The Fix 1.1: Alternate History O. J.

The Fix debuted tonight.  It's an unusual show, the brainchild of Marcia Clark - the Marcia Clark, from the O. J. Simpson trial - and, as of the first episode, it's pretty creative.

At least, the set-up is.   The Fix takes place about eight years after the O. J. character - in this case, Sevvy Johnson (played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje from Lost) - is acquitted, despite the best efforts of "Marcia" now Maya (played by Robin Tunney) and "Chris Darden" now Matthew (played by Tyrant's Adam Rayner) for the prosecution.  But eight years after the first murder, Sevvy is not sinking fast into a world of lowlife crime in Florida or wherever.  He's not as successful as he was in his prime, but he's doing fine.  And he's accused of murdering his new girlfriend.

You can see why the real Marcia Clark fantasized this, to the point of coming up with an entire series. The new murder gives Maya a chance to to put Sevvy where she believes he belongs - in jail for not one, but now two murders.  Matthew of course talks her back into the new case - she's retired on some ranch up north, with some "cowboy" that she loves - and Maya's soon calling most of the prosecution's shots.

Sevvy, for his part, has a lawyer reminiscent of Robert Shapiro, and a stepson reminiscent of Kayto.  So, all of the ingredients are in place for what could be a riveting O. J. alternate history, and at very least, so far, is diverting.  There could even be room for Sevvy to be innocent.  His lawyer has some big gambling debts, and it occurred to me that maybe he had something to do with the murder, as a way of tapping Sevvy for some huge legal fees.

We'll see.  I certainly will - I'll be watching this new series, that is - and I'll keep you posted.

 

Tyrant 3.8: Poor Bassam

Well, Bassam finds himself in about the worst place he's been all season in last night's Tyrant 3.8:

Molly's back, but she doesn't love him anymore, doesn't even want to sleep in the same bed with Barry.  Her main role now is to goad him to do the worst possible things, politically - suspend the election so he has more time to destroy their daughter's killer, but in so doing suspending the very democracy that he worked so hard to install in his original now re-adopted country.

Daliyah still loved him at the beginning of the episode, when Molly returned, but Bassam's totalitarian impulses have shattered her feeling, leaving her with pain and at best mixed emotions about Bassam.  This will likely push her into Fauzi's arms, and we saw the beginning of that last night.

Leila is now totally against what Bassam is doing, even changing her Al-Fayeed name back to her maiden name to underline that opposition.   Her American general, well played by Chris Noth, is still trying to be helpful to Bassam, but one word from the U. S. could change that, obliging Bassam to rely on his own military, and we know how that has worked out in the past.

About the only bright spot is Aziz the aide-de-camp is still alive - I thought he had been killed in the attack that almost got Daliyah - and it was good to see Sammy and Ahmed talking, however testily.

Well, I guess that's two bright spots, but they're weak ones, in comparison to what is going wrong with Bassam's presidency, and it's hard to say where all of this will land in the two concluding episodes of this season - which is a good thing, because we want to be kept off-balance.

Footnote: I coincidentally started watching Hunted this week, with a slightly younger Adam Raynor, with his native British accent, and he's good in that, too.  And I find his American accent in Tyrant right up there with the best of them (i.e., American done by Brits, like the American characters played by Dominic West).

See also: Tyrant 3.1: Barry -> Bassam ... Tyrant 3.2: Whither Molly? ...Tyrant 3.3: Double Death ... Tyrant 3.5: Basham and Daliya

And see also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate ... Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to be Renewed 

And see also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq ... Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

#SFWApro



and earlier in the Middle East ...

Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to Be Renewed

The Tyrant season 2 finale this week offered a rocky ending to a rocky, uneven season, which nonetheless had some excellent moments - the season and the finale - making me want to see the series renewed.  (There will be lots of spoilers ahead.)

The single most absurd part of this season was Barry managing to fool his brother Jamal into not recognizing him on the phone, with his voice just muffled by a head-dress.   No way Jamal wouldn't have recognized his brother's cadences through that "disguise".

But, with that subtracted from whatever episode a few weeks ago, we still got a pretty good wind-up to the season on Tuesday.  Barry's coming back to the capital as a hero was satisfying, and Jamal's stubborn refusal to abdicate, after he said he would, was completely believable.  Moran Atias, in particular, put in a sterling performance as Jamal's wife Lila, as, for that matter, did Ashraf Barhom as Jamal, Adam Rayner as Barry, and even Noah Silver as Sammy, who was not the greatest last season.

Jamal's getting shot and likely killed by his daughter-in-law was also both well-motivated and surprising.  I say "likely" because, I'm a firm believer in the principle that if you don't see a character's head blown off on television, he or she may somehow survive (and sometimes even with a shot to the head, if we're talking science fiction.)

But Tyrant has done an excellent job of portraying very real situations in this fictional country in the Middle East, a quasi-Syria in most respects.   As such, and given our world today, the series has made an important and even compelling contribution, and deserves to be renewed.

I'll certainly be reviewing it if it is.

See also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate

And see also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq ... Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

#SFWApro



and earlier in the Middle East ...