--- title: "American Crime Story" year: 2016 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/american-crime-story" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T18:42:19.899069+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T18:42:20.732851+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # American Crime Story (2016) Created by Larry Karaszewski, Scott Alexander, Tom Rob Smith, Sarah Burgess · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Drama **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 81 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Three national scandals staged with a straight face and beautiful hair, and the first is the one to see > Ryan Murphy’s anthology takes three American scandals and plays them straight, and the Simpson trial season is as sharp as courtroom television gets. Versace is bolder and lumpier; Impeachment is the weakest. Start at the beginning and decide from there. ## Synopsis Los Angeles, June 1994. Two bodies are found outside a house in Brentwood, and one of them is the ex-wife of the footballer and actor O. J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Prosecutor Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) believes the evidence will convict. Her boss Gil Garcetti (Bruce Greenwood) wants the case won in public as well as in court, and Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown) is pulled onto the team. The opening episodes follow the discovery, a surrender that never comes, the white Bronco crawling along the freeway and a defence team preparing to put the Los Angeles police on trial instead. Later seasons turn to the murder of Gianni Versace (Édgar Ramírez) and the Clinton impeachment. ## Review Ryan Murphy’s name is on a good deal of television that shouts, and *American Crime Story* is the one that keeps its voice down. Each season takes a scandal America once watched on the news and plays it as drama, straight-faced and at length: the O. J. Simpson trial across ten episodes in 2016, the murder of Gianni Versace across nine in 2018, the Clinton impeachment across ten in 2021. The first is the best courtroom television we have seen in years. The second is stranger and less even. The third is the one we would skip. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski built the Simpson season as a workplace drama. Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) and Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown) are prosecutors with a case they think is strong, a boss in Gil Garcetti (Bruce Greenwood) who wants to be seen winning it, and a judge in Lance Ito (Kenneth Choi) who enjoys the cameras more than he should. Paulson plays Clark as a woman who has never had to be liked before and is bewildered to find it is now part of the job. Brown gives Darden the stillness of a man counting the cost of every sentence before he says it. We were got at early. The second episode is the freeway: a white Bronco moving slowly with a man in the back seat holding a gun to his own head, while people gather on the overpasses to cheer him on. We had seen the footage a hundred times and it had become a joke. Here it is horrible, because the camera stays in the car with Cuba Gooding Jr. and makes us sit with him. Gooding is the casting most critics have quarrelled with, and they are not wrong: he is slighter than Simpson and his voice is thinner. It worked for us anyway, because he plays a man who has no idea who he is once the crowd stops telling him, and the poor fit is part of that. Lou Eyrich’s costumes do quiet work throughout, putting Clark in boxy suits she seems to wear under protest and letting the defence table gleam. Mac Quayle’s score is low electronic pulses that know when to stop. The season’s one lazy reflex is its winking at the future: the Kardashian children are lectured about fame more than once, and each time the writers step out to nudge us. *The Assassination of Gianni Versace*, written by Tom Rob Smith, is braver construction and lumpier television. It opens on the killing and runs backwards through the life of Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), so that each episode shows us a lie he told before the one we have just watched. Criss is remarkable, charming in exactly the way that makes the neck prickle. Édgar Ramírez, Ricky Martin as Antonio D’Amico and Penélope Cruz as Donatella Versace get less to do than the billing suggests, because the season belongs to the killer, and the Versace scenes drift through Judy Becker’s Miami rooms like an advertisement for a life. *Impeachment*, from Sarah Burgess, has Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky and Margo Martindale as Lucianne Goldberg. Feldstein makes Lewinsky young in a way that is hard to watch, all confidence and no defences. But the season has decided in advance who deserves our sympathy and hands it out in the dialogue, and ten episodes is a long time to be told the same thing. We were bored in the middle stretch, and then we were cross, because Feldstein was doing work the writing would not. Murphy, John Singleton, Anthony Hemingway, Daniel Minahan and Rachel Morrison are among the directors, and Nelson Cragg, Simon Dennis and Blake McClure share a camera style that is clean, warm and flattering, closer to a magazine than to the grain of the period. Ten credited editors keep the Simpson season at the pace of a good thriller; later they work harder to hide thinner material. Start at the beginning and treat those first ten episodes as one long film. Carry on to Versace if Criss has caught you. The 15 certificate is fair: there is a murder, there is a man with a gun in a car, and a great deal of talking about both. *Fi1m score 78, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are uniformly positive. Most critics single out the performances, with Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran and Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark named again and again, and several remark that the series is more disciplined and fact-based than they expect from Ryan Murphy. The Guardian goes furthest, calling it the finest thing Murphy has produced. There is broad agreement that the series uses the trial to say something about race, celebrity, the media and the justice system, and that it treats the prosecutors with sympathy. The reservations are small and mostly about casting. The Hollywood Reporter finds John Travolta the weak link and notes a campy streak; Collider is unconvinced by Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson, though Vulture counts him among the strengths. Variety notes minor fumbles without dwelling on them. The spread is narrow: nobody is negative, and the argument is over which performances land rather than whether the series does. