I'm not a hundred percent sure that
the people running ABC are entirely sure of what they're doing. Though several
of their comedies are at the level of the peak comedies in the 1990s, the rest
of their programs are scattershot. Building their network on reality TV is a
slippery slope, and they seem to have surrendered most of their original drama
space to Shonda Rhimes.
But you know something? It's almost
worth it. Because building up that ratings base allows to them to periodically
experiment in brilliant stuff. And there are few things more brilliant on TV
than American Crime, now in the
middle of Season 3, and once again choosing a subject that could not be more
relevant to the current Zeitgeist: human trafficking.
Changing settings yet again, Season
3 takes place in North Carolina among
the migrant farms that surround the fields. As always, its hard to tell what
the exact crime is that will be the wellspring for the action, but we've got a
lot of fascinating characters playing around.
In a particularly good move, Regina King, winner of two consecutive
Emmys for Supporting Actress moves to a lead role playing Kimara Walters, a
social worker trying to help sex workers caught in the system, and who have
little to no interest in being helped. Her latest project is Shae, a teenager
caught, who is in no mood to be rescued even though she is pregnant, an irony
not lost on Kimara, who has been trying for longer than she cares to think to
have a child herself. Felicity Huffman, who in the previous two incarnations
has been playing largely unsympathetic women, now takes on the role of
Jeanette, the wife of a man whose mother
(newcomer to the series Cherry Jones) runs a migrant farm which usually
traffics in illegal immigrant and where fifteen workers were killed in a fire,
and is horrified by it. A lot of the action takes place on the farms where the
hopeless are recruited in hopes of easy money. But right now, it seems like the
critical character this season is Luis Salazar (Benito Martinez), a middle-aged
man who crossed the border illegally, traveled a long way to North
Carolina , and only in last nights episode revealed
that he was in search of his son.
The acting in the series is almost
always incredible. (I have not yet mentioned the arrival of Sandra Oh, as an
attorney trying to help Kimara in her work) Huffman and King are their usual
magnificent selves, but so far, it is Martinez
(who was largely absent for Season 2), whose work is particularly impressive.
He seems to be determined and is far more forceful as a man who is clearly the
odd man out in this world. But there is a hidden strength that he finally lets
rip against an unsuspecting farm boss that makes it seem hard to see how Emmy
judges will be able to ignore it this year.
This is impressive stuff all around, and I await with anticipation the
arrival of series regulars Timothy Hutton and Lil Taylor, who are scheduled to
start their run in Episode 4.
American
Crime, despite the fact that it is one of the most critically acclaimed
series on any network, has always struggled with low ratings, even for the
fragmented TV era. This is hardly surprising. It is a series that tries to deal
with issues that most of would prefer not to see in our entertainment. It's
even harder to deal with because it doesn't show clearly heroes and villains -
only people stuck in the same broken system.
Which is all the more reason that this show should be deified. That a
series this good could get made is wondrous; that its being made for broadcast
TV is miraculous. It's as close to The
Wire as broadcast TV is likely to
get in our lifetimes. Watch this show. I think we all need to.
My score: 5 stars.
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