‘Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.’
premieres tonight at 10 p.m.
ET on USA
There are Presidents of the United States who’ve been played less onscreen than Suge Knight.
Credit: Isabella Vosmikova/USA Network
(premieres tonight at 9 p.m. Detective Russell Poole (Jimmi Simpson) is a fastidious workaholic who carries around a secret shame.
And likeTrue Detective,Unsolvedimmediately skips forward to the bleak ambiguity of a neverending murder investigation.
(If I recall myMatrixcorrectly, that means 2006 is The Real and 1997 is the simulation.)
Unsolvedgets Biggie and Tupac right, at least.
Rose catches the intense curiosity that always seemed to blaze in Shakur’s eyes.
Jonez doesn’t quite replicate Biggie’s royal swagger, but he radiates a real sweetness.
RELATED VIDEO: USA Orders Anthology SeriesUnsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.
and counter-theories (Cops do this?
In the 1997 thread, Simpson is also, er, making some interesting decisions.
His Poole is a gesticulating, overemphasizing, kamikaze-running truthseeker.
Which is too bad.
There are fascinating stories within the sprawl.
Bokeem Woodbine and Wendell Pierce play two members of the federal task force.
They both have their own frustrations about life as an African American cop on the police force.
Their conversations have a sharpness the rest of the show can’t match.
“Can’t you see he’s thevictim?”
the bodyguard asks the cop.
(“He was just a gangster with a microphone!”
is how one Vegas cop describes Tupac.)
I’m not sure what kind of answersUnsolvedwants to uncover.
Kading’s book ultimately pointed fingers towards Knight and Sean “Puffy” Combs.
You suspect the end result ofUnsolvedwill be safely lawsuit-proof.
