American Crime Story

An unusually skillfully shot and brilliantly stylised reminiscence of the nineties; a well-written and at times extremely dramatic procedural; a sophisticated and comprehensive probe into the American justice system of that era, plus racial overtones and a white vs black battle. Gooding Jr. is basically the only distraction, his acting is erratic to say the least. Otherwise, the cast delivers one ace after another, and apart from a few deaf spots, it's a memorable exchange of biting dialogue and allusions to the system. (06/09/2018)

A solid opening to an intense story from the 1990s. It's a pleasure to see well-done sets, carefully chosen and portrayed characters (Travolta as a VIP lawyer is excellent) and quite a lot of verbal sauce translated into a skillful story with drive. I’m curious about what will happen in the next episodes. (05/12/2018)

A significant downward step. A 50-minute lament about whether to blow your head off or not is not a good theme for a series, especially considering that the gun is held by an extremely overacting Gooding Jr., who was never good at pathetic posturing. It’s hard to give the next episodes a chance, but it’s still alright. (05/12/2018)

After the introductory showdown and the subsequent chase, a proper legal battle of aces against the state apparatus is finally about to begin. This episode fixes the bad taste left by the previous two. (05/19/2018)

Finally, the real lawyering begins. The next episodes are probably going to be a real storm in the courtroom. This episode is definitely convincing. I need to watch it until the end. (05/20/2018)

Finally, fewer characters around which it all revolves and a lot of legalese and excellently written dialogue and court passages. Excellent conversational stuff, like from an A-list Hollywood flick. (05/28/2018)

An interesting episode from the point of view of the main prosecutor, a relatively fragile woman in a world of uncompromising male heavyweight lawyers. Her perception of the situation, her emotional motives and psychological instability, as well as her strength to fight and not give up are impressively handled. Excellent performance and an unconventional but very interesting contribution to the episodic puzzle. (05/29/2018)

The only thing worth seeing this episode for is the phenomenal glove scene and maybe the still-fragile romantic line between the two prosecutors. Otherwise, it doesn't really go anywhere, it’s just talk with hardly any movement. (06/05/2018)

The fight for the jury is hysterical, heavy-handed, whiny and hard to believe. Not much questioning and a lot of people who are anything but normal. Considering we're two episodes from the end it's pretty lousy. (06/05/2018)

An exceptionally well staged verbal shootout of the state apparatus vs. the black attorney Cochran, crowned by the final scene with Detective Fuhrman. An exemplary conversational drama. One of the best and most tense episodes of the series. (06/07/2018)

A decent conclusion. It doesn't quite surpass the previous episode, because apart from the final speeches it lacks a bit of a dramatic arc – the ending isn't as gripping, but in terms of legal manoeuvring, a great affair, again. (06/07/2018)