How ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ Managed to Create a Suspenseful Finale

Norman Weiss April 6, 2016, 1:14 pm

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How The People v. O.J. Simpson managed to create a suspenseful finale

Viewers already knew The Verdict, so-creators Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wanted to make it seem like they were “watching this slow motion crash that’s happening in all these people’s lives,” Alexander adds: “We always tried to mine the facts that the audience is unaware of, Everyone was going to know the greatest hits but we don’t expect them to know the backstage details. The fact that it was only a 4-hour deliberation for me was complete insanity, the idea that all those lawyers talked themselves blue in the face for a year and then the jury didn’t even discuss 99 percent of what they heard in that courtroom.” PLUS: People v. O.J. proved to be a modern masterpiece, it was so great because it was about things that matter now, it was a vivid snapshot of America close to the turn of the century, Sterling K. Brown — the FX series’ breakout star — made The People v. O.J. trailblazing with his Christopher Darden, Robert Kardashian was the moral heart of the story, what the finale got wrong and right, it was a compelling throwback and a relevant cautionary tale, the show lessened “verdict fixation” over 10 episodes, it rendered a surprisingly nuanced verdict on race, gender, and the American justice system, many of the ideas that seemed sketchy at first proved to be important pieces to a larger tapestry, People v. O.J. excelled at confounding expectations, why was Steven Pasquale cast as Mark Fuhrman?, Marcia Clark on reliving the verdict, a real O.J. juror on what the FX series’ accuracy, the jury foreperson played O.J.’s wife in the first Naked Gun movie, and FX is marathoning all 10 episodes on Saturday.

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