Amph The People vs. O.J. Simpson

Just saw the final episode. Excellent, as was the rest of the series. The only complaint I had was that it was too short - they skipped over a LOT of interesting sequences from the trial itself. Where was the interview with Kato K., or the dog-walking neighbor who originally found the two bodies?!

In any case, seeing this finale reminded me of the huge cheering I & many others heard after the OJ verdict was reached back in October '95.

Several points:

1) I am 100% fine with the casting of CGJ as OJ. Sure, he doesn't physically look like OJ, but he's a great actor, is roughly the same age OJ was at the time, and IMHO acted pretty much like OJ during the trial. Plus, OJ has very little dialogue on this show, and isn't actually seen on screen a huge amount either.

The CGJ casting decision kind of reminds me of how I felt when I first saw the bio-pic Nixon (1995); it starred Anthony Hopkins in the title role. And, though AH looks & sounds nothing like Nixon, he captured the mannerisms/persona of Nixon so well that the physical appearance aspect didn't bother me too much; I felt he did a great job in the role.

The casting of the other actors was amazing. The actor(s) who played Johnnie Cochran, Marcia Clark, and Judge Ito were especially spot-on - superb casting here.

2) The show was also great re: making me aware of other aspects of the trial, that I had either forgotten or never paid attention to when it was actually happening:

I.e., I had forgotten that the jury was sequestered for 8 months - WTF?! Horrible. I can't imagine being out of touch with everything for that long, being away from work, etc. I don't know how most of these people kept their jobs - unless they were retired. There should be a law against having trials last this long -this was truly unconscionable & sickening.

It was funny seeing that one young woman go "nuts" on the series - or, "appear" to go nuts...presumably so she could get out of continuing to serve on the jury.

I'm sure the cost of this trial ran well into the millions. Just housing & feeding that jury in an expensive hotel for 8 months must have cost a pretty penny. Your taxpayer dollars at work.

3) I didn't know that OJ wore latex gloves when he tried the leather gloves on - so, of course the leather gloves didn't fit! Just wearing the latex gloves would keep the leather gloves from fitting properly. And, it should be common knowledge that leather tends to shrink when it's moistened - as these gloves were. Also, it was extremely foolish for the prosecution to have had OJ try the gloves on - even Marcia thought this was a bad idea (if that's really the way it happened). I wonder if F. Lee Bailey actually whispered to Darden that if the prosecution didn't ask OJ to try the gloves on, the defense would? I doubt the defense would have asked OJ to try on the gloves (even if they did threaten to).

4) If OJ didn't commit these heinous crimes, how did his blood/DNA end up at the murder scene?! And, how did the blood/DNA/hair of Nicole & Ron end up all over his car, his house, etc.?! Going along with this, IIRC he had cut(s) on his hands when he was caught. His guilt seems straightforward to me.

I don't believe Mark F. - or anyone else - planted any evidence. Not because I don't believe the authorities aren't capable of it - or that they wouldn't do it if it served their purposes....but because there was so much blood/DNA/hair evidence already there that they wouldn't have needed to. Yes, Mark F. was dishonest by not coming clean on his racist statements - however, that doesn't mean that he would have stooped so low as to plant evidence on a case where the prosecution should already have had more than enough to begin with....

Plus, when would this evidence have been planted?! The crime scene was not discovered by LE - it was discovered by a neighbor walking his dog who alerted them. This type of crime was very unusual for that upscale part of L.A. - so obviously the authorities wouldn't have been cruising that neighborhood.

And, the LAPD definitely did not "have it in" for OJ before this crime took place - he had already been given more than one pass by them when they were previously called (more than once, apparently) re: his domestic abuse against Nicole.

5) Re: the outcome of the trial: it's interesting that back in '95, based on the jurors' decision - most of the jurors in the trial obviously didn't believe OJ was guilty....nor did all of the people who cheered when the innocent verdict was reached. However, these days, if you talk to most people they'll say they believe OJ was guilty....

So, why did OJ get a not guilty verdict? I think there were four main reasons for this:

-Judge Ito stupidly allowing the trial to be televised. Obviously Ito wanted to make a name for himself. As a result, public opinion had a lot to do with the outcome here, when it shouldn't have. For that matter, Ito shouldn't even have BEEN the judge on this trial since there was a conflict of interest re: his wife (a LE officer) having had negative run-ins with Mark F.

-The decision by the prosecution to call Mark F. to the stand - incredibly foolish.

- The decision by the prosecution to have OJ try on the gloves - also incredibly foolish.

-It's obvious that DNA testing hadn't been around that long back in 1994/1995, when the crime & later trial took place. A lot of people at that time didn't really have a clue on how accurate this was in establishing someone's identity.

Of course, we'll never know 100% how this trial would have played out under different circumstances.

Thankfully, OJ lost that civil trial in '97. Which reminds me - I want to see a mini-series about that, too!

 

i just watched the first two eps. this **** is hilarious. wayyyy lighter than i thought it was going to be.

 

These Specific People vs OJ Simpson

 

After watching this I want Sarah Paulson, Courtney Vance and Sterling Brown cast in....everything.

 

I could also watch a spin off movie with Lane & Travolta as Bailey/Shapiro... their bickering against each other was fabulous. If the trio of Paulson-Vance-Brown don't win some awards somewhere for this, then that would be just not nice.








The upcoming ESPN documentary... looks enthralling.

 

just watched episode four i think it was. more hilarity. i never thought much of travolta but his portrayal of shapiro is soooo entertaining.

 

l.a.p.d.

 

you don't know?

 

Don't spoil the story! Also, the documentary series Made in America is the superior OJ thing from 2016.

 

right, i remember. they definitely overdid it on the cameos and references.

 

watch 'em both ideally

 

Yeah, that was really annoying given that Robert Kardashian wasn't central to the thing, but it's something to expect from a Ryan Murphy-produced show.

 

just wait til travolta shows up. hahaha. hahahahah. HAHAHAHAHAHAAH

 

no don't, it is really entertaining. but maybe you could watch the doc first to reacquaint yourself with the facts.