With any good and compelling TV show, the storyline should be something that immediately grips our interest and tugs at the core of our humanity. Many promising TV shows have launched their premier episodes for 2015. One new show has attained the goal of getting our interest and captivating our prime time TV slots.

American Crime may sound like a mobster-themed TV show much like The Sopranos but taking a peek into Episode 1 evidently shows us that things are not as black and white as they seem, which in turn urges us to take a closer look at what exactly this new show is about.

American Crime Episode 1 begins with an introduction to Russ Skokie (Timothy Hutton) and how his world and the lives of different people around him will drastically change because of one devastating phone call.

Russ receives an ominous phone call in the middle of the night requesting him to fly to Modesto, California to ID a murder victim believed to be his son. After confirming the identification of the deceased as in fact being his son Matt, Russ learns that his son and his wife Gwen (Kira Pozehl) were victims of a home intrusion that left Gwen alive but confined in the hospital under critical condition after surviving a brutal assault.

Russ then calls his estranged wife Barb Hanlon (Felicity Huffman) to inform her of the horrific news about their son and daughter-in-law. We get a sense of Barb's character when upon arriving in Modesto, we observe that she is more bothered that the police called Russ first instead of her. Russ soothes Barb by explaining that the police found his number in Matt's home and needed a family member to immediately identify the body.

The separated couple then discuss who should call their other son, Mark, to tell him of the grim news. Barb reasons that Russ should call Mark but Russ believes it would be better that they call him together, as he says that they need to be a family right now.

Barb is then seen calling Mark on her own and venting out her frustrations that nothing is happening and she thinks that the police are not doing much or concentrating on the case. After learning from Detective Palmer (Brent Anderson) that a person of interest in the case is a Hispanic, Barb is seen emotionally muttering something about "illegals."

Later, when the Skokies meet up with Gwen's distraught parents to give support about their daughter being unconscious in the hospital, Barb makes a suggestion that perhaps it would be best that they all talk to a reporter who is interested in running a story about the gruesome crimes done to their children. Gwen's parents are obviously not willing to publicize their daughter's life, especially the rape and assault that was done to her, but the Skokies decide that they will do the interview.

In the interview, Barb reveals that Matt served in the military after the devastation of 9/11 while Gwen was a local beauty queen. Barb also further reveals the true condition of Matt's childhood and family life when she divulges information that Russ had a gambling problem and that she basically raised their sons as a single mother. This unwarranted disclosure of their past results in a heated argument between Russ and Barb.

The show also takes us into the lives of other characters we need to keep a close eye on. Take the druggy couple Carter Nix (Elvis Nolasco) and Aubry Taylor (Caitlin Gerard) with their turbulent relationship. We follow the proverbial stoned couple's misadventures, with Aubry getting beaten up by another girl who steals her drug stash and Carter and Aubry arguing after Aubry flirts with a man to get more drugs.

We later also connect that Carter might be deeply involved in the murder of Matt as a Latino named Hector Totnz (Richard Cabral) reveals that he drove a black "dude" high on meth near the location of Matt's house as the black guy wanted to settle an old score with a white guy and his wife. This certain black man later then returned to the car where Hector was waiting and handed him the cash card that he tried to use to buy some items before being shot and caught by the police.

Tony Gutierrez (Johnny Ortiz) gets involved in the story when he gets pulled over by the police, as the car he is driving is the same vehicle used by the murder suspect. It is revealed that Tony works with his father Alonzo (Benito Martinez) in an auto repair shop and that he had rented out the car for some money from a tattooed man who turns out to be Hector.

Tony is taken down to the precinct for questioning and, by the time Alonzo arrives, he is dumbfounded that his trustworthy son has been running an operation behind his back. Alonzo urges his son to tell the police everything he knows, trusting that this will clear his son's name but in a shocking twist, which I am sure many of us have predicted, Tony is cuffed and arrested for murder.

Before this episode ends, the question of how well you know someone, especially a family member, gets tested as the detectives question Russ if he had a close relationship with his son and how much of Matt's life was he privy to. It is then revealed that a considerable number of marijuana and meth was found in Matt's house, indicating that he was more than a recreational user and was most probably a dealer. This leaves Russ questioning everything that he knows and leaving the viewers even more gripped with this drama.

American Crime, from creator and executive producer John Ridley, airs every Thursday at 10:00pm (EST).

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