Are the stories on FOX's Accused ripped from the headlines? Not quite!

Accused, the hit FOX anthology series, continues to enthrall its audience with its second season. The crime drama's format allows viewers to pop in and out, choosing which stories they want to give their attention to and which they'll skip. But the episodes share one common thread, they're thought-provoking and confronting which is the entire point.

Season 2 opened with "Lorraine's Story," at tale that centered on a medium trying to help a couple find their missing child. Episode 2, "April's Story," dealt with extreme road rage that resulted in a terrifying car crash. And episode 3, "Marcus' Story," was about the consequences of facial recognition software.

When watching Accused, it's impossible not to wonder whether the anthology rips its plots from the headlines. They feel familiar. They're not farfetched, in fact they uncomfortably mirror reality. So much so it feels like the starting place for the writing has to be an actual story that's been dramatized for the small screen but is that the case? Not quite.

Are the episodes in Accused based on true stories?

While it's true that the stories featured in the crime drama draw inspiration from real life events, the episodes themselves aren't fictionalized accounts of nefarious dealings or breathtaking tragedies that actually happened. But they do deal with questions that plague our society.

Take the story about facial recognition software. This technology learns from what it's fed meaning the biases of the developers does show up in its failings. For instance, self-driving cars have been proven to struggle with identifying people of color with darker skin as well as children which is dangerous as it can lead to pedestrians getting hit.

Another example is wrongful arrests due to the software failing to correctly identify anyone who isn't a middle-aged white man, this affects Black women the most. Why does this occur? Because of racial bias whether that's the algorithm being taught by only using images of white men or a disinterest in ensuring the software recognizes all people as human instead of a select group. The tech can also be misused to disproportionally target marginalized communities that are already overpoliced.

Speaking about the lens with which Accused tells its stories, showrunner Howard Gordon told Deadline the following in an interview when the series first premiered:

"Trauma is very good for drama, in a way, and as a storyteller, you get to process that fictionally. So you get to take that real truth and process it adjacent to actual events. I think the writers are getting a chance to dramatize some of the questions that we’re all asking ourselves at this particular time in 2023. These are stories that really probably could only have been told, for a variety of reasons, today. I think they’re universal, and they’re very human, but at the same time, some of the subjects whether it’s race or gender or even social media plays a big part in three of the stories. Everything’s happening and changing so quickly that this was a chance to take these bite-sized fables and work through, hopefully compellingly and in tandem, some of those things that are haunting all of us."

So it's not that the events that unfold in Accused did happen, it's that they could. That, in fact, some version of them has occurred or will. Whether that was yesterday, or it will be today, tomorrow, or sometime in the near or distant future. The questions we're wrestling with now are the same ones that are causing people to act or not, say something or stay silent, be falsely accused or justly arrested, and that's where the anthology dips into reality.

Accused season 2 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. Next day streaming is available on Hulu. Stay tuned to Americans Undercover for TV coverage. Follow us on X and Facebook for more content.