Series creator John Ridley was recently interviewed by CBC Radio for his ABC drama American Crime, and one of the main topics was the difficulties of tackling social issues in television without coming off as dogmatic or preachy.
He reiterated he didn’t want it to come off as “The John Ridley Show”, but given how the show was advertised, it would be easy to dismiss it as another Crash-style Aesop story that hammers how bad racism is over and over. I’m happy to announce that’s not the case, as it’s actually a solid and heartbreaking character study on top of bringing an interesting vision to network TV.
Unlike Crash, Crime has the advantage of more hours to properly define its characters so they feel more realized, and race relations just are one of a number of narratives and themes it focuses on. It’s primarily a murder mystery from the perspective of the families, victims and suspects as opposed to the detectives, who are generally regulated to background roles.
Ridley and his writing staff take great pains to make the cast’s motivations and dilemmas believable, and the result is an emotional, dark but poignant and sharp drama that feels more suited for HBO or Showtime. Interestingly, ABC of all networks decided to take a chance on it- the same one owned by Disney, the house of the Mouse no less.
That was my same expression after the end of Episode 5.
Crime’s first season arc is set in Modesto, CA where a military veteran named Matt Skokie is found gunned down and his wife severely injured. Matt’s parents Russ Skokie (Timothy Hutton) and his ex-wife Barb Hanlon (Felicity Huffman) become actively involved in the investigation for their child’s killer, which brings them into conflicts, particularly over Barb’s attitudes, with Gwen’s more reluctant parents Tom (W. Earl Brown) and Eve Carlin (Penelope Ann Miller).
Barb is a good example of the “troubled sympathetic bigot” trope at work, and credit goes to Huffman’s performance as it’s an extremely difficult role to get right. As the one truly prejudiced character, she’s the de facto villain of the show- yet it’s clear how much the grief over her son’s murder is driving her blind anger and confusion. Hutton plays Russ as a broken man trying to deal with his past failures as a father and a prior gambling addiction, and he butts heads with Barb often as they try to find out what happened.
The suspects are gang member Hector Tontz (Richard Cabral, who is both sympathetic and intimidating), a long suffering drug addict named Carter Nix (Elvis Nolasco), his equally ill girlfriend Aubrey Taylor (Caitlin Gerard), and Tony Gutierrez (Johnny Ortiz) who is connected with the car used in the crime. Tony’s father Alonzo (Benito Martinez) tries to keep his son away from local gangs around town during the case, but Tony is unfortunately in a rebellious teen phase and he soon finds himself in deeper trouble.
Even though Carter and Aubry aren’t very functional together anyway, they can’t stand being separated during the case, and their attempts to remain with each other cause ripple effects throughout it. Carter’s sister Aliyah (Regina King), a Muslim covert and preacher, is convinced of her brother’s innocence, and she initially draws on her faith to reach out to him. She easily could have been written as a generic angry soap-boxer, but instead Ridley allows her to make misjudgments on occasion and grow as a person. She isn’t interested in pushing buttons as she is protecting a family member.
American Crime’s atmosphere is rather melancholy, often provocative and not very commercial-friendly, but it balances that out with emotion and a strong attention to detail, both in the writing and directing. It turns out the case isn’t as simple as it sounds after Matt’s personal issues are exposed and the other twists that follow generally have some sort of logic behind them (twisted as they may be). As different revelations come to light, some of the cast eventually handle it better than others.
I recommend it as an atypical and very well written spin on the usual mystery dramas, and learning that Huffman and Hutton are returning for Season Two-presumably as different characters in a new storyline- has me very excited. There are plenty of topical elements about Crime, but there’s more emphasis on how the justice system affects judgment, forgiving and personal guilt.