American Crime’s anticipated second season won’t premiere until January 6th, but you can watch if for free right now via iTunes.
American Crime is an anthology series – the title remains the same while the season’s topic changes. Last season it centered on a murder while investigating the world in which we live in and how race is seen in America. This season the topic is sexual assault – did it happen, who did it, and what happens when it’s essentially brushed under the rug?
The topic of rape is brought up in the first thirty seconds when 911 gets a dispatch call from a distraught woman who wants to report the act. Throughout the episode we get the first few pieces of the puzzle as to why the call was placed. We find out who placed the call, why she placed the call, and we as viewers can only imagine the repercussions that will follow.
From the beginning of the episode we know it’s going to be a sensitive topic. The victim is high school aged, a transfer student, a kid with little to no friends – except his girlfriend who has baggage of her own to deal with. We meet the key players – the adults who will deal with the situation – the Coach, the victim’s mother, and the Headmistress. There are three worlds, three sets of lives that in their own bring drama.
The Coach, played with Timothy Hutton, has a daughter who is a cheerleader, a wife who is a photographer, and a team of boys who are teenagers and adolescents. He is honored at a charity event for bringing his team to victor multiple times over his six-year tenure at the school and it is evident that his team idolizes him, respects him, which is why the Headmistress tasks him with the duty of talking to his boys about the allegations that arise.
Anne, the victim’s mother, is played by Lili Taylor. She’s a working, single mom who wants nothing but the best for her son Taylor. She sent him to the expensive school so he could get the best education. Her world starts to teeter when she’s brought into speak with the dean over photos that appeared on social media, leading to her son’s suspension. After begging her son to show her the photos and being denied she turns to her son’s girlfriend who gives her what she wants. The photos. She approaches her son about it and after claims of not knowing what happens to him she goes to the Headmistress at the school.
The Headmistress, Leslie Graham, played by Felicity Huffman, is very protective of her school, of her teachers, of her students. She takes down a detailed report of what happened, alleged by Taylor’s mother and has the Coach look into it. Not wanting to call it rape, Huffman’s character directs Taylor’s mother to tread carefully on how she uses the word until they know what happened. Huffman’s character all but points fingers at the boy and claims that he was coherent enough to know what happened and didn’t stop it.
Upset that her son is being blamed for what happened, Taylor’s mother goes into the lobby of the school, calls 911 and says “I want to report a rape.”
American Crimes premieres January 6th 2016 on ABC.
https://youtu.be/Y6DaAtKEJ8E