'American Crime' Review: Exploring An Awful Injustice

The new season of American Crime begins Wednesday night with a fresh plot but some of last season’s same stars in new roles. These include Felicity Huffman, Regina King (who won an Emmy for the first season), and Timothy Hutton.

This time around, the anthology series begins with a voice: “I’d like to report a rape.” What follows is a grim tale centered around the sexual assault of a high school student during a party held by members of the school’s basketball team.
The young man who was assaulted, Taylor (Connor Jessup), becomes a victim twice-over when pictures of him, looking drugged and disheveled, are distributed on social media throughout the student body of his school, the posh Leyland Academy.

Related: ‘American Crime’ Boss John Ridley Answers Fan Stephen King’s Questions

His mother, played by Lili Taylor, reports the crime to the police, which sets off another round of humiliation for the boy, since the police officer assigned to investigate the case could not be less sympathetic to the student — indeed, he’s skeptical about whether an investigation should proceed.

But the rapidly-growing scandal takes on a life of its own anyway, and those caught up in it include Leyland’s steely headmaster, played by Huffman, the basketball team coach, played by Hutton, and the parents of one of the team’s co-captains, played by King and Andre Benjamin.

I wish I could say the result is galvanizing drama. Instead, it’s like an extremely well-acted power-point presentation on what to do, and what not to do, when a sexual assault occurs. King and Huffman in particular are fearless when it comes to portraying people who are not especially sympathetic as TV protagonists, but whose very different motivations for being aggressively unappealing is admirable to behold.

Related: Felicity Huffman on 'American Crime’ Season 2: 'I Have Won the Acting Lottery’

Creator-writer John Ridley (12 Years A Slave) has big ambitions for this anthology show — when you consider the first season’s discussions of race and class, and this season’s exploration of race and class and sexual exploitation, you know Ridley is aiming to spark discussions in living rooms throughout America. Having watched the first four hours made available to critics, I hope that discussion deepens into more engaging drama. For now, the situation this young man Taylor finds himself in, and how the family, friends, and adversaries around him react to it, may be enough to draw you in.

American Crime airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.