FX Networks advertised the O.J. Simpson show as something of a retelling of the events that led up to Simpson’s arrest as well as the trial. But the show starts out with video clips of police brutality against African Americans. The Rodney King riots are shown. Is FX trying to connect the Simpson case to police brutality? Are they trying to say he is another victim?
Also, this show is supposed to be based on the book “The Run of his Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson” by Jeffery Toobin. And the season is only five episodes long. Each season is a different story, director Ryan Murphy said next season is on the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.
The show flashes forward to two years later, with Simpson getting into a limo to leave and telling his limo driver that Willie Mays was the first celebrity he ever met and how he told himself as a kid that is who he wanted to be like when he grew up.
The Mays scene made me question if the limo driver remembers Simpson telling him that decades ago. There are a lot of little details that pop up that I wonder how Murphy thought of or how people seemingly could remember these things.
The cops show up to Nicole Brown Simpson’s house after a neighbor finds the bodies. A cop asks if Simpson has been notified and another cop says, “Don’t want a Belushi situation. Don’t want him learning this from his TV.” Just another questionable detail. It adds to the show but did the cops really relate it back to the Belushi death?
Viewers are given a very real idea of the kind of guy Simpson is when the police arrive at his house. As they walk up a pathway their flashlights illuminate a giant statue in his yard of himself from his USC football days, holding a helmet in his hand while in his No. 32 jersey. It certainly says a lot about someone if they have a statue of themselves in their front yard.
FX seems to turn the tables when the cops arrive at Simpson’s house, for he went as being portrayed as a victim to an arrogant suspect. But yet the show portrays Simpson sitting alone in a Chicago hotel room supposedly sobbing after the police tell him that his ex-wife has been murdered. It is really up to the viewers to decide now if he did it or not.
Then the glove is found. Not just any glove but THE glove. The glove that the world knows about. The one that didn’t fit but was supposed to convict him. Everything about the finding of the glove was very casual.
But FX tries to tug at heartstrings by running a scene with Nicole Brown’s daughter leaving a message on the answering machine crying about when will her mom come home while crime scene investigators pick up evidence in the room. It’s the first time a child’s voice is heard on the show. And it’s a pretty sad moment, because the investigators, and viewers, know that Nicole Brown isn’t coming home.
From there the FX has decided to make Simpson a suspect, starting with the television videographer who captures the few seconds that the police put cuffs on Simpson.
It’s also when Simpson, played by Cuba Gooding Jr., starts to have an active role.
Simpson’s real-life former business manager Norman Pardo told "People Magazine" that Gooding Jr. didn’t accurately portray Simpson, from the way he acted to the way he looked, citing that Gooding Jr. isn’t anywhere near the size of Simpson. Which, for the latter part, Pardo is right. Simpson is a big guy. In terms of looks, Gooding Jr. doesn’t really fit the part.
Throughout the second half of the show, as Simpson’s personality is shown, his behavior is completely erratic. From being calm at first, telling the police he will cooperate and tell them whatever he needs, to screaming after a polygraph test administered by his lawyers, to suicidal near the end of the show. If Simpson was innocent then his behavior could make sense, but an innocent person doesn’t try to kill themselves if they’re a suspect.
Gooding Jr. told "People Magazine" that he thinks Simpson has Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) from his football years, which explains his behavior. Dr. Bennet Omalu, the doctor who discovered football players had CTE, told the magazine he’d bet his medical license that Simpson does. And if that isn’t enough proof that Simpson’s behavior is explained by CTE, Pardo tells People, “[He’s] often not coherent…[he’ll] sit in the corner, mumbling, talking and arguing with himself.”
Simpson’s personality is also shown by the ridiculous amount of football memorabilia casually placed around his house. There’s a painting of him during his USC days in the Heisman position while various trophies are just all over the room to remind everyone the champion that he was.
The last interesting bit to the show was the radio show where two men say that Simpson’s rights have been violated, that his cuffs are chains. It’s in the middle of everything going on, and I’m not sure the purpose behind it because FX has been making Simpson the suspect for a good part of the show.
The episode ends with Simpson’s lawyers, Robert Shapiro, played by John Travolta, and Robert Kardashian, played by David Schwimmer, letting the police into the home to arrest Simpson, only for them to all realize he escaped. In the Bronco. We can only assume that the next episode has the infamous Bronco chase.
