Nineties News Nostalgia on Netflix – Blaugust 9

 

I just finished watching the American Crime Story: The People Versus O.J. Simpson series on Netflix. It’s pretty good. I’m not sure it deserved to win any Emmys, but I enjoyed it anyway, especially the second half of the series. I didn’t remember a lot of the twists and turns.

I didn’t see much of anything about the whole OJ Trial when it happened. I remember the basic framework of it: The Bronco, the trial, the gloves, the acquittal. Oops, spoiler alert! Anyway I didn’t pay any attention to the details at the time. For example, I never knew that OJ’s friend is the same Kardashian that spawned all the Kardashians we know and love today.

Before that, I watched a series called Manhunt: Unabomber. I thought it was better, dramatically speaking, though it seemed obvious they were probably taking quite a few liberties with the facts. It’s another case that I only vaguely remember from the headlines of the day. I knew the Unabomber existed but that was about it.

I had never known what the “Unabomber Manifesto” was about until I watched the show. His warnings about the dangers of technological dependence seems quaint by today’s standards.

To complete this 90s news nostalgia post, some time ago I watched a pair of PBS documentaries about Ruby Ridge and Waco on Netflix, yet more major headline news stories that largely went right by me at the time. I’m sure I would have recognized the names but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you much of anything about the facts of what actually happened in either of those cases. After watching the documentaries I can understand why there was so much fuss. There’s still plenty of lessons to be learned from all these events even today.