ABC pilot 'American Crime' stars Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Millions were glued to the season finale of How to Get Away with Murder last week. And Thursday night a new ABC show makes its premiere.

This is the best one hour TV pilot I have seen in a long time. American Crime takes a look at a diverse group of Americans through the lens of one crime.

Sure, we learn about what happened and eventually who did it, but we understand even more about the characters we meet along the way.

'Different' is a word you hear a lot in Hollywood, though it rarely applies because as the saying goes, 'Imitation is the sincerest form of television'.

But American Crime doesn't play like anything else on broadcast TV, and the case can be made that it does in fact, break the mold.

"I think audiences are in a space where they're prepared to be challenged and see something new: a little bit different," said writer-creator John Ridley, who won an Oscar for writing "12 Years a Slave", and ABC has given him 11 hours to tell the story of a crime: the murder of a copule's son.

Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton star as the dead man's parents, divorced and estranged.

"It's not about what happens next: which is classic story telling. What happens next? What happens next? This is about what's happening now," said Huffman.

Four suspects emerge, but it's not really about 'Who dun it?'

"The procedural element isn't as prominent as what is happening to the characters that are impacted by the tragedy," said Hutton.

"Those things that are not necessarily central to the crime that happens, but I think they are essential to these characters, to these individuals, and who they are," Ridley said.

American Crime is part of an effort by the American Broadcasting Company towards more diversity in prime-time.

"There are more different kinds of shows talking about different perspectives in different places than ever before," Ridley said.

This show is made possible by a group of big talents, but creator John Ridley paid tribute to a cable show 'True Detective', starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.

It showed this kind of long form storytelling could be popular.

What was once confined to cable is now on broadcast TV.