I just finished watching a ten episode series about the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The series is called “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: An American Crime Story”. Based on the book, The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin, it is a fantastic look into what was deemed the Trial of the Century, and is done from the perspective of the lawyers on both sides of the fence. As far as I am concerned, every actor did a great job in this series. John Travolta produced the series and also co-starred in it as O.J.’s defense lawyer, Bob Shapiro. Even David Schwimmer, who played the kooky dinosaur geek on the television series, Friends did a wonderful job portraying, Robert Kardashian, another member of O.J.’s Dream Team of defense lawyers and was also O.J.’s best friend.

If you watched the old LIFETIME series Army Wives, you will recognize Sterling K. Brown who did a great job playing ADA Christopher Darden. Sarah Paulson, who starred in such things as American Gothic in the mid-90’s and 12 Years a Slave did an outstanding job as Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor for the O.J. Simpson trail. She also won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Clark for Best Actress in a Mini-series or Film. Courtney B. Vance does a wonderful job as the irrepressible Johnnie Cochran and the great Nathan Lane played O.J. defense team member and famous lawyer in his own right, F. Lee Bailey. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Cuba Gooding, Jr. for his outstanding portrayal of O.J. Simpson himself.

Watching this series, it is baffling to me how O.J. Simpson was not convicted in this trial of the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, but there were mistakes made by the police and the prosecuting team. It is a very compelling series and very interesting to see what happened behind the scenes as both teams prepared for this trial. The series showed how sneaky and conniving O.J.’s defense team was and how Christopher Darden was goaded into getting O.J. to try on the gloves during the trial, probably the crucial turning point in the case and is what really got O.J. acquitted. This series was originally shown on the FX television network and is currently available on Netflix.

Netflix is where I watched the series and I will probably watch it again in the near future. It is one of those series that you absolutely have to pay attention to so you do not miss anything. I give this series 4 out 5 stars. It is a must watch, especially if you have Netflix. This is also the first of the FX network’s American Crime Story series.