Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
ABC’s American Crime debuted its third-season premiere Sunday night with a brand-new story touching upon some of this country’s grimmest, most hot-button issues. After a first season that took on race and the criminal justice system and a second season that investigated the devastating impact of a sexual assault at an elite private school, season 3 is taking a look the underbelly of the American economy, including forced labor, sex work, and modern-day slavery.
It’s heavy stuff, this American Crime story material, which is why the show employs one of the best casts on television, including, this season, Felicity Huffman, Cherry Jones, and Regina King. For the last two seasons, King has been the show’s secret weapon. She was only a recurring player in the first season, but she managed to surprise the field by winning a Supporting Actress Emmy Award for her work, a moment that felt as appreciated as it was well-earned.
She repeated that feat last year, the rare actress to win back-to-back Emmys in the mini-series categories. And while just judging by the first episode of the third season, a three-peat would be massively well-earned, to be honest, the supporting-actress category is no longer where King’s performance belongs. She’s a lead actress, and the show is now treating her as such. It’s time for a category bump.
As season 3 begins, King plays our anchor: Kimara Walters, a social worker who is primarily working with underage teens who get caught up in sex work. It’s her job to convince them to come in off the streets, get started in a shelter, and most crucially, testify against their pimps. In a world where already we’re seeing the bleak effects of the American economy on lowest-wage workers (much of the season premiere dealt with migrant workers and illegal immigrants working the fields on farms owned by huge agricultural corporations), Walters is the rare character who’s out to do some good. Of course, she’s overwhelmed and beaten down by a system (and by the realities of human nature) that’s weighted against her success, but she’s absolutely the audience’s entry point into the series.
It doesn’t hurt that King is doing some of the best work of her career, once again. At this time of Peak TV, it’s hard not to take a step back and marvel at a woman who’s been so consistently bringing down the house, not only on American Crime, but also on HBO’s The Leftovers. And in a TV landscape that desperately needs to promote its leading women of color, Regina King stands out as a woman who’s head and shoulders above nearly all other actresses of any race.
Of course, if King were to be promoted to a lead, the Emmy race she’d be plunging into is no joke. Oscar-winning actresses Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon — that is some extreme firepower. And she’d likely have competition from within her own show from Felicity Huffman, who is playing an in-law to the family running the big agri-business at the center of season 3’s story. By the looks of the season premiere (and the preview footage), Huffman’s character is having her eyes opened to the realities of what’s happening to the workers on her family’s farm. It’s likely she’ll have as much Emmy-worthy material to work with as King.
But in a right and just world, Regina King would be standing shoulder to shoulder with all those aforementioned women. Her performances have made her worthy of it.
