American Crime. A Show Too Good for Network Television

American Crime is good, but it could be better. It could be darker, grittier, and more profane but none of this can really occur on network television.

Reminiscent of Crash, American Crime follows several different families, poorly photo-shopped and pictures above, and their relationship to a heinous crime that has occurred. Russ Skokie (Timothy Hutton) plays the father of the victim and a gambling addict whose problematic behavior lead to the divorcing of his wife, Barb Hanlon (Felicity Huffman). Barb is an anxious mother who when she finds out that her son's alleged murderer is African American she immediately begins to try and have this act classified as a hate crime, her son is Caucasian. Carter Nix (Elvis Nolasco), the alleged murderer, is an African American drug abuser who is in a relationship with Aubrey Taylor (Caitlin Gerard) who is Caucasian and this relationship is frequently frowned upon. Nix was targeted as a suspect when Hector Tonz (Richard Cabral) a Hispanic gangster is caught with credit cards that belonged to the victim that he alleges he was given by Nix. The car he was driving also belongs to Tony Gutierrez (Johnny Ortiz) who is the son of a mechanic Alonzo Gutierrez (Benito Martinez) who attempts to raise his Hispanic children outside of gang culture.

So there you have it, all of victims, perpetrators, and other individuals involved surrounding this show and it is good. It is The Wire good, meaning that it is an unflinching look at the criminal justice system and the struggles that surround if from the families of the victims to the families of the alleged perpetrators. It also looks at the way race and class interact with the justice system and I, personally, eat this stuff up. I love it because I think Law and Order and the sterile-ness of CSI is just too unrealistic and creates this standard in a person's mind that just doesn't exist. The criminal justice system is dirty, smelly,unintelligent, and unforgiving. One hand doesn't have any other idea what the other hand is doing and it should, but it doesn't. And this show shows that. But, it could be better. The dropping of the curse words and the shying away from the gratuitous sex scenes just comes across as a bit immature and reminds you that this show is on network television. It comes across as slightly immature.Viewers watching this show are adults and adults curse and have sex and when the curses are edited out, it takes you out of the experience and you are reminded that this show will only be so dark. It also will influence how scenes are shot and how "real" this scenes can be. Because they have to bleep the curse words out, will they have less curse words throughout the script and is that real? Is that how people really talk? Nope. It's not.

I also have to comment on the cast who are a diverse bunch as ever and fantastic actors/actresses. I truly appreciate the editing of each shot as well as the tone and depth that the actors and actresses bring to their individuals scenes. I also like how ugly they are, nobody is beautiful 20 something, people are overweight, underweight, tired, depressed, dirty, in need of a shave, etc. They are real people and they all bring their own story to this drama and it is absolutley fantastic, but it could be better.

What are your thoughts on this show? Think it should stay right where it is? Love it? Hate it? Let me know.