American Crime Trailer Teases A Gritty And Racially Charged Drama For ABC

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Among the final previews to be unveiled at ABC's upfront presentation today was the trailer for John Ridley's intense looking drama American Crime, which reveals a murder and the effect it has on everyone involved, including the suspects and the victims' families. Based on what's revealed in what could prove to be a gripping crime-focused drama, grief and racial tension play a big part in this story.

American Crime pic

As you may have noticed, in addition to having the talent of 12 Years a Slave's John Ridley behind it, as both writer and director, the cast for this series boasts an impressive cast, including Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton and Deadwood's W. Earl Brown, among others. Check out the full synopsis and list of stars below:

All over the news are reports about a young couple in Modesto, California, who were attacked in their home. Matt Skokie, a war vet, was killed, and his wife, Lily, is unconscious, barely hanging on. Both sets of parents are at her bedside hoping for a miracle while four suspects are about to be arrested. The case sends shock waves into the community stirring up tensions across racial lines in this gritty drama-from the point of the victims..."American Crime" stars Felicity Huffman as Barb, Timothy Hutton as Russ, W. Earl Brown as Tom, Richard Cabral as Hector Tonz, Caitlin Gerard as Aubry, Benito Martinez as Alonzo Gutierrez, Penelope Ann Miller as Eve, Elvis Nolasco as Carter and Johnny Ortiz as Tony Gutierrez.

By comparison to some of ABC's other dramas, including Once Upon a Time and Scandal, the latter of which is dark and violent, but much more soapy than it is gritty, American Crime seems like a shift for ABC into more serious territory, but it's a shift that could pay off if viewers are drawn in by what could prove to be a very tense, emotional story.

American Crime isn't the only dark looking crime drama headed to primetime in the 2014-2015 season. Fox showed off their Broadchurch adaptation Gracepoint yesterday. And today, ABC unveiled their trailer for Secrets and Lies, which also appears to involve a child murder. So there are some dark and unsettling times ahead for network TV. Fortunately, we have Dan Fogelman's whacky musical-comedy-fairytale Galavant, which will hopefully provide us with some laughs and cut the tension a bit.

As mentioned, ABC has American Crime set to debut sometime during Midseason 2015. View the network's full 2014-2015 lineup here.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.