Critic Reviews

With grit, guts and some of the best performances you’ll see on TV this year, American Crime aims for truth and pulls no punches getting there.

These episodes will stick with you long after watching them.

This is often a stirring and deeply felt portrait of people in an extended state of crisis.

In lesser hands, the disruptive flourishes would come across as style for style's sake; here, disruption is the goal. And in a lesser show, the characters would come across as a collection of social "types," chosen to represent their assigned issues. Here, they come across as real, deeply flawed people caught in a system that seems to care for none of them.

It is an extraordinarily intelligent and compelling look at racial dynamics and polarities.

American Crime’s direction is uncertain, but it looks to be one of the more uncomfortable, engrossing rides any commercial broadcast series has taken. Put away the phone and sit yourself down. You’ll want to see where this goes.

Like the first season, there’s a “Crash”-like flavor to the storytelling, but it feels more organic this time around.... Excellent, all around.

American Crime returns with an equally powerful, compelling, and intelligent story.

The desire to examine issues that commercial television generally avoids, and the ability to do so in a manner that is intellectually challenging and dramatically satisfying, remains the same. None of this could be achieved without the stellar returning members of this now-anthology’s cast, led by Felicity Huffman, Lili Taylor, Timothy Hutton, Elvis Nolasco and Regina King.... Each turns in a performance that is just as riveting as the first.

[The first four episodes of Season 2 available for review are] riveting from the first minute, with stellar, resonant performances driving a story with a high fiber content.