CBS (Sun., Nov. 12, Wed., Nov. 15, 9 p.m. ET)
Show of the week
When author-screenwriter Norman Mailer and journalist-director Lawrence Schiller last teamed up on TV, the result was 1982's The Executioner's Song, a powerful miniseries about convicted killer Gary Gilmore. American Tragedy, the duo's latest collaboration, isn't nearly as good. Still, as a gossipy, fly-on-the-wall re-creation of the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial, this briskly paced two-parter will keep you hooked till the end. Its premise: Simpson's "Dream Team" of lawyers spent as much time fighting among themselves as they did defending him. As Johnnie Cochran (Ving Rhames) and Carl Douglas (Darryl Alan Reed) shrewdly play the race card, Robert Shapiro (Ron Silver) furtively pushes for a plea bargain; and F. Lee Bailey (Christopher Plummer) comes across as an inept publicity hound. Prosecutors Marcia Clark (Diana LaMar) and Chris Darden (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) are barely glimpsed—as is O.J. himself, a sinisterly shadowy figure who's mostly heard ranting on a speakerphone to his lawyers. No wonder he sued to block this production.
Bottom Line: A guilty pleasure
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