ABC’s hit television series, “American Crimeâ€, will be premiering their second season January 6, 2016. The show has established itself at the top of the network’s newest shows after a very successful first season. This season brings in a new plot line as well as a new theme. This new season will star actors from the previous season such as Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Lili Taylor, and Emmy Award Winner Regina King. It will also have new faces like Trevor Jackson, Connor Jessup, and Angelique Rivera.
This new season takes place in the Midwest in a town where social status and money have a lot to do with how you’re seen and treated. There are two different school involved, a high-class private school and a low-class public school. The central conflict in this season is that a lower-class student has lewd pictures of him posted on social media and traces it all back to a party he was invited to by the higher class students, some that are on the prestigious basketball team. Once the photos start to surface, so do conflicts of sexual assault, privilege, socioeconomic prejudice, and justice. From the first episode, it seems like this show will captivate viewers into staying up with the new conflicts that will surface every week with a new episode.
In the first episode, there is a lot of background information given not only of the teenagers involved but also their parents and school administration. The issue of societal status is heavily introduced from the very beginning, showing how it will keep tying into the central conflict of the season. It may start out a little slow in the first half with no real indication as to what the problem is going to be at first, but sexuality becomes a big part of the episode from the start. The characters in this season are very strong, they each hold their own in this all-star cast. Especially the younger cast, who delivers solid performances that truly give life to the characters they’re playing and make them relatable to the average American teenager.
The show does a great job of getting the viewer into the episode and really putting them in the room during hard conversations and conflicts that start to arise as the episode goes on. There are plenty of topics that will make this season relatable to what some families are going through in our society. From the way families are behind closed doors, the way teenagers are around each other, and the concern parents have about their children, it all adds to the authenticity of the show.
