By Ashton Dedona ’17 

“The people vs OJ Simpson: American crime story” perfectly replicated the true story of OJ Simpson with the help of a cast that was almost identical to the real life characters.

The new mini-series aired in Feb. 2016 on FX and was just recently released on Netflix this Feb. 2017.

The series goes back twenty two years ago and tells the story of Orenthal James Simpson, also known as OJ or “the juice” who was on trial for one of the most publicized criminal trials in history: the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

The series, consisting of 10 episodes, explains the entirety of the true story starting when the two bodies were first found up until Simpson becomes a free man again.

Starring John Travolta, who plays Robert Shapiro, lead of the defense team, and David Schwimmer, former Friends star, who plays Robert Kardashian, another member of the defense team, the cast members in comparison to the real life players are almost clones.

After almost a year of trial, Simpson’s acquittal was one of the most watched events in television history. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the series also had a large amount of viewers with an average of 7.7 million viewers. The reactions of people all over the country were shown during the show, as well as the reactions of both families.

Coming from the perspective of someone who was not yet alive to watch the trial live on national television, there was little I knew about what really happened other than the jury’s final decision.

The series helped fill in all the blanks and questions I had about the story and included perspectives I never knew played such a big part in the outcome of the trail, such as race.

The past year, the series was nominated for 9 Emmy Awards, 2 Golden Globe Awards and 4 Critics’ Choice Television Awards.

Nicole Kiker ’17 admits she started watching the series because it was really well reviewed.