'People v. O.J.' put viewers back in jury box

I had jury duty a few weeks ago, a day and a quarter that mostly consisted of sitting in a courtroom, watching prospective jurors get excused.

The People v. O.J. Simpson it wasn't.

The FX series American Crime Story concludes its first 10-episode season Tuesday with - wait for it - "The Verdict." Revisiting the trial that turned us into a nation of armchair jurors has taken far less TV time than the 1995 original that was televised for 135 days.

We already know the biggest thing that happens in Tuesday's supersize finale, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and directed by producer Ryan Murphy, just as we'd known about the Bronco chase, the bloody glove, and Jay Leno's Dancing Itos.

Yet, spoilers and all, The People v. O.J. has managed to entertain while putting the case itself into enough perspective to make the verdict less shocking than it seemed to so many then. If only the racial divide it exposed were as far behind us.

The March 22 episode, which took viewers where TV couldn't 21 years ago, into the hotel where jurors were sequestered for 265 days, probably should be required viewing for law students.

Because if we learned nothing else from the O.J. case, it's that jurors matter. More than Facebook users, more than online commenters, more than any TV talking heads.

There are never enough Emmys to go around, but Sarah Paulson's Marcia Clark, Courtney B. Vance's Johnnie Cochran, and Sterling K. Brown's Christopher Darden have all been extraordinary. Cuba Gooding Jr. may not have looked like the O.J. of the old Hertz commercials, but without tipping his hand on Simpson's guilt, he conveyed the frustration of an athlete at the center of a situation he couldn't control.

The jury may have spoken, but there's no end in sight for the so-called trial of the (last) century.

On June 11, ABC will air the premiere of ESPN's five-part documentary series, O.J.: Made in America, with the four remaining segments to be shown on ESPN.

American Crime Story will move on after this, reportedly to a season that deals - like HBO's Treme? - with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

For the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, who won a unanimous verdict in civil court in which Simpson was found legally liable in their loved ones' deaths, moving on may not be so easy.

On Thursday, Investigation Discovery announced it had ordered a new series, Hard Evidence: OJ Is Innocent, for early 2017. Produced and narrated by Martin Sheen (The West Wing), it will present, yes, "a new theory and never-before-seen evidence to reveal a possible new suspect" in the slayings.

Maybe it's time for TV to let this case rest.

graye@phillynews.com
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