OJ Work-Outs

I wonder how many people watch this mini-series and have thought, "I wonder whatever happened to A Current Affair?" This coverage is all about how OJ's arthritis may or may not have jacked with his ability to commit double homicide -- the very question my family friend thought he might be called upon to testify about! (In recent convo with my mother, she seems to believe this theory that he was going to testify was never considered extremely likely by the other adults in this scenario.)

The Screenwriter

In case you, like I, are wondering how the hell you know this actress, it's Marguerite Moreau, who was in both Wet Hot American Summers as Katie, and has also been in a MILLION other things. Additionally, her vest here is the kind of nubby linen so beloved by creative ladies of a certain age in 1995. I am sure she owns matching pants. (>Laura Hart McKinney spoke to Vanity Fair recently, as well; it's very interesting.)

Literal Courtroom Drama

Emotions are running high between Chris and Johnnie -- Johnnie VEHEMENTLY objects when Darden asks a witness if one of the men he heard yelling outside Nicole's condo on the night of the murder "sounded black." And it just turns into a mess from there -- Darden ends up noting that if THAT'S racist, the racist is the witness (who is like, "UH WAIT WHAT?") and not him. (Johnnie is very good at manipulating Chris's emotions to make him look bad, and overshadow the progress he's making for the prosecution. Johnnie is really a formidable legal opponent. ) Marcia is like, "...I need a vacation so bad."

It's Bad

I found it interesting to see the facial expressions on all the actors as they listened to the tapes, because they often mirrored my own, although I kept finding myself putting my hand over my face, as if not watching was going to prevent me from hearing the words. The tapes are incredibly hard to listen to -- disgustingly racist, riddled with the n-word, grandiose, and horrifyingly cruel. And while it seems that a lot of what Fuhrman brags about having done on the tapes is not true, it's also quite telling that the stories he spins as a way to make himself seem like more of a bad-ass are not, say, "let me tell you about the time I rescued six kids from a burning building with my bare hands" or "then there was the time I dismantled a bomb," but instead slur-ridden tales of horrible police brutality. That speaks to the culture at LAPD at the time and not well of it. This isn't even getting into the stuff Fuhrman says about his superior, Judge Ito's wife. To a women whose screenplay is about sexism in the LAPD. Leaving aside...like, A LOT, that ALONE goes to show that this dude is stunningly arrogant.

Everything Is Bad

Marcia of course thinks everything is going to be fine, while Chris as usual totally has Furhman's number. "Marcia, people like stories," he finally tells her. "It helps them make sense of it." And that's exactly what he gets -- and has always gotten -- and she doesn't.

Down in North Carolina

Johnnie and F Lee Bailey go to North Carolina to get these tapes and believe it or not, the Good Ol Boy Judge with the Confederate flag painting hanging on the wall and the Confederate soldier statues just outside the courtroom does NOT respond well to Johnnie. ("You don't play so well in Dixie," is Bailey's take.) They have to appeal his decision and F Lee REALLY pours on the cornpone to charm THAT court into handing over the tapes. It works. (Hilariously, the whole time he's speaking, Johnnie is TRANSFIXED by his performance.)

Marcia Marcia Marcia

Just imagine this look on Marcia's face, like the ENTIRE TIME. She wants to keep the tapes out, Johnnie wants them all in, and then the detail about Ito's wife comes out and...jeez, it's a mess. This case is a disaster for the DA's office, from stem to stern.

Not Great, Gil

Garcetti is like, NEVER GONNA BE PRESIDENT NOW. (He actually DID win this reelection bid, but BARELY, and that LA Times piece is interesting, because it quotes a Steve Cooley, and IDs him as a disgruntled supporter of Garcetti's opponent. Steve Cooley...who went on to defeat Garcetti in 2000, and was LA County DA until 2012. Our current DA is Jackie Lacey, the first woman and first African-American DA Los Angeles has ever had.)

The Return of the Art

Johnnie has a lot going on right now, but I just want to note that I'm glad he got his artwork back from OJ's house. There was some interesting stuff in the VF piece to which I linked which said that Johnnie did truly believe that God brought him these tapes -- whether to get OJ off or (more likely) to shine light on the corruption of the LAPD, and I'm not totally sure if that comes through as sincere in this performance -- and I'm not sure that it was meant to.

Tie Work

Also: Johnnie's ties were extra good this week.

I Love You, Chris

This scene was great -- Sterling K Brown is SO SO good on this show. Here, he just loses it at Marcia that he KNEW he was right about Fuhrman and he TOLD HER several times and she just didn't take him seriously. "You put me on this trial because you wanted a black face. But the truth is, you never wanted a black voice," he tells her, and both of them almost cry. And so do I.

Casa Shapiro

Note the chess set! Here, The Shapiros are watching Johnnie running a presser calling for the release of the tapes, on the argument that the tapes reveal a systematic history of police brutality in the LAPD, and the public has a right to know what's in them. "My god, this is terrible," Mrs Shapiro says. "I tried to stop him," Bob says. Bob. She meant the police brutality. Not your case.

These Are The Days...

If the lawyers have chess sets, Judge Ito has a collection of hourglasses. He's a HUGE fan of Days of Our Lives. And so should he be, as this is the exact same time that Marlena was possessed by the devil! (PS: If you want to fall into a Wiki Hole, please read Marlena's entry. It quite literally does have everything.)

