From: Jasper
Date: 11/16/00
Time: 6:17:56 AM
Remote Name: 209.18.31.243
Jean,
I watched the show for the first time.
What a mess.
I don't agree with Charlie that the acting was bad. I think the problem had more to do with the interspersing of real characters and real situations we knew well with the need to use actors or actors' voices and to present the situation from a given perspective. The perspective was that of someone who believed that most of the evidence against O.J. as a killer was legitimate and the evidence of spouse abuse undeniable.
In one scene O.J. gets violently upset with Cochran for not arguing the fact that he was NOT A SPOUSE ABUSER. That's a fact. He wasn't. But in the show, Cochran is so upset by the VIOLENCE of his insistence to make that point in his summation that he remarks to his fellow lawyers, "I'm glad I'm not a blond." There were sprinkles of that sort of thing throughout the show and a heavy dose of cynicism regarding O.J.'s attorneys.
One glaring problem with the show was the voice of the actor playing O.J. Simpson. It sounded like a black guy but it was clearly not the voice of O.J. Simpson. In this case, the ability to recognize his voice is crucial. Another big problem was the Forest Gump-style insertion of the real O.J. with the actors playing his lawyers, and the real Fuhrman with the actress playing Marcia Clark. It makes you wonder what the producers thought of the pictures of O.J. in the Bruno Magli Lorenzos.
In short, I think the biggest problem with the show was simply that they got it wrong and it showed. --Jasper