The People v. O.J. Simpson is awesome

As the Georgia Straight's main reviewer of horror movies, I have to watch a lotta crap. So it's nice when I get the chance to write about a filmed work that actually blows me right away.

Even if it is just TV.

The FX channel's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story has been keeping me riveted to the small screen for the past three Tuesdays. Heck, I'm as psyched about that show as I am for the second season of Better Call Saul!

It helps that I was a huge OJ murder-case junkie back in the day. After the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Mark Goldman were discovered on June 13, 1994, I couldn't get enough of the story. Some of it had to do with the gruesome details of the double murder, I suppose. Both victims had been brutally stabbed numerous times; Brown was nearly decapitated. It was like something out of a slasher flick--and not a PG-rated one, either. The horror freak in me was totally enthralled by the whole ghoulish scenario.

And then there was the main suspect in the slaughter: O.J., "The Juice". Just three months earlier, the final Naked Gun movie had come out, with Simpson portraying goofy cop Detective Nordberg. Was the football star-turned-actor really a homicidal butcher?

It boggled the mind.

And then there was the trial, which began with opening statements on January 24, 1995, and ended with the "not guilty" verdict on October 3, 1995.

But I don't have enough time now to get into that whole thing and how it brought new meaning to the term "travesty of justice". Let's just say that Mojo Nixon's 1990 ditty "Destroy All Lawyers" rocketed to the top of my personal music chart.

If you were similarly transfixed by all things Simpson back then, you owe it to yourself to check out The People v. O.J. Simpson.

For one thing, the cast is sensational.

Cuba Gooding Jr. is bang-on as the defiant O.J., and American Horror Story's Sarah Paulson embodies jumpy, chain-smoking prosecutor Marcia Clark. David Schwimmer as O.J.'s dear friend Robert Kardashian also shines. And we get to see all those now-nauseating Kardashian kids when they were spoiled little brats.

But the best thing about the series—so far, anyway—is producer John Travolta's turn as slimy defense lawyer Robert Shapiro. The last episode saw his win-at-any-cost character starting to assemble the legal "Dream Team" that includes F. Lee Bailey (Nathan Lane), Alan Dershowitz (Evan Handler), and the dapper Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance).

Imagine how much fun it'll be once racist cop Mark Fuhrman (Steven Pasquale) shows up!

Can't wait.