"O. J. Simpson: Blood, Lies & Murder" stars Tom Lange, one of the lead police detectives in the infamous Orenthal James (O. J.) Simpson double murder case that happened in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California back in 1994. In this film, Tom presents evidence to show that O. J. Simpson was indeed guilty of the murders of both Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Right from the start, Tom along with assistance of Crime Scene Reconstructionist Rod Englert, go over the evidence that was collected. How they collected it. The testing of the collected evidence and also crime scene reenactments. They go over the timeline of the crime. And they show how they believe the victims were killed. They also mention the mistakes the State made in the prosecution of O. J. Simpson - ex. Like withholding what they felt was "good" evidence from the jury. Tom (and Rod) also dismiss the defense notion that the Los Angeles Police department was trying to frame O. J. Simpson for the murders. Tom also speaks about his "never-before-seen" case journal that he made during the investigation. And they did some demonstrations that they claimed wasn't shown in court.
Two other persons that testified in the trial also appear in this film: limo driver Allan Park and O. J.'s house guest Kato Kaelin. They both tell what they experienced that horrible night. Philip Vannatter, another lead detective in this case wasn't interviewed for this film, he passed away back in 2012. And of course, O. J. Simpson wasn't interviewed. Only previous file footage of him is shown.
Overall, i believe the show was very informative. They gave good, detailed explanations, with collected evidence, showing why the jury should have found O. J. Simpson guilty. But in my opinion, at times the program could have had better pacing. In parts of the program, they were pointing things out at rapid fire pace, then slow in other parts. Keep the pacing even. And sometimes the background music was a bit too loud and i had trouble hearing what the person(s) were saying.
The main thing that really surprised me about this program was just how explicit and gory it was (hence the review title). I'm not kidding. It was very, very graphic. Very little was censored or blurred out. They showed full color crime scene and autopsy photos of both Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman throughout the program. A lot of them very close up, the camera inches away from the stab wounds, cuts, etc. Sometimes they flashed quick images. And other times the gory images would be on screen for a while. Again, nothing censored. Even though it was "cable" TV, i've never seen anything this gory and graphic on it. On the internet: yes, TV: no. And this is coming from someone who's seen numerous other programs with graphic images shown (ex. War and crime documentaries). But none i've seen so far even compares to this one. But it does really show the audience just how violent the murders were.
And another thing i found amazing - for gory movies of this type, with the "Viewer Discretion is Advised" warning, they had either an "R" (Restricted) or "TV-MA" (Mature Audiences) rating. But with all the very real, very explicit, very gory, grisly photos and videos contained in this program, "O. J. Simpson: Blood, Lies & Murder", had a TV-14 rating!
So if you can't stand very graphic, grisly images, don't watch this. But if you're not really bothered by gore and you also want to hear retired detective Tom Lange views regarding the O. J. Simpson case, you should check it out. And as for the TV-14 rating!? In my opinion, this is strictly for Mature Adults Only.
