TVNZ 1 Locks Up American Crime

TVNZ 1 at last will screen the final season of the best drama series on the network, American Crime.

Like its predecessors, season three will air late-night — 11.00 Mondays from August 14 — but at least the gap between its US and NZ premieres will be only five months, the shortest yet.

It averaged a 90% approval rating on Metacritic but for the first time didn’t garner a best limited drama series Emmy nomination — prompting IndieWire to include it on a list of the year’s biggest snubs:

Does cancellation equal banishment? American Crime, despite low ratings, earned Emmy nominations and wins for its first two seasons, but after ABC axed it following Season 3, so did the TV Academy.

But stars Regina King and Felicity Huffman again are in the running for a best actress Emmy Award.

If King wins on September 18 (when Sky’s Vibe will air the ceremony live), it will be her third consecutive win for the series.

But The Hollywood Reporter reckons 2017 might be Huffman’s turn, with creator John Ridley easing off “after two seasons of writing her as an only occasionally sympathetic villain.

“After playing a woman of resources who didn’t always do the right thing, it’s great watching Huffman as a character whose eyes are slowly opening and whose motivation to be altruistic may be new and unformed.”

She plays the wife of a tomato farmer in North Carolina on whose land an illegal migrant worker tragedy unfolds.

“Structurally, the series uses one crime to illuminate an array of storylines and issues, and this season eventually follows that template,” the New York Times said, “but it also suggests that the bigger crime is the exploitation and poor treatment of workers on the lowest rung of the economic ladder …

“Yes, the series sometimes grows a bit preachy … But you have to admire the ability of Mr. Ridley and his actors to wrap the earnestness in a compelling package.”