What should be the next season of American Crime Story?
It's been recently announced by producer Ryan Murphy that season 3 of American Crime Story WILL NOT be covering the events following Katrina. I myself am actually relieved. Not to dismiss what a tragedy Katrina was, and how the system in this country failed all those people resulting in countless deaths, but I view Katrina as more of a disaster than an actual American Crime Story. So far for season 1 we got an inside look on the media/trial circus otherwise known as The People Vs. OJ Simpson.
I waited until all ten episodes of the first season landed on Netflix. I had heard the buzz, and honestly wanted the binge watch the entire show in just a few sittings. I have been a Ryan Murphy fan for years (Nip Tuck, and American Horror Story, Feud, and most recently Glee.) He's a master storyteller, and I really have to applaud him for picking one of the most famous crime cases in American as well as in Hollywood. Here we witness the night that Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found brutally murdered right outside her home. How all clues, as well as evidence, and motive leads to her famous ex husband football star and actor OJ Simpson. This season actually meant a lot to me since I vaguely remember how fascinated my mother was in the 1990's following this case. I would like to believe the way they portrayed this complete whirlwind of a court case did it exactly to justice and would have gotten her seal of approval.
As much as I love me some Cuba Gooding Jr. I feel he didn't capture the darkness that lingered behind the real OJ's eyes. The true star of this entire show was Sarah Paulson who took the house down as Marcia Clark. A tough as nails lawyer, who was working in a sexist nightmare of a trial. She won a richly deserved Emmy, and continues to prove she's the mother fucking supreme!
The one thing I do have to roll my eyes was on how they really tried to play up the Kardashians. I know Robert stuck by OJ's side the entire time, but the scenes involving the children was cringe worthy. Also how many times can the word "juice" be said. If you played a drinking game to all ten episodes you would more than likely end up in the hospital.
Still, it was a powerful season that really did bring back a bunch of faint memories for me while my mother was following the case. The opening first episode when the bodies are discovered is bone chilling, and the scene of Goldman's father finally being able to grieve and express his anger over how the media/courts are treating his son's death is down right heartbreaking. I do love that it stays neutral with if OJ is innocent or not. We get to watch it as we originally did when the trial first aired.
A year later the second season was announced.
The Assassination Of Gianni Versace.
Another famous case that happened during the 1990's.
This case I wasn't as familiar as I was with the OJ trial. I knew who Versace was, and I knew a young man wearing glasses shot him. That all of this happened before Princess Diana died (on my 9th birthday) that same summer. Besides that, I went into this blind.
I still remember last winter the beautifully shot teaser trailers that aired and I instantly raised an eyebrow knowing that the guy playing the guy who shot Versace was the same guy who was famous from Ryan Murphy's Glee (A show I hadn't watched until recently, and actually find it to be a total guilty pleasure.) Still, I was blown away by the rest of the cast, most of all Penelope Cruze playing Gianni's younger sister Donatella.
Sadly I missed the original airing, until I was dog sitting later that spring, and actually caught the very last episode. With nothing else on TV, I decided to say screw it and watch. I knew absolutely little to nothing about the case, or the fact that the real life murderer of Versace (Andrew Cunanan) had killed four other men before he killed Gianni on July 15th 1997 in South Beach Florida. I sat back and watched the last eight days of Cunanan's life as he became trapped on the island, unable to leave, with the police/FBI holding one of the biggest manhunts in American's history. Here I got to watch this clearly mentally unstable young man become more and more desperate, before his tragic and very violent end. Instantly this raised questions for me since I had missed the eight other episodes.
So I promised myself yet again to wait until the entire season was put on Netflix. This took almost a whole year, and right around this time awards season was kicking off and I noticed the actor who played Cunanan (Darren Criss) was mopping up the floor with his haunting, chilling, heartbreaking, and terrifying portrayal of Andrew. He won a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice award, a Satellite Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as a Primetime Emmy. Honestly this is one of the scariest roles an actor would play and I couldn't think of anyone else besides Criss playing it.
I binge watched the entire season, loving how Murphy tells Cunanan's murder spree completely out of order. We watch as he kills his 5th and most famous victim in the opening minutes of the first episode. After that, we see Andrew's life told over his 27 or so years on Earth and how this handsome, intelligent, gifted young man had it all, but was set up for failure from day one. We witness his twisted backstory involving his upbringing, his pattern of pathologic lies and stories, acting as if he belonged in a higher place. We watch him emerge as a young gay male with untreated mental illness latch onto wealthy older men, his hidden drug habits, and finally how everything reached a head in spring of 1997 when he murdered his best friend and ex boyfriend. Following, he kills a wealthy closeted man from Chicago (where rumors have flown for years that he was a customer of Andrew's.) a cemetery worker who was murdered so Cunanan could steal his truck, and finally venturing to Florida even after being placed on the FBI's most wanted list. We watch as a series of silly mistakes by the police and FBI are responsible for Andrew to go uncaught as long as he did after such violent and terrible crimes. How he hides out in plain sight for nearly two months in South Beach before one fateful morning walking up to world famous fashion designer Gianni Versace and shooting him point blank in the face twice before fleeing.
This is master storytelling at it's finest, and shows so many different sides to this story, as well as the worse being that nobody ever knows for sure why Andrew started his murder spree. Was it to be famous? Revenge? Or something else. We witness a young gay male and how he and so many others were treated during this time. How his dark, and disturbing life is the opposite of Versace's who was a gay man as well, but had the rich and famous life Andrew always dreamed of. I loved a certain scene where Cunanan dreams he's with the designer and points out the only difference is that he got lucky. Since watching the show I've been hired to do a commission based off Cunanan and have finished two books based off the crimes. I found it disturbing as well as fascinating that the system truly failed and had Cunanan be treated or caught maybe his body count wouldn't have been so high.
Rumors flew about season 3 but once we knew it wasn't going to be Katrina after Murphy said he's in the process of two major cases, the question remains...
What will be the next crime story?
I have a strange feeling season's 2 main actors may be involved after this IG post from Mr. Murphy.
Fingers crossed since all 3 completely killed it (no pun intended) I'm sure if Murphy continues with the same steam he's been using in the past 2 seasons, season 3 will be epic. So...what will the crime story be?
Here are my guesses...
My #1 choice - Jonbenet Ramsey
#2 - The West Memphis Three
#3 - Ted Bundy
#4 - The Menendez Brothers
#5 - The Oklahoma City Bombing
Thoughts? Any of these jumping out at you? Or is there another famous American crime that's worthy to be placed in the third season?
