There are three possible excuses for not watching ESPN’s O.J.: Made in America and they are all invalid.
EXCUSE #1: But I don’t have time to watch a 10-hour documentary!
Oh, stop. Take out the commercials, and this five-part film from director Ezra Edelman—part of ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30 series—runs closer to seven and a half hours. And cut that shit. I know you watched four hours of The Bachelorette last week, so quit acting like your time is so damn precious.
EXCUSE #2: But I don’t get ESPN! And I already missed the first three parts.
The first part of O.J.: Made in America aired on ABC last Saturday, and if you caught it there, you’re already hooked for all five parts. Part Three was broadcast on ESPN last night, with Part Four airing tomorrow night and Part Five on Saturday; all parts are being rebroadcast repeatedly at various times on ESPN and ESPN II, as well. Honestly, you could watch any of the five parts in any order, although I can understand you wanting to watch it from start to finish. (Edelman's chronological buildup, too, is pretty remarkable.) So! All five parts are, right now, available to stream on demand on the ESPN app, WatchESPN. Commercial interference is minimal. Video quality is superb. Don’t subscribe to ESPN? You have a friend who does. You’re probably already using their HBO Go password to watch Thrones. Get on this.
EXCUSE #3: But I just watched the entirety of The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story! There’s no way this can be as good as that was.
Actually, O.J.: Made in America is just as good. Maybe even better. Okay, I hear ya: I don’t know how these two remarkable documents are coexisting so close to each other, either, because that FX show was great, and should have cured any appetite for this particular story for decades to come. But here we are, spoiled with another incredible, thought-provoking, weekend-swallowing examination of the 1994 murder and the subsequent trial and media circus. Edelman’s ESPN documentary has a couple of things in its favor, too: There is no embellishment of fact for dramatic effect. Simpson makes a better O.J. Simpson than Cuba Gooding, Jr. did. And there is a TON of background information about Simpson’s life—his football career, his post-career stint as a B-list celebrity, his troubled and disturbing relationship with Nicole... And Edelman gives us a wealth of context about race relations in Los Angeles during that period, too. In many ways, this is a definitive document of that particular time and place, with fleshed-out narratives of not just the Rodney King beating and the subsequent riot, but also the raid at 39th and Dalton, and the deaths of Latasha Harlins and Eulia Love. Edelman has synthesized this abundance of information into something intelligent, heartfelt, and tragic.
O.J. Simpson had a complicated relationship to his blackness—in reductive terms, he tried to basically escape it—but there’s so much more context of that thread provided here than there was in The People vs. O.J. Simpson (which, title aside, was really about Marcia Clark, Chris Darden, and Johnnie Cochran, three incredible characters from the trial who are no less fascinating here). And Made in America goes well beyond the 1995 trial and verdict, to follow what happened to O.J. afterwards—which was equally as weird.
This is an astonishing piece of television, or film, or whatever you want to call it (even before it was widely released, Slate included it on their Black Film Canon of 50 essential works from black directors). Although the primary events happened over two decades ago, it feels as vital and real and essential as anything happening today, speaking to not only race issues in America but raising crucial questions about sexual violence, our judicial institution, and our society's damaging preoccupation with cult of personality. It’s one of the most heartbreaking, baffling, fascinating things I’ve ever watched. No excuses—you gotta see it.
