This piece contains spoilers for "American Crime."
I love shows that make me think, and 'American Crime' is basically making my head explode. It packs so much thematically into 42 minutes that it almost gives me a headache. But honestly, it's the best kind of headache. This episode was full of background and context, to the point that it can be hard to keep track. Let's dive in and talk about it.
This episode is challenging, confronting issues of race, victim blaming and mental health, among other things. What really stuck with me, however, is the insight we get into Eric Tanner. We see that residents think Leyland students are all rich. We already knew that isn't true for Taylor and Gaby, and now we know Eric isn't either.
The moment we learn this for sure is not when Eric is suspended (instead of Kevin), but when we see him with his father. They play basketball in a public-recreation center, along with Eric's brother, and then Eric's father tells him that it's important for him to smell good. Those words transported me to memories of my own childhood in rural, northern Indiana. Unlike many small towns dotting the Indiana countryside, mine has a lake and a boarding school. With both of those things comes an influx of wealth from out of town. For many locals, or townies, wealth is but a faint idea.
There were two kinds of students at my middle school: preps and scrubs. Preps taunted scrubs because of how they smelled. At the age of 13, I learned that both smell and clothing were important status symbols. Those things separated my classmates from one another in what I now recognize as horrible, damaging ways.
This moment between Eric and his father, seemingly innocuous, mirrors the other parent/child conversations throughout the episode about what was most important for their family. For Coach Dan and his daughter, it's sex. For Kevin and Terri, it's sex and money. For Eric and his father, it's smell. The fact that Eric's father brings up smell exposes a piece of the fabric that aids in our construction of class and status that we don't always think about. Looking good and smelling good is a function of class, something that Eric knows. His response to his father is "I smell good," indicating that he strives to be seen as good.
Eric's quest to be good seems to also include being seen as straight. His consistent use of misogynistic language made him seem aggressive to me initially, but seeing him kiss a guy makes it much more complicated. He's attempting to figure out who he is, and that's clearly painful for him. Otherwise, he wouldn't hide behind such an inflated masculine presence. My heart breaks for him, and I find myself less angered by his misogyny because I know that it probably isn't real. Every time he uses the word "bitch" or objectifies women, he is performing his own conception of masculinity in an effort to hide his difference.
In the world of Leyland, I suspect Eric's sexuality will matter deeply. Not only is he poor, but he's also apparently not straight. Moving forward, however, I am a little nervous. There is an amount of discomfort that comes with having a male character struggle with his sexuality and also potentially be involved in the sexual assault of another male character. We still know little about the details of what happened at the Captains' Party, but the close proximity has me both intrigued and anxious. If I've learned anything during these first two weeks, however, it's that nothing is as it seems.
Lines That Haunt Me
"I shouldn't have to beg people to care about my son." -- Anne Blaine
"If her family has money, then she doesn't want anything from you." -- Terri LaCroix
"We have to do the right thing. Say the right thing." -- Leslie Graham