of Haitian nanny being the 3 main ones - coincide in time and place but have only slight overlaps - until the final episode when, as M. noted, the series comes together by bringing all the main characters into a courtroom, where some will confess, others begin a trial: It's as if one were to look at everyone in a courtroom on the same day and think, what are your stories? What brought such different people to the same place?

Is American Crime the best series on network TV?

Through the first 3 episodes of John Ridley's American Crime (Season 3) I'm once again impressed by everything about this series. I'm no expert on this, but it seems to me the best serious crime drama on network TV - on a scale with the smartest HBO, SHO, Amazon, and Netflix dramas. Each of the three seasons is a completely stand-alone miniseries, but many members of the cast appear in two or even all 3 of the seasons, in entirely different roles. So watching characters, notably Felicity Huffman, play 3 different parts to perfection is one of the incidental pleasures of this series. But even more so, the whole crew does a fine job with an intelligent and complex drama about a crime and its rippling and lingering effect on so many people - victims, families, entire communities. Season 3 is about the treatment of migrant laborers on a NC family-owned farm; the crew that subcontracts and manages the labor is corrupt and vicious, and because of neglect 15 laborers die in a fire in a one of the trailers into which they're crammed. (One serious quibble: This would have been a major news story, not something that would slide under the radar.) The owners of the farm wash their hands of responsibility - they're not the ones running the labor operation, they say - but Huffman, the wife of one of the 3 siblings who own the farm, begins to question this hands-off attitude and to push her very reluctant husband to look further into the cause of the fire. A hallmark of this series through all 3 seasons is the intelligent and daring use of close-ups; many of the finest dramatic moments focus full-screen on the fact of one of the characters, in either monologue or dialogue, which really shows the expressive characters of the actors and showcases some truly fine screenwriting as well. Another great strength of each of the seasons is the honest and sometimes daring portrayal of important and complex social issues. In episode 3, Huffman and spouse go to a community meeting on migrant labor, and the words of the speaker hit them, and us, pretty hard: there's a price to pay for the food we eat and the clothes we wear, and most of us are unwilling to take a close look at that price. American Crime is taking that close look, and it's pretty harrowing.

Two fine programs - one about evil people who succeed, the other about peple wh make terrible mistakes

A note on two TV series, one concluded (for this season) and the other on-going (for me): American Crime (ABC) as noted previously is one of the finest and most under-the-radar of the genre. The 2nd season (a completely different narrative from the first season, with many of the same actors and the same creative team) ends, like most tragedies, with many characters, maybe all characters, punished and chastened. This series is a story of a crime, as the title says, in fact of multiple crimes: an alleged homosexual rape at an unsanctioned by "winked-at" captains' party for the basketball team at an Indianapolis prep school; drug sales; Internet hacking and posting of private information; assault and hate crimes against blacks, gay men, Hispanics; bullying; and finally a fatal shooting - and all of these strands woven neatly together into the tight web of a plot. Though a few of the characters are sympathetic and likable victims, many others - including particularly the two leads, played very well by Timothy Hutton an Felicity Huffman - are manipulative and self-centered - and virtually every character, including the high-school kids and the adults, is deeply flawed and makes terrible judgements. The series forces us every step of the way to ask: what would we do? who's right and who's wrong? The ending is sensibly and suitable open for interpretation - feels like a real conclusion, dark but credible.

House of Cards - we're up to episode 10 of season 4, the conclusion of the "open convention" and the nomination of the Underwoods as a president-vp team - continues to fascinate the way one can be fascinated by looking at a cage of snakes in a terrarium or zoo. Unlike American Crime, each of the characters is despicable, but each is smart and conniving - it's a constant collision of radical forces, leading to some very strange outcomes and powerful scenes: Frank Underwood/Kevin Spacey giving hell to his rival/protegee the secretary of state, homicidal Chief of Staff Doug Stamper trying to push around his staff underlings and taking out his destructive, pent-up rage in a hotel men's room, the ice-cold Clare Underwood/Robin Wright seducing novelist-speechwriter Tom Yates - like a spider seducing a fly. These are some of the great scenes just from episode 10. However: Do others find it hard to believe that Clare would be so beloved among the party leaders, conventioneers, and the public at large? Were others surprised at the weakness of her convention speech - supposed to be the greatest short speech since Gettysburg? As the Underwoods embark on the campaign, taking on Joel Kinnamen as a Schwartzeneger-like Republican, the background noise builds - as intrepid reporter is putting together the pieces to show that Underwood actually killed or sanctioned the killing of 3 people.

A series that's gone below the radar: American Crime

American Crime now in season 2 on ABC is definitely the sleeper series of the year, so easy to overlook because it's a commercial broadcast on an old-line network but it far exceeds expectations, as it did in Season 1 as well. This series is similar to Fargo and, I think, True Detective in that each last season was a complete narrative and this "season" is a completely new story done by the same creative team, w/ a # of the same actors, most notably Felicity Huffman, now playing the steely head of an expensive private school in Indianapolis (in Season 1 she was the embittered mother of a murder victim) and Timothy Hutton as the basketball coach in the school (he was the milk-toast father of the victim in AC1). This season is about a scandal that rocks the school and community after the basketball team "captain's party" leads to an accusation of rape - I won't go into any details for fear of spoiler alerts in this on-going narrative. Will note only that, like AC1, AC2 does a great job with a very efficient plot tying many community elements together and in opposition and in reaction to this crime - similar but in my view a lot better than celebrated movies such as Crash. The series has its own visual style as well - many scenes shot in extreme close-up with no reaction shots at all, and with the characters using minimal make-up at best - so we get a sense, literally, of being "in their faces" during moments of high crisis and tension.

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.

A tangled web - the plot and characters of American Crime

Continuing to watch the ABC series American Crime with great interest, even though, yes, it's a bit cheesy and predetermined and, no, I can't really buy into the central relations between Carter (black petty drug dealer and addict charged with murder) and Aubrey (white drug addict potential charged with assault and pressured into testifying against boyfriend Carter - pressure that she resists, at least for now. Friend Bruce D.S. noted to me that every character (with exception of racists and bitter divorcee Felicity Huffman) started as a cliche and then gradually defied our expectations and changed, in some manner. Not sure I completely agree there, but I do think the plotting without stretching credibility and without becoming unduly complex or coincidental - as in movies such as Crash or Traffic - brings into confluence and conflict a wide range of characters in the small city of Modesto, aside from those mentioned there are the parents of the woman assaulted and raped, particularly the odious and self-righteous father, the father of the murder victim, a sweet and insecure reformed gambler and alcoholic played well by Timothy Hutton, probably the only character in the series willing and able to recognize that his child was a total screw-up and that he may bear some of the blame, the Mexican-American car mechanic struggling to get along who is in constant conflict with his two teenage children, and in particular his son, a kids with very likely some learning disabilities who to drawn into petty thuggery in part because of his own innocence and yearning for friendship and companionship - and this just to name a few of the characters. At the center is the murder of a drug dealer, and it's quite surprising yet also quite believable how many people are drawn into the net of this crime - either as suspects, victims, activists, family members of the dead and the accused, witnesses, and so on - the only people about whom we learn and see very little are the lawyers and prosecutors, though we may be soon to learn more about the team hired to defend Carter - hired by his sister who believes her brother has been profiled and abused because he's black who's become active in the local Muslim community so we can see on the horizon some nasty and explosive confrontations.

A series that takes on issues rarely confronted on network TV : American Crime

OK it's by no means as subtle, well written, or beautifully produced as some of the great HBO, Netflix, or even Showtime pay-cable series but the new ABC series American Crime is pretty engaging and very forthright about issues rarely dealt with or confronted in any TV dramas: race, bias, hatred, and bigotry. Plot involves a the murder of a young man and the sexual attack on his wife, in their home; pretty quickly police investigate and arrest a young Mexican-American (clearly he let some gang members use his hot car, which was spotted at the scene of the killing), an "illegal" Mexican immigrant who's not very sympathetic and has a series criminal background, a black man who's deeply involved in drugs and is living w/ a young white woman who's addicted to meth. What adds a huge dimension to this crime drama is the intense involvement of the parents ad siblings of both victims and accused: the central figures are the (long-divorced) parents of the murdered man: dad (Timothy Hutton) is a feckless ne'er do well father who just wants all this trouble to go away, yet gets drawn in more than he'd like, and completely cold and acidic mother, Felicity Huffman, who plays the race card and is angry at everyone, police and prosecutors especially, for, among other things, not treating this as a hate crime. Over the first four episodes the parents learn increasingly painful information about their children, and they react in a wide variety of ways, ranging from outrage to denial. Yes, at times it's schematic, and yes, the writing is at times strained, but the characters and the plot setup are a real tinderbox and it's hard not to watch and to wonder when everything will explode.