American Crime Story

[laboria]

Last night's episode was a little boring to me:

Did the DA really have a heart attack in court, or was that some embellishment? That's crazy!
Poor Darden and Cochran. I wonder if they every patched up their relationship after this.
Someone upthread mentioned how they switched OJ's decor. Smart, but underhanded.
Did not know Dominick Dunne was involved in this case. And he had prime seating. Interesting.

I realize after reading the previous week's posts that I was mixing up Faye Resnick with Denise Brown. No wonder I didn't know there was a book written; I didn't know Faye until afterwards. That, I guess, is also why I did not know Nicole was allegedly a party girl, sleeping with lots of people, and using drugs. Before this miniseries, Nicole was a young girl that got mixed up with OJ and was a battered woman. Ron Goldman was a waiter returning sunglasses with whom that she may have been having an affair, or wrong place wrong time. Ron had a father and a sister, whereas Nicole only had a sister that I heard of, so that could be how I got my perception that they were given equal time. Knowing me, I probably only allowed the OJ trial two minutes out of my day, if that while it was going on.

I cannot wait for next week, because I'll get to see what happened with Mark Furman.

[Deleted]

It was a bit of a slow burn but I liked it. I really felt sorry for Darden. He really got screwed. It seemed like he was a good lawyer but in no way ready for a big trial like this. The DA office put him on the team in part because he was black but then didn't listen to him when he talked about race. He said early on that alot of people in the black community thought OJ was innocent. He said don't put Furhman on the stand but Marcia Clark and the rest didn't listen to him. They were so convinced the physical evidence would win the case they had this huge blind spot. I am curious to see when they realize they are losing the case.

Its interesting, Darden's daughter is on Twitter and was live tweeting the last episode. She seems to really like it and was excited to see someone play her Dad. She kept tweeting asking if things on the show really happened. You'd think she could just ask her Dad but apparently he still doesn't like to talk about the case with anyone. She said he couldn't watch the show, it was still too painful. I read that after OJ, Darden was still a practicing lawyer but never appeared in court again.

I think the heart attack in court was an embellishment. He really did have heart problems which is why he took a step back. But he didn't actually collapse in court. More fact checking of the episode here.

Still lots of drama to come. Furhman, the glove, Dennis Fung. The rest of the season should be crazy.

[forever1267]

Dominick Dunne was the reporter on the scene for Vanity Fair, and wrote Another City, Not My Own which is a quick, gossipy thinly veiled portrait of how Hollywood and society reacted to the murders and the trial. Highly recommended if you're in the mood for some dish. I remember one scene where he's retelling the days events to a rapt Nancy Reagan and Elizabeth Taylor /name drop

I remember the rumor about Robert Kardashian was that he knew whatever happened to the knife. And maybe he did, in regards to today's bombshell news.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

Let's fact it, even if the knife was the murder weapon and they found it before the trial, O.J. would still have walked free. There was plenty of blood evidence linking Simpson to the crime. But the defense did a great job of convincing the jury that the LAPD was a bunch of corrupt racists.

[Carolina]

Mar 4, 2016 19:49:11 GMT -4 Baby Fish Mouth said:

Let's fact it, even if the knife was the murder weapon and they found it before the trial, O.J. would still have walked free. There was plenty of blood evidence linking Simpson to the crime. But the defense did a great job of convincing the jury that the LAPD was a bunch of corrupt racists.

I think the LAPD did have major problems with corruption and racism. Do I think they really came into play in the O.J. case? No, but this wasn't something O.J.'s defense team just pulled out of their backsides. Rodney King and the Rampart scandal happened in the '90s.

[forever1267]

I just want to give Marcia Clark and Sarah Paulson hugs for everything they went through. This should finally get her that very well deserved Emmy. Jesus, this show is exhausting, and I was addicted to it too, back in the day.


Her book on the trial Without a Doubt is now an eBook, for you Kindle people.

[scarlet]

I have to say, I think I was one of the people who laughed at all the media "critiquing" that went on with Marcia when the trial was going on. Now, through older eyes, I feel absolutely awful for her and am judging my younger self. And, yes, if Sarah doesn't get an Emmy out of this, well, I just don't know.

[laboria]

After last week's heart attack lie I do not know what's real in this miniseries
Episode six:

1. Poor Marcia Clark. Was the public and the court aware of her battle with the ex husband? Did he really sell stories to the tabloids? Were there really old nude photos of her in the tabloids? I remember her being unlikable, but she felt the need to undergo two makeovers, at least, during the trial? One in this episode, and she looks different in the previews. I just remember the one curly haired look. Never knew she got sleek during the trial.
2. Johnnie had another wife that he had domestic violence issues with? Was that public knowledge, or did he really give
her hush money and she stayed quiet and it wasn't known at the time?
3. Rosa Lopez, really happened?
4. First cop really took evidence home and logged it in the next day? I guess in light of the found knife news, if it is not a hoax, might not be a dramatic embellishment.
5. Mark Furman. My knowledge of him was that he was a racist cop who possibly planted evidence. I also thought there was something about a movie script that he read that had the n word in it. Based on last night's episode, Bailey asked him if he ever said the word, believing that no matter the answer he was screwed. Maybe naive of me, but unless you are a David Duke type, or a republican candidate, if someone said they've never said the word I'd believe them. And if he uttered it during some script reading, I wouldn't hold it against him like I don't hold it against Nathan Lane for using it in this episode. I'm not seeing evil cop; maybe it is for later.
6. Did Marcia and Chris have an affair?

[Deleted]

I'm not seeing evil cop; maybe it is for later.

Yep, it comes later. The audio tapes played for the court left no doubt that Fuhrman is a racist piece of shit. F. Lee Bailey asked him if he ever used the n-word in the past 10 years, which is a wide open question that should have been an obvious trap. Sure, it was a no-win situation for Fuhrman, but if he had just said yes, those tapes might not have been admissible and the OJ trial wouldn't have gone so far off track (though it's possible famewhore Ito might have admitted those tapes anyway). The OJ trial turned into the Fuhrman trial, and there was no turning back from there. The defense had won. Looking back, I realize now that I was too harsh in my judgment of the jury. There really was no "right" verdict for them to make when one of the lead detectives pleads the fifth when specifically asked if he had planted evidence in the case. If that's not reasonable doubt, I don't know what is.

[scarlet]

Vanity Fair fact-checks the episode:

link