Mistrials

Also to be discussed: Everyone thinks they're going to get a possible mistrial. The defense thinks they will NEVER win a mistrial, but Darden kind of thinks they should do it. "Do it without Fuhrman." Marcia won't go for it, though, because she's worried it'll get into a Double Jeopardy situation and OJ will walk. This is an incredibly interesting legal conundrum to me -- surely, the sort of thing you study in law school. When do you go for the mistrial?

Tensions Are High

This was the back and forth between Chris and Johnnie that lead to Chris being threatened with contempt of court, and Marcia both acting as his legal council and offering to go jail with him for her own contempt charge. Tensions are HIGH and it is FASCINATING and dramatic and tense; this scene was honestly edge-of-my-seat. If Sterling K Brown doesn't get an Emmy nod, I will be ENRAGED.

Handshakes, Not Hugs

Marcia admits that she should have listened more to Chris, and Chris apologizes for the thing with the glove. Thank god they made up. I hate it when Mom and Dad fight. JUST MAKE OUT. (Sorry, that just slipped out.)

Faxing

They're all waiting for a fax to emerge to let them know how much of the Fuhrman tape will be allowed in front of the jury. Ah, the 90s. When it does, only two lines are allowed -- to prove that Fuhrman perjured himself. The defense is devastated and honestly, I was surprised. My memory was that all of it was introduced...

Comforting

...which bolsters what Dale tells Johnnie here, namely, that although the jury doesn't get to hear the entire tape, everyone else in the world HAS.

Hatred

And although the jury only gets to hear two lines of Fuhrman's tape, everyone in the court has heard much of it, thanks to the hearing on whether it would be admitted into evidence -- and what they hear is absolutely horrible, and unforgettably so. And if you've ever wondered what it looks like when EVERYONE in a courtroom thinks you are a disgusting stain on humanity, here you go.

Hatred, Continued

The defense, the prosecution, the journalists. Everyone. "It's hard to be hated by both sides," F Lee Bailey mutters to Bobby. "It takes a man of certain...character."

It's Over

And the defense manages to take those two lines and utterly destroy the prosecution's case, with just two lines of testimony, namely:

"Detective Furhman, did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?"

"I wish to assert my fifth amendment privilege." I believe that's the legal equivalent of a mic drop.

Dude.

In which OJ is literally dancing and laughing because he has realized that he's going to be acquitted and Bobby Kardashian is like, "yeah, this is horrible. Every single thing about this is horrible." To himself. He doesn't say this to OJ. Other than with his face.

Congrats?

PS: Marcia got full custody of her kids. At least that's some good news for her? On Tuesday, the verdict comes in. Book your vacation now, Marcia.

Fug the Show: The People Vs OJ Simpson, episode 9, "Manna From Heaven"

And we've arrived at the penultimate episode -- which is as compelling and fascinating as the rest of this series has been. Sincerely, if you haven't watched this show and are just reading these, truly, you should watch it. It's tremendously good, uniformly so, and I feel like I've learned so much from it, even as a person who watched this trial and lived in this city while this was happening. Much of what happened this week I don't have a personal take on in the way that I have in previous recaps, simply because these turn of events occurred after I had returned to college, and so I wasn't watching CourtTV daily. I remember reading about most of this in the LA Times, of course -- the disgusting contents of the Fuhrman tapes were front page news, obviously -- but one of the things this show has accomplished so elegantly, I think, is making it very clear why the jury acquitted OJ. You've got a city that's hugely distrustful of the LAPD, you believe the gloves at the crime scene may not fit OJ, and the detective who discovered most of your DNA evidence has taken the 5th when asked if he has ever planted evidence in this specific case. There's your reasonable doubt. And I think everyone in the courtroom knew it. This is definitely not a proper recap, but we have a lot to talk about, including that. Other things to discuss: 1) This twist about Judge Ito's wife is, as Nick Dunne says to Tobin, something you wouldn't believe if you read it in a book, but it IS true. (Marcia calls it an "O. Henry twist," and that's dead on.) There is something almost poetic about it -- that a high ranking individual at the LAPD would lie about having had interactions with another LAPD officer to help her husband's career, only to have that LAPD officer about whom she lied turn out to be an otherwise GIANT LIAR who still inadvertently reveals the truth. 2) Speaking of Furhman, there is also great irony in the fact that this time, he more than likely didn't do anything ethically questionable (I say that because, as Marcia pointed out to Chris's friends in that great scene a few weeks ago with the shot glasses, he didn't logistically have the opportunity to do so, and didn't have enough information about what was actually happening for it to occur to him even if he wanted to), but his utterly abhorrent behavior in all other walks of life comes along and bites him in the ass in the biggest case of his entire career. 3) Mark Furhman is possibly the one character in this show who was cast WAY HOTTER than he actually is. 4) I never would have thought that Chris Darden would prove to be the most interesting character in this mini-series, but I think he is. Some of that is thanks to Sterling K. Brown's sublime kindness in the part -- there is no one for whom I feel more sympathy than him -- but I think the show was also brilliant to take this role and really flesh it out. He is the character with the most inherent internal conflict, but I think he was so often dismissed as a sidekick to Clark that it wouldn't have occurred to lesser writers to explore that, and I think it's just been beautifully done. I also find it really fascinating that Marcia is drawn as being the better lawyer in court -- more measured, more adept, less flappable (not unflappable), all of which is due to experience -- but Chris is much, much better at reading people, from the public at large, to the jury, to Furhman himself. As ever, I recommend the Vanity Fair fact-check piece. A lot of what happened this week was true -- including Marcia offering to go to jail with Chris over the contempt of court charges; be still my beating heart!