American Crime Review: Season Two Episode Five
In an episode with a dramatic dance scene, little cracks and insights into the characters demonstrate how in-depth American Crime is going into the rape narrative.
American Crime is telling a compelling story across an 10 episode arc, which gives them the ability to go into more characterization. If people want a quick rape narrative, they should look elsewhere. They are not going to gloss over anyone’s feelings or reactions to the crime. Instead, they are going to break down each character piece by piece, obsessive behavior to obsessive behavior until all we have are the bare bones of human nature.
Felicity Huffman continues to make her character as unlikable as any character I’ve seen recently. You cannot watch Leslie and not see how calculating she is with every laugh and every word she says to Dan and Steph. She strategizes how she’s going to manipulate the Leyland students, staff, and parents into lying about what happened between Eric and Taylor. Leslie even demonstrates obsessive behaviors from vigorously brushing her teeth to washing her hands after the board meeting. It reminded me of Lady Macbeth; she can try to remove the spot, but she is never going to be free from it.
Joey Pollari continues to amaze as Eric. Remaining adamant that Taylor consented to have sex, that Taylor continued to text him after the party, and that Taylor is the one that led him to their sexual act.
Eric is not the villain; he is just as much of a victim as Taylor. Eric is the victim of a culture that says it is ok to be gay, yet keeps pounding antiquated ideas about masculinity into his head. He is harboring a lot of self-hate, but somehow comforts himself by being a man’s man.
On the other side of things, Taylor admits that he feels lonelier now than he ever did before getting raped. His trauma manifests itself into worrying about his mother and if she’s going to disown him.
American Crime is a rich complex show, full of commentary on not just the culture of a school but of masculinity, femininity, queer identity, and classism. Huffman, Hutton, and King have gotten the most publicity and screen time. However, I am glad to see Connor Jessup, Joey Pollari, and Angelique Rivera sinking their teeth into the material. They took an enormous chance pulling all these characters into Taylor’s story, and I’m glad to see that they are succeeding.
Other Thoughts:
- The more I watch this show, the more I love how they do extreme closeups of the characters during key moments.
- I did not realize this was Angelique Rivera’s first acting job. What an amazing actress she is! I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her.
- Anne is poised to take down Leyland now that she knows they have paid off another family.
What did you think of this episode of American Crime? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Reviewer Rating:
User Rating:
American Crime airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.
Jessica Kreamer
Jessica has a degree in History, an MLA is Liberal Arts, and a great desire to consume as much quality television as she can. By day, she's an office worker and caregiver. By night, she's a tea drinking television fanatic. Her current favorite television shows include: Madam Secretary, How To Get Away With Murder, Jane the Virgin, and Veep. Her greatest wish is to make tea drinking into a payable skill. Follow Jessica on Twitter: @pythiaprophet