‘American Crime’: Hard Times for Hard Lives

In American Crime, people are always struggling, trying to make it through another day. This anthology series from John Ridley is now in its third season, and for his newest of storylines, writer-director Ridley really puts his stars — who include Regina King, Felicity Huffman, and Sandra Oh — through the wringer.

King plays a social worker, KImara, who’s trying to make ends meet (the first time we see her, she’s trying to pay her cable TV bill, without much success). One of her new clients is a teenage prostitute (played by Ana Mulvoy-Ten) who can’t decide whether she hates her abusive pimp or yearns for his heavy hand. Another subplot involves a father from Mexico, played by Benito Martinez (The Shield; Sons of Anarchy), who joins a group of migrant fruit-pickers in North Carolina — he’s there semi-undercover, because what he really wants to do is find his runaway son.

As we know from previous versions of American Crime, Ridley begins each season with storylines that initially seem separate but converge in ways both cleverly subtle and bluntly direct. Huffman’s character this season is Jeanette, the wife of one of the owners of the family farm that’s exploiting those migrant workers. In the opening episodes, at least, Jeanette seems well-meaning and na?ve about the working conditions on the farm her husband (Dallas Roberts) oversees with his siblings (Cherry Jones and Tim DeKay).

I’m tempted to say that American Crime is the most depressing show on television. Its challenge to viewers is to make them want to confront some of the painful issues of the day, in primetime on network television. It makes that challenge with the attraction of such strong performances from strong actors. (Regina King won two Emmy Awards for previous seasons of the show.) At one point in the second episode, Sandra Oh’s character literally lectures us on farm worker abuse; you want to slide down your sofa and slip out of the room before she assigns homework. The degree to which you can be moved and involved by American Crime depends on the degree to which the importance of its message and the fine performances of its stars outweigh the show’s often crushing heaviness.

American Crime airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC.