Skip to footer

'American Crime' season 2: What ABC learned from cable shows

The second season of ABC's program 'Crime' debuts on Jan. 6. As broadcast networks adjust to the new TV world, 'Crime' shares some features with cable shows, such as a shorter run and a new story each season.

|
Ryan Green/ABC/AP
'American Crime' stars Timothy Hutton (l.) and Felicity Huffman (r.).

The second season of “American Crime,” ABC’s acclaimed series, returns on Jan. 6. 

The first season of the program debuted this past March and centered on the suspects in the murder of a veteran living in California. The episodes starred Felicity Huffman, Regina King, Timothy Hutton, and Richard Cabral and the show was created by John Ridley, who wrote the screenplay for the 2013 Oscar winner “12 Years a Slave.”

The first season was well-received by reviewers and the show is now a prized part of ABC's lineup. It has received three 2016 Golden Globe nominations: the series itself for the best limited series or TV movie, Huffman for best actress in a limited series or TV movie, and King for best supporting actress in a limited series or TV movie.

Now the new episodes will focus on alleged sexual violence at a high school. Actors including Huffman, King, and Hutton return.

In our age of popular cable and streaming shows, the format of “Crime” shows that ABC is looking to these other successful formats when creating the show. While broadcast dramas often run for more than 20 episodes – ABC’s own “Scandal” ran for 22 episodes in its 2014-2015 season – “Crime” is set to run for 11 episodes this season. 

This number of episodes is closer to the run of a cable or streaming show than the normal network fare. HBO's "Game of Thrones," for example, usually runs for 10 episods.

Putting the same cast in a new story also echoes the casting technique used by the FX cable hit “American Horror Story.” The program, which is currently airing its fifth season, often relies on a similar cast, with actors including Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Denis O’Hare, and Sarah Paulson playing different characters each season.

The anthology format used by “Crime” also echoes the storytelling techniques of “Horror” and other successful cable shows. Anthology TV shows are currently experiencing a boom, with “Horror,” FX’s “Fargo,” and HBO’s “True Detective” all following the format. Some have done so more successfully than others – the second season of “Detective” was not well-received by reviewers when it aired last summer – but “Fargo” and “Horror” have both become big enough hits that the TV world has no doubt been taking note.

How will broadcast audiences respond to “Crime”? The first season of the show didn’t do very well in the ratings, but the good reception from critics no doubt gave it a boost at ABC. Reviews for the second season have been very good, too, so we’ll see if “Crime” can succeed with the help of a few tricks borrowed from cable.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'American Crime' season 2: What ABC learned from cable shows
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2016/0105/American-Crime-season-2-What-ABC-learned-from-cable-shows
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe