American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson is a four-part docuseries, directed by Floyd Russ, that takes an in-depth look at the June 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Of course, the main reason why it was the most famous murder case of the 1990s — and probably the entire 20th century — was that O.J. Simpson was arrested for the brutal stabbings that happened in the tony Brentwood section of Los Angeles.
Opening Shot: “Los Angeles. October 3, 1995.” A helicopter view of the crowd gathered outside the courthouse where the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial is about to be given.
The Gist: American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson dives into every aspect of the case that still captivates the media and Americans 31 years later and almost a year after Simpson’s death. The first episode goes into how the bodies of Brown and Goldman were discovered, the perpoderance of blood evidence that was not only at Brown’s home but at Simpson’s home.
Through interviews with the key LAPD detectives who worked the crime scene — namely, Mark Furhman, Philip Vannatter and Thomas Lange — we see that there’s still finger pointing all of these decades later about evidence that wasn’t collected, breakdowns in communication and the destructive nature of the media attention that quickly descended on the murder scene. Also interviewed is Chris Darden, who was on the DA’s team for the explosive trial, a number of witnesses that never got called to testify, and Kato Kaelin, who lived in a bungalow at Brown’s home and was a key witness in the trial while being a pop culture punch line at the same time.
The second episode examines the arrest of Simpson, highlighting the low-speed chase that had the entire country riveted as it played out on live television, with Simpson crouching in the back of a white Ford Bronco being driven by his old Buffalo Bills teammate Al Cowlings. The third and fourth examines the trial, where Darden and lead prosecutor Marcia Clark were overmatched by Simpson’s “dream team” of attorneys, which included Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian, F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz and Barry Scheck.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? This is the second season of Russ’ American Manhunt series; the first one was about the Boston Marathon bombing.
Our Take: What we wrote above about the O.J. Simpson murder case doesn’t begin to show how the investigation, Simpson’s arrest and the trial completely permeated American culture in the latter half of the 1990s.
Kaelin went on talk shows just for being a surfer-dude houseguest; Jay Leno regularly showed the “dancing Itos” on The Tonight Show, a poke at the trial’s judge, Lance Ito. Phrases from the trial, including Cochran’s “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” are still part of the lexicon. Sitcoms like Seinfeld parodied aspects of the trial. The verdict pretty much stopped the country cold, with people waiting around TVs and radios to find out in real time. And the verdict itself sparked a debate about institional racism in the police ranks and justice system, thanks to the efforts of Simpson’s Dream Team to redirect the narrative of the trial.
For anyone who lived through all of this — and if you’re over, say, 40, all of this is burned into your brain — much of what is covered in this docuseries will be familiar to you. Even if you’re under 40, though, the details of the case and trial are so embedded into American culture that at least some of what Russ examines will be old news. As stylish and at times grisly the series is, it really can’t fill in any facts about this case than most people don’t already know.
Where the docuseries excells is filling in the blanks of where both the LAPD and the District Attorney’s office fell down on the job, especially as they talk to witnesses that were never called to testify or point to photos of blood and other physical evidence that was never collected by police. It was a staggering case of arrogance, infighting and institutional racism with the LAPD and the DA’s office’s inability to answer every move Simpson’s attorneys made during the trial. Collected all in one place, it puts the shocking verdict, where Simpson was found not guilty, into context.
It seems that none of those factors have subsided, even though the parties have had 30 years to reflect. The detectives still snipe at each other, Darden still feels like they were overmatched, Kaelin still marvels at the attention he got. Now that Simpson is gone, we see a few of his friends tell Russ that they think Simpson killed his ex-wife and the wrong-place-wrong-time victim Goldman. This isn’t as shocking a development as one might think, given the fact that most people have thought that for decades. But, as we mentioned, collecting all of these observations in one place definitely has an impact.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The Bronco chase is previewed in the last scenes of the first episode.
Sleeper Star: We always felt bad for Darden through the entire trial and its aftermath, but we do appreciate that he spoke to Russ for the docuseries; as far as we can see, Clark refused to participate. We also appreciate the viewpoint of Ron Goldman’s sister Kim, who hates participating in things like this docuseries but feels she needs to in order to remind people that this case was as much about her brother’s murder as it was about Brown and Simpson.
Most Pilot-y Line: Crime scene photos showing Brown’s and Goldman’s blood-covered bodies are tough to take. Are they particularly necessary to show here? We’re not sure.
Our Call: STREAM IT. American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson is at its best when it collects all of the places where the LAPD and DA’s office botched what seemed to be an overwhelming case against Simpson, but otherwise it doesn’t reveal anything all that new about the case.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
