O.J. Simpson drama guilty of jumping on Kardashian bandwagon

Move over, "Making a Murderer." Take a seat, "The Jinx." FX is revisiting the original did-he-or-didn't-he reality TV obsession with "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" (10 p.m. Feb. 2).

The biggest question, though, is why.

Unlike those other pop-culture phenoms, this one's been pretty well covered.

Make that exhaustively covered.

Simpson's involvement in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her "friend" Ron Goldman was such an inescapable part of the zeitgeist, it's a wonder Jay Leno doesn't still use the Dancing Itos as his opening act.

Then again, the television business doesn't care much about anyone who's old enough to remember Judge Lance Ito, dancing or otherwise.

Based on "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson," by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the 10-episode drama is an offshoot of Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story" franchise.

At times, "American Crime Story" — not to be confused with ABC's anthology drama, "American Crime" — plays like an aging band on a greatest hits tour. LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman (Steven Pasquale, "Rescue Me" ) finds a bloody glove. Kato Kaelin (Billy Magnussen) acts like a space cadet: "I'm not, like, an official person," he tells detectives. "I just kinda live back here." Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Al Cowlings (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) creep along in that white Ford Bronco in the slowest chase in the history of Southern California freeways.

And all the major players are accounted for.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson, "American Horror Story") admits to having "no idea who you're talking about" the first time she hears Simpson's name.

Her fellow prosecutor, Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown), tries to convince his father's African-American neighbors that they shouldn't be cheering for Simpson. "Once O.J. made his money, he split and never came back. He became white." "Well," Darden is told, "he got the cops chasin' him. He's black now!"

Defense attorney Robert Shapiro (John Travolta) is presented as an aloof, me-first minor celebrity, who name-drops clients while holding court with his wife (Cheryl Ladd) at Mr. Chow.

And Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance) is shown cycling through the dozens of suits of every hue in his mechanical closet and complaining that he has nothing to wear. The lime-colored suit won't do, Cochran says, because he has to visit Michael Jackson later that day, and the singer is afraid of the color. Before he's brought in on the case, Cochran is asked if he'd help with Simpson's defense. "Me? Oh no, no," he demurs. "I like to win. This case is a loser."

Other, minor players have been kept in the spotlight by more mundane reality TV.

When Connie Britton shows up to pay her respects, I couldn't remember her character's name for the life of me. All I could come up with was, "that friend who milked Nicole's death for all it was worth and ended up posing for Playboy." That's because I'd rather be disemboweled with a rusty spoon than watch "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," where Faye Resnick has made several appearances.

And "American Crime Story" spends more time devoted to four kids the world didn't know existed back in 1994 than the two children Nicole left behind.

While Simpson friend and attorney Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer) addresses the media, his offspring — Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and Rob — cheer in their living room. Kris Jenner, nee Kardashian (Selma Blair), scolds Khloe and Kourtney for running around and playing at Nicole's funeral. And Simpson holds a gun to his head and threatens to kill himself in young Kim Kardashian's bedroom.

It's telling that, in the press notes, Resnick and Jenner receive higher billing than Fuhrman, Kaelin, Cowlings, Denise Brown (Jordana Brewster) and attorneys Alan Dershowitz (Evan Handler) and Barry Scheck (Rob Morrow).

Especially considering how little they contributed to the actual case.

Much like that infamous bloody glove, their prominence here just doesn't seem to fit.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch