Does American Crime Deserve Parole For Its Second Season?

Show: American Crime.

Premiered: March 2015.

Why Was It Made? An Oscar-winning screenwriter -- John Ridley, a victor for his adapted screenplay 12 Years A Slave -- pitched a story that, in its multiple perspectives on a racially sensitive murder, recalled the Oscar-winning feature Crash. Broadcast networks in our day have a harder and harder time developing series with sufficient prestige to be considered the equals of projects that air on pay channels like HBO or stream on pay services like Netflix; a pedigree like this one must have seemed like a license to print award nominations, and indeed, ABC's bet paid off.

Why Didn't I Keep Watching? The tonal and topical similarities between the series premiere and the aforementioned Crash were striking, and to say I did not care for Crash is the politest possible way to put it.

Why Give It Another Shot? Like American Horror Story, American Crime is an anthology series in which each season tells a new story, with cast members returning in different roles. I wasn't into the tale of a murder where the middle-class white people among the victim's survivors say bigoted things about the Latino arrested for committing it. But everything's different now! We've departed working-class Modesto and moved to Leyland, a private high school in Indiana, where (duh) basketball players and their coach enjoy an elevated status not afforded financial aid recipient Taylor. When photos taken at a players' party of Taylor -- apparently very inebriated, graffiti-tagged "WT" for "white trash," and possibly sexually compromised -- circulate through the school, Taylor is suspended for violating the school's honour code. The matter is complicated by his disclosure to his mother, Anne, "I think someone did something to me."

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Would Seem To Invite Further Viewing? Regina King, queen of my heart and yours. Already an Emmy winner for her role in the first season, she returns as Terri Lacroix, mother of a Leyland basketball star. (Your eyes don't deceive you, by the way: that IS André "André 3000" Benjamin up top, playing Terri's husband Michael.) Also, Lili Taylor, who plays Anne, a much meatier role than she had on Almost Human IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT. After Taylor tells her, as best he can, that he thinks he may have been violated, Anne is galvanized to return to the school and confront the headmaster, Leslie Graham (Felicity Huffman) about the injustice of her son being punished for having possibly (but...probably) been the victim of her star student-athletes' assault, finally declaring that he was raped. "You need to be very careful with that word," says Leslie icily, smoothly proceeding to academsplain away Anne's concerns by reminding her that when they last spoke on this matter, Anne had said Taylor wasn't actually sure what happened. It's a horrible scene -- amazingly acted on both sides -- that reminds the viewer why sexual assault victims often don't come forward and the sorts of things people say who have a vested interest in denying their experience and silencing them.

Also, since this season is set in and around a private school with a strong athletic program...there's school band music in a scene that takes place at a basketball game, and there might be more. This is relevant to my interests.

What Aspects Of The Latest Episode Discourage Further Viewing? Offering a different offense as the titular Crime has apparently not made the show any less didactic or corny. The characters are already dividing into camps -- the good ones less privileged, the bad ones rich and cronyish. Taylor's saintly Latina girlfriend Evy (or, at least, that's how Anne describes her; we also see Taylor gazing at a hot guy's selfie on his phone, suggesting that Anne might be wrong about the nature of their relationship) has a mother bedridden and on an oxygen tank. Meanwhile, wealthy, celebrated, white Coach Dan Sullivan (Timothy Hutton) only seems to have one problem in life as the episode starts, and it's that his cheerleader daughter doesn't see the problem with giving players "innocent" lap dances in the gym after practice. And this headmaster is basically just pure evil, less concerned about a scholarship kid's possible (but...probable) rape than she is about its reflecting poorly on the school and compromising donations.

Final Verdict: If the season goes the way it seems to be headed -- a poor child sexually assaulted; powerful forces closing ranks to protect his rapists -- it will be depressingly predictable. If it tries to be unpredictable and ends up making Taylor's report a face-saving fiction, it will be infuriating. I'm not really that interested in either. (Sorry, Regina King.)