american crime vs American crime story — Page 2

This was the episode I think everyone was waiting for. It was bound to happen at some point.

Tonight was hard to watch. I kept wanting the best for everyone; but the writers are being true to the themes of the series. I was a little confused with the car scene in the park as to exactly what had happened and why.

Damn... This show is so draining but also so fascinating! I can't even imagine how it must feel to binge watch a season like this. This past episode had me in silence for a good 5 minutes after it finished just so i could take that all in. Strong, raw and real... what a great step further for network television!

I could not access the spoiler. I do not know why the car scene was unclear to me. Did the married man react from internal homophobia, or were his sexual impulses physically brutal or did he know who the kid was and wanted to beat him up for what he had done? My guess is the first?????

I think you are right. If I simplify the scene in my head I think the guy driving the car just went into a rage because the kid was going on about his problems and the guy had enough problems of his own and was escaping them by hooking up.

Each week I can't believe a network owned by Disney would air something so powerful and real, but this week was one of the more important episodes of a television series to air in a very long time. Really outstanding television.

I suppose every show has transitional episodes, but after last week's blockbuster - one of the best hours of tv I've seen in awhile - this one (ep 8, Feb 24) was quite disappointing. It was very disjointed and episodic. The events - to me at least - didn't feel as interconnected as they did on last week's episode. It was the first time I watched this show and thought that the execution didn't match the ambition.

To me, the character with the most interesting experience in this episode was the coach. He went from his somewhat holier than thou attitude of chiding Felicity Huffman for being cold and calculating and for protecting herself from damage to doing the exact same thing at home with his daughter - immediately destroying potential evidence without even thinking, claiming he was doing it solely to protect his daughter, but undoubtedly also doing so because he's going to make political maneuvers to take over the school. THAT was very well done.

Not to be insensitive to the obviously traumatic events the interview subjects experienced, but I think the interview clips were a total misfire. I mean, just reverse it. Imagine watching a 10 part documentary series - like Making a Murderer - and in the 8th episode they suddenly inserted fictional dramatic reenactments of other crimes to help the audience understand the possible motives of those involved in the Teresa Halbach trial. I have to really wonder if these interviews were truly an artistic choice by Ridley or if they were a "suggestion" from ABC execs. It felt emotionally manipulative and kind of insulting to the audience to assume that we couldn't continue to navigate this complex and nuanced story without some explicit guidance from actual gun violence and bullying victims. They should have kept them as web extras.

After each episode I tend to spend several hours commenting in the thread for each review on AVClub and then when I come here have nothing to say (I'm--prob not surprisingly, Eric Henwood-Greer on there. I seem to be the only idiot on AVclub who uses my real name--but the discussions there, at least for this show, are always very intelligent and I recommend it).

I do somewhat agree with Horsey. The interviews aside, I think to be fair this was very much a transitional/setup episode for the final two (uh, only two left?)

I thought the stuff with Eric, and his confrontation with Kevin (who seems to really live in this horrible privilege world that his parents worked hard to create--not knowing that had created someone lacking in empathy) was very good. And I agree about Dan and his reaction (whoever plays his daughter is the ONE bad actor on this show--it might not be fair to say--her previous roles have all been as cheerleaders and dancers whereas the rest of the talented young cast, while not well known, have had significant screen work).

I'd give it a solid B, but I was disappointed as well (ironically the critic at AVClub who has always praised the show but given it weird letter grades, gave this an A for the first time. I can't help thinking because of the "real" bits).

I think those interviews would have worked better as a talk back 30 minute episode afterwards, but ABC, who are amazing for even airing this, would probably never do this (or maybe a web companion). Using the survivors of Columbine bugged me just because this shooting was so different (there have been other school shootings that are more similar to what happened on the show, but they prob wouldn't have the impact that simply writing at the bottom of the screen "Columbine" would have). But I did find the stories all very moving, and I appreciated that they *tried* to integrate them. It didn't work for me, but...They did it better when they had the real slam poet talking about how it felt to be raped in one of the cold openings before.

In the new TV Guide, they state since there is a new ABC Entertainment President (old one was fired in February) this show, Nashville and some others may not get renewed due to low ratings. They agree about the quality of these shows, but ABC has had the highest decrease in ratings and that is what is most important to them. Their solution to the ratings maybe more reality type shows and news programs.

Updated On: 3/6/16 at 09:30 AM

My question is- is AMERICAN CRIME produced by ABC or is ABC simply the distributer? Theshow is obviously edited each week to remove cursing, in a way that almost makes it look like its being edited for American audiences.

Has anyone purchased a season pass for American Crime from iTunes? Are the episodes uncensored or are they the same as they air on ABC?

There does seem to be some real concern with the new head of ABC--who has made no secret that what he likes best are light procedurals of the Castle type. While not always successful artistically or with audiences, the now departed head at least championed for some genuine diversity and even, for network tv, experimental stuff (which runs the gamut from American Crime to Galavant).

Horse, AVCLub is one of the few sites like this that more often than not has worthwhile comments in their comments section I find--I admit that I don't post as much about this great show here as I normally would because I'm usually exhausted from discussing it there.

I am ABSOLUTELY in agreement with you on episode 9. I don't want it to sound like suddenly I dislike the show or anything--because that is absolutely not true. But it does make me concerned for the finale (I knew we'd get an ambiguous ending--but as you say, it's a bit late in the game to add MORE elements, particularly the "the hacker is actually doing this for his own selfish reasons" stuff). Several really really typically great scenes--Eric and his mom, Taylor and Evey, and, I hate to admit, i found Leslie's final scene in its way thrilling as well. But--well, everything you say. There's so much going on too that, while I know others had this complaint earlier on, for the first time I started to resent not seeing more of a particular storyline or character.

I wondered about the censorship too. For some *odd* reason in this day and age when everything seems to get a DVD release, season one still hasn't, so there's no way to tell if the DVD would be uncut (I'd hope it would be). I do still find the blackout technique odd--is it so we can't lip read? I was watching some series on SyFy channel the other day (I know, I know) and they just muted the f bombs and honestly it played more smoothly, but of course that's basic cable, not network.

As mentioned the show is an ABC co-production though it does have their "AN ABC STUDIOS PRODUCTION" or whatever credit that most of their homegrown shows have, so I don't think that would be an issue against it coming back.

What an incredible final minute to this season. It has to do with being in one of those few moments we all have at some point, where we know the next step or the next word we say will define us for the rest of our lives.

Bravo to to them for another remarkable season.