One Man Did This

O.J. Simpson, the most complicated of figures.

Here’s a good paragraph from some “cultural essay” about O.J.:

“One man did this. One man believed he could transcend the tale of this place. That he could reject what a life here has tended to entail if you’re Black. One man scrambled our common sense, seduced our better natures and rational selves. One man confirmed anew that a Black Icarus stands a reasonable chance of winding up Bigger Thomas. But the masterpiece that embodies the crises and dissonances of this man and his moments, that ruminates hard and rigorously on them, is actually about the man himself: Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America,” a documentary that at almost eight hours could have gone on far longer and proceeds with such a sorrowful investigative weight that, when it arrived in 2016, qualified as prehumous. It offered the most suitable manner to…