Should you watch People v OJ Simpson or OJ: Made in America?

The ESPN documentary OJ: Made in America continues to fascinate and inform and what more could we ask of a documentary? Perhaps even more than the great Fx series The People v OJ Simpson, this doc reveals how the Simpson defense put the LAPD on trial than OJ, and how Cochran's brilliant if sometimes way over the top arguments led the jury to believe that they were fighting a history of racism and oppression and: If you don't stop it, who will? He completely took the focus off OJ and the evidence - and everyone in the courtroom knew that, you could see it on their faces. And in fact he was right: the trial caught the attention of the whole nation (even the world), dominating the news for about 7 months - in the dawning days of cable live news coverage and well before the Internet and social media - and we were not so interested in whether OJ killed Nicole and Ron but in the horrors revealed about race relations in LA and police brutality - a topic, amazingly, that we're focused on today as well. The documentary can catch the courtroom drama far more effectively than the Fx drama - the look on Marcia Clark's face after her tepid and technical closing argument; the dramatic scene of OJ trying on the gloves and showing the jury that the don't fit, his face stone-cold and mute - these are far more powerful when we see the actual footage. What the documentary can't capture is some of the internal debates and relationships within and among the legal teams (I assume these are based on Toobin's reporting; he was involved w/ both projects): the developing relationship between Clark and Darden, Darden's history with Cochran, the fights within the Dream Team about legal strategy, the fights w/in the DA's office about whether to rely on Mark Furhman (turned out to be the worst decision in the entire trial) and whether to ask OJ to try on the gloves (2nd worst). For these reasons, it's good to see both productions, for People v coming first  - but overall I'd say People v OJ is more about the legal strategies and Made in America is more about the national issue of race.

People v OJ series: They know too much to argue or to judge

I'll continue in the chorus of praise for the Fx series The People v OJ Simpson - smart and engaging from start to finish, a great story about the justice system, about race, about celebrity, about the media - very contemporary in some ways and, in others, showing how far we've come since the 1990s - when it was a big deal to see this story unfold live, way before social media made everything live - and how little we've traveled: the same issues of police brutality and racism haunting us today. The cast was excellent throughout, with special nod to Davis Schwimmer as Rob Kardashian, OJ's best pal who lived in anguish throughout the trial, in doubt about his friend's innocence, and to John Travolta as the insider-lawyer Bob Shapiro, another OJ pal who could never quite stomach Cochran's theatrics. Each script -- 10 episode -- was smart and succinct and, as noted in earlier post, even if you think you remember the trial I can almost guarantee this series will bring you new information and new insight. Though at the end we can be furious with the jury for it's almost instant decision to acquit, we also understand their perception and their distrust of all evidence presented by the LAPD and the DA - the team behind the series leaving it up to us to figure right from wrong: they know too much to argue or to judge.

So many great things about The People v OJ Simpson

Now halfway through the great Fx series The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, and no matter what you know or think you know about the OJ case this series will bring the case and those relatively innocent days alive - and perhaps its greatest strength is its head-on approach to the many issues that rattled and captivated Americans over the course of that trial: race, celebrity, police brutality (this was in the wake of the Rodney King arrest, the first of now thousands the exposed police brutality against blacks - a case that now seems almost quaint and innocent - at least he lived), sexism (some of the best material is in episode six as Marcia Clark is purloined in the tabloids that focus on her hair and clothing style - she's just devastated and we really feel for her - quite an accomplishment of writing and directing, as she's such a tough and sharp-edged character but now we see her vulnerability), politics (why didn't the LA DA take this trial on himself? Obviously, because he didn't want to alienate black voters), and the legal system (the so-called dream team of lawyers defending OJ do a great job, or course, and Johnny Cochran is always great to watch in action - but it all feels unfair, like the Red Sox playing against a high-school team). Though the case comes alive to us 20 years down the road and it's a harbinger of many future police on black conflicts even more in the news today, the case also seems so long ago - yes, it was the first celebrity event to go 24/7 on the news channels and to become unending tabloid fodder, and the OJ chase (episode 1) was probably the first crime scene watched live on national TV - but we've moved far beyond that today, as we're no longer depending on news media to present the news, we get it instant and unfiltered and all the time from social media: the news media has been the victim of its own success and has been pushed to the margins of the picture

Surprisingly great series that gets to the heart of the OJ case

Like many others, we have been blown away by the quality and drama of American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson; who would have thought Fx could rise to such quality (it definitely helps to be watching this on DVD rather than w/ commercial interruptions, of which there would be many) or that we could re-engage with this dramatic case. I thought I pretty much knew the whole story  - it wasn't all that long ago that the case dominated news for weeks - but to see it play out from the inside, with all of the conflicting forces and psychological complexity - race, money, big-time sports, politics, legal wrangling - just translates so well to the form of an episodic drama: we see the troubled mind of OJS up close, the conflict brewing between the DA's office (Marcia Clark) and the ridiculously high-priced defense team. Great use of occasional documentary footage, and some really fine acting, Cuba Gooding Jr obviously as a tormented (and deranged) OJ, David Schwimmer as his sycophant best friend Kardashian, and in particular Jon Travolta as OJ's first lawyer, the suave insider, Robert Shapiro. Will keep watching this series for sure.