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Telegraph** (5/5): Calls it timely, expertly executed and smartly cast entertainment that depicts the calm before the storm of the OJ Simpson case and leaves viewers with an unpleasant taste regarding celebrity culture and media. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/02/03/the-people-v-oj-simpson-american-crime-story-review-expertly-exe/) - **The Guardian** (85/100, inferred): Praises the series as the finest thing Ryan Murphy has produced, a wonderfully acted treatise on race, celebrity and justice based on the OJ Simpson case. Highlights its insightful fictionalised private moments and sympathetic portrayals of prosecutors amid media frenzy and racial tensions. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/02/the-people-v-oj-simpson-ryan-murphy-american-dream) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (85/100, inferred): The series excels at exploring race, class, domestic violence, celebrity, and the justice system through sharp details and intersections of these themes. It features strong performances across the board, especially Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. and Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, while balancing empathy for characters with the reality of the crimes. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2016/01/tv-review-the-people-v-oj-simpson.html) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the series as arresting from the start, with mostly superb performances and a disciplined approach to the true story that sets it apart from other Ryan Murphy projects. Minor fumbles are noted, but the overall execution is seen as strong and timely. [Read](https://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/the-people-v-o-j-simpson-american-crime-story-review-fx-john-travolta-cuba-gooding-jr-ryan-murphy-1201684402/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (70/100, inferred): The review highlights strong performances from Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance while noting John Travolta's weaker turn, calling the drama entertaining overall despite some campy elements. It appreciates the nuance and humanity brought to the true events. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/people-v-oj-simpson-american-856052/) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (★★★★☆): Notes the comic perspective on the scandal of the acquittal and faults LA’s racist cops and courts, portraying Simpson as a high-maintenance buffoon in a flawed system while praising the overall drama. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/tv-review-the-people-v-oj-simpson-american-crime-story-the-not-so-secret-life-of-the-manic-depressive-ten-years-on-t3jcq7xg5) - **Collider**, Allison Keene (★★★★): The critic finds the series refreshingly understated and fact-based, commending its detailed retelling and standout performances from Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark and Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, while critiquing some casting choices like Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. Simpson. [Read](https://collider.com/american-crime-story-the-people-vs-oj-simpson-review-ryan-murphy/) ## Details - **Created by:** Larry Karaszewski, Scott Alexander, Tom Rob Smith, Sarah Burgess - **Creator:** Larry Karaszewski, Scott Alexander, Tom Rob Smith, Sarah Burgess - **Director:** Ryan Murphy, Anthony Hemingway, Michael Uppendahl, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Daniel Minahan, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Rachel Morrison, John Singleton, Nelson Cragg, Matt Bomer - **Writer:** Tom Rob Smith, Sarah Burgess, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski, D.V. DeVincentis, Flora Birnbaum, Joe Robert Cole, Daniel Pearle, Halley Feiffer, Maya Forbes, Maggie Cohn, Wallace Wolodarsky - **Cinematography:** Simon Dennis, Nelson Cragg, Blake McClure - **Editor:** C. Chi-Yoon Chung, Stewart Schill, Danielle Wang, Shelly Westerman, Emily Greene, Adam Penn, Chris A. Peterson, Michael Griffin, Shannon Baker Davis, Franzis Muller - **Music:** Mac Quayle - **Production design:** Jamie Walker McCall, Jeff Mossa, Judy Becker, Richard Sherman - **Costume design:** Hala Bahmet, Meredith Markworth-Pollack, Lou Eyrich, Allison Leach, Stacey Battat - **Producer:** Chip Vucelich, Lou Eyrich, Alexis Martin Woodall - **Cast:** Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden; Édgar Ramírez as Gianni Versace; Kenneth Choi as Lance Ito; Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan; Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky; Ricky Martin as Antonio D'Amico; Christian Clemenson as Bill Hodgman; Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 2 February 2016 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, uhd - Disney+: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *O.J.: Made in America* (2016), Fi1m 91: The documentary version, eight hours long, and the best argument for why the trial mattered. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/o-j-made-in-america.md) - *A Very English Scandal* (2018), Fi1m 84: Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe; a real scandal played for comedy without letting anyone off. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/a-very-english-scandal.md) - *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), Fi1m 90: Errol Morris reconstructs a Texas murder case and shows how a court gets it wrong. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-blue-line.md) - *Quiz* (2020): The coughing Major on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, told as a three-part trial. - *The Jinx* (2015), Fi1m 77: A wealthy suspect talks to camera at length and cannot stop himself; unnerving television. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-jinx.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/american-crime-story