People vs. OJ Simpson

Year: 2016

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Alexander

Review

some bad production and acting aside, this was pretty decent. the writing was good and attention to detail appears to be very good. i looked at some of the original video online and read some of the fact check stuff on it and it seems like they did a really accurate job. basically i think the verdict came down to jury nullification. they don’t talk about this in the series, but the idea is that a juror can do whatever his conscience guides him to do…whether it’s because they think the law is unjust or the whole system sucks or whatever. in this case i think race played a big part of it. rodney king, the threat of a riot, the corrupt LAPD…all led to a predominantly black jury deciding it was time for their team to win for once. can’t really blame them. on an individual level, for this particular case it’s clear to me that OJ was as guilty as hell, but a not-guilty verdict may have been the best thing possible for society at the time. sucks for the goldman and brown families. sucks for clark and darden. but maybe it was best for everyone else.

i remember when this verdict was release. i had just gotten off recess and went into a nearby classroom as the verdict was about to be read. we were packed into one of the classrooms that had a tv and even though the bell had rung, we all waited there to hear the news. my dad was a big OJ fan (probably because of USC) so i kind of had that influence in me. the way they show the reactions at the end of the series is exactly how i remember the reactions being in that classroom. all the whites had a look of shock on their faces and all the blacks were cheering. i was smiling because i thought it was all so funny. as always, i found myself right in the middle. not without shock like the whites, but also kinda happy that he got off like the blacks. crazy stuff.

Watched on TV