O.J.: Made in America (TV Mini-Series 2016)
So, I just spent the day watching the entire Mini-Series, a 5 Part Documentary, clocking in at 7.5 hours long. I haven't been paying attention to what anyone has been saying about the series. The only thing I heard prior to watching this was that it was being hailed as the be all, end all about the Trial of the Century and that it was very good. This seems to be the year of O.J. First there was the FX series that aired a couple of months back and now this series drops. The FX series was good, but it felt hollow.
O.J.: Made in America goes above and beyond in telling the complete story. The first 2 Parts deal with O.J.'s early life as a college football superstar. Part 3 deals a lot with
Rodney King and the LA riots and ends with 911 audio of a major fight between Nicole and O.J. Part 4 deals with the murder and Trial and Part 5 covers the Civil Trial and the kidnapping and robbery that eventually leads him to jail.
Out of 7.5 hours of this doc, there is one unshakable thing I'm never going to be able to get rid of and honestly, it's something no one should have to see. They preface each episode with a Parental Warning disclaimer that the content is unsuitable and that viewer discretion is advised. This series was produced and shown on
ESPN of all places. What exactly are they going to do? Yes, I was surprised at how many F-Bombs were making it into each episodes and that's what I thought the disclaimer was referring to. But then Part 4 rolled around and shocked me in a way I never expected. Up until tonight, whenever the news talked about the murders or if I saw other documentaries on the subject, they would only show the bloody sidewalk and maybe a image of a blanket covering Nicole at the scene of the crime. Well, that all went out the window tonight.
When the first image came up showing
Nicole Brown drenched in her own blood from different angles as well as
Ron Goldman, it shocked me in just how much blood there was. But it was seeing her laying there that really drove home the brutality that was only talked about during the trial. I was stunned and sickened by the images. But the worst was yet to come. Near the end of Part 4, they go into account of exactly how it all happened and in the middle of visually piecing it all together, they slipped in the image of her nearly severed head as well as Ron. I was truly horrified as it brought tears to my eyes and it infuriated me. I really wish I knew this was coming because if I did, I wouldn't have watched this Part. This is a bell I want to un-ring.
As a doc, everything you've heard about it is true. It's riveting from start to finish and the film maker went to great lengths to find and use footage that I never knew existed. Well, it's footage that I have never seen before until now. I'm not going to give this a Star rating because it's not something I want to do. The doc is well made and is probably one of the best docs out there. But there is a part of me that doesn't want to recommend in large part because of the images. It just leaves me feeling sick inside. It's up to you to decide on your own.