Earlier this year I
mentioned that regardless of what you might think of television currently we
are still living in the era of Peak Limited Series. And if you witness this
September’s Emmys you are more than aware that this applies to Anthology as
well. Fargo and True Detective, two of the oldest members of the
franchises were among the leaders in all limited series categories and both won
awards for acting. Also a major contender was the second season of Feud where
Capote Vs. The Swans dominated almost every category but Limited Series.
This trend was on display
last year as we saw the first season of Monster and The White Lotus (Emmy
classification be damned on the latter) dominate last year’s Emmy nominations
and awards. Both are likely to return to the field when the third season begins.
Ryan Murphy remains a master of this genre as we have seen with his newest version
of American Sports Story. His Horror Story is unlikely to go
anywhere any time soon and I suspect Crime Story will come back for a fourth
season.
I’ve seen all of these
shows and am a huge fan of many of them – so it might come as a shock to you
that I sincerely believe that the boldest one on television today is Fox’s Accused.
To be clear I don’t mean it’s the best acting or has the same brilliance as
all the others I’ve listed. Nor is the most consistent, the most innovative or dramatic.
Just the boldest. The main reason is that it’s not airing on cable or a
streaming service but network TV which even at its highest caliber today (and I’m
a bigger booster of it then most of my fellow critics are) when it comes to its
drama tends either to reboots, spin-offs, franchises or procedurals. By that
metric Accused is one of the most radical things on television.
That could be extended to
the anthologies I’ve listed above which as any devoted fan knows (and I am)
follows a single serialized storyline for the course of a season. These are the
two metrics of drama: serialized or procedural. Accused is bold precisely
because it refuses to be categorized. There are no regular characters from week-to-week
and unlike other anthology series which are almost exclusively in the sci-fi
genre (Black Mirror is the most successful) this show doesn’t even truly
deal with crimes. It’s not a legal drama, despite starting every episode in a
courtroom. It’s not a whodunit because we know the central characters committed
the crime they’re accused of – though in
most episodes it’s often a shock to learn what crime. It deals with social
issues that we face today – in Season 1 alone it dealt with mass shootings,
white supremacy, cancel culture, drug addiction and sexual abuse - but even when we think we know what we’re
getting, it never takes an attitude of preachiness. Its closest parallel is American
Crime though it isn’t nearly at the level of that incredible anthology. There
is a similar earnestness to its that makes it a different kind of boldness. There’s
very little humor in what happens and it can go into some pretty dark territory
as a result. But perhaps because the story is limited to a single episode it
makes Accused easier to watch.
The show also has a cast of
actors and directors that used to be the sole aspect of cable and streaming.
Last year Michael Chiklis, Margo Martindale, Jason Ritter, Malcolm
Jamal-Warner, Molly Parker, Mary Lynn-Raskjub and Keith Carradine all starred
in episodes. This extends behind the camera as well: Chiklis, Billy Porter and
Marlee Matlin all helmed episodes last year. Not all of the episodes are works
of art, of course – this is an anthology – but when Accused is firing on
all cylinders you can hear, as Stephen King once said, the ping of Waterford
Crystal. I heard it on Accused many times last year – in the opening when
Chiklis played a father who realized his son was psychotic but not in time to
stop a tragedy; when Raskjub played a comedian who gets in the center of a
toxic fight with an older comic that leads to a vicious assault; when Breslin
played a former southerner who has found hope and love in an interracial lesbian
relationship but when bigotry rears its head in her neighborhood is led down a path
that leads to death and the loss of everything she loves.
Now after the strikes in
Hollywood scuttled for all intents and purposes the 2023-2024 season Howard
Gordon has brought Accused back for its second season. In a sense it has
reduced its vision – Fox’s second season order was eight episodes, down from
the 12 of Season 1. But watching the first two episodes I saw no signs of slack:
if anything both episodes have been minor masterpieces.
The season premiere told us
‘Lorraine’s Story’ with Felicity Huffman in the lead. Huffman has always been one
of the great actors of television in the last quarter-century and her best work
has always been on network television, from Sports Night to Desperate
Housewives to yes, three extraordinary seasons on American Crime that
earned her two Emmy nominations. Here Huffman plays a medium, who claims to
have a psychic gift but when we first meet her is working in a dry cleaner. In
the opening she sees the story of a missing child on the news and calls the
family. When she’s about to drive out to talk with them an old friend and her
ex-husband (William H. Macy…yes, her husband) urges her not to go down this
road again. Lorraine feels obliged too.
A long time ago Lorraine
managed to find a child that many believed was dead. Since then she’s had a
long history with other missing children – all of whom end up being dead when
they’re found. She ends up living with the married couple – the wife has
doubts, the husband clings to hope. The police has no use for her. It’s not my
job to tell you the crime she ends up being accused of or the verdict because
that is only occasionally the point of Accused. What I will tell you is
that Huffman is wrenching in every minute, knowing the road she’s going down, unable
to look away from what she sees. At one point she’s offered an opportunity to back
away from what she said and in a moment of pain she tells she wishes she doesn’t
have this gift: “It doesn’t give me winning lottery numbers; it shows me dead
children!” And once again we’re reminded why, despite all the controversy that
has surrounded her in recent years, Huffman is one of the greatest actress
working in TV.
Last night’s episode ‘April’s
Story’ was one of the best Accused has ever done, and a highpoint of the
entire 2024 season. Taylor Schilling, an actress who I had little use for
before last night, gives one of the most harrowing performance I’ve seen any
actress give this year. She plays a nurse whose son is dealing with some form
of autism and she is struggling to earn money to keep him in a private school,
Her husband (Danny Pino) works from home and doesn’t seem to appreciate her struggles.
She takes her son to school and has to deal with one of her son’s playmates
refusing to pick her up. She stops to get coffee. When she goes back to her
car, she’s been parked so close she can barely open the door. Edging in the car’s
owner (an incredibly nasty Justin Chambers) accuses her of denting his car and
shows no remorse about parking her in. Already late for work she gets in while
Chambers’ character (who’s driving a BMW) demands she stay and exchange
insurance and pay for the damage. He practically hangs on her window when she drives
off.
Most of the episode that
follows is seen from April’s car as she tries to deal with a series of
incidents involving her son that continue to add her frustration. Then she
finds out she’s being followed – and its by that same BMW. Schilling gives an
incredible performance throughout showing a range of emotions many actors in
network series never give in a full season: frustration, sorrow, fear, the
sense she’s being demeaned and finally utter rage. The outcome is tragic and
perhaps inevitable but even as it accelerated towards its conclusion I never
felt anything but sympathy for April and little remorse for the man who tells
her in no uncertain terms ‘she’s a crazy bitch’.
I don’t normally use
cliches like this but the thing is I have to use it with Accused: there’s
nothing on TV quite like it. And there certainly isn’t on broadcast TV. As I
mentioned last week as the 2020s reaches its halfway point broadcast television
still has the potential to deliver brilliant and underappreciated gems. You see
it in Will Trent and Found; you see it in Elsebeth and Tracker.
I have seen the possibility of it this past few weeks in High Potential and
Brilliant Minds. Accused is by far the most daring of these shows (all
of which have debuted in the past year and a half) and all of them have
extremely high quality in acting and writing. No one can deny that network TV
has been struggling immensely the last few years or that the strike has hit it
harder. But the last year has demonstrated that it’s not going to go gentle. I
don’t know how long a show like Accused can fit in this nebulous world
of shrinking viewership. But as long as its there, I’ll keep hope alive for the
battered system.
My score: 5 stars.
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