Entertainment_Weekly_Issue_1456_March_10_2017

58 EW.COM MARCH 10, 2017

TV

Regina King

THOSE SEEKING TO ESCAPE THE REALITIES OF HARSH

times should look away fromAmerican Crime, though

that would be a shame. The anthology series from Oscar-

winning screenwriter John Ridley confronts the issues

that define us—race, gender, class, money—through

beautifully crafted drama that captures your imagination

as to the intricate web of society and encourages grace

for everyone caught in it. The third season, the show’s

most ambitious yet, concerns modern slavery in various

forms. But it sweeps up so many themes—with an array

of well-drawn, terrifically acted characters—that it

becomes an all-encompassing portrait of American life.

It shows you the profound repercussions in the smallest

of gestures, from the food we buy to the

luxuries we desire; it has the power to make

you reconsider your worldview.

The story is haunted by the opening

image, a corpse floating in a river, a mystery

that takes four episodes to unravel. The

next sequence is an artful orientation to the

season’s concern for marginalized people.

It’s a long shot of figures moving from

the edges of a desolate Mexican landscape

toward the center of the frame; they are

immigrants, looking for a crack in the bor-

der to enter America. The camera settles on

Luis (Benito Martinez), whose quest will

take him to North Carolina and a struggling,

family-run farm that employs—or rather,

indentures—migrant workers, illegal immi-

grants, and runaways. Ridley—drawing upon

real-life stories of trafficking and abuse—

quickly and vividly establishes the tiered

EDITED BY CAITLIN BRODY@cbroday& AMY WILKINSON@amymwilk

DATE

Premieres March 12

TIME

10 p.m.

NETWORK

ABC

REVIEW BY

Jeff Jensen@EWDocJensen

American Crime

NICOLE WILDER/ABC