American Crime Story : The Assassination of Gianni Versace

[vogue28]

So... surely you've all heard about the current FX show of American Crime Story : The Assassination of Gianni Versace with Édgar Ramírez, Darren Criss, Ricky Martin and Penélope Cruz. Who's watching? Surely it can't be just me and MissMagAddict.

 

[CommanderTMugler]

I've been watching it as well...I'm actually surprised they showed the assassination right away with so many episodes left.

I herd we won't be seeing too much of Penelope/Edgar after these first couple episodes, plus some of her scenes got cut according to the costume designers of the show.

Anyways, I'm loving Penelope as Donatella and Darren Chris is doing really good.

It was pretty cool to see the 97 HC show reenacted, they even threw in an Anna Wintour lookalike in the audience.

 

[Ed..]

I think so far it's just OK. I feel like the main character is Andrew, rather than Gianni, despite the title of the series. Edgar, Penelope and Darren are really such good actors.

 

[helmutnotdead]

I watched it for fifteen minutes and I hated the personality of Andrew. Inmediately unwatchable for me.

 

[mikel]

I’m watching it as well. The entire look of the series is great.

But I’m not convinced by Darren Criss. He is trying too hard, but all I can see is Blaine from Glee

 

[Deleted member 141523]

A half naked Ricky Martin and a fake italian woman like Penelope (bad actress by the way), I can't take this seriously. I don't get this Ryan Murphy guy.

 

[mepps]

Darrin Criss is the best thing about this show. He's a revelation.
I think Ryan Murphy is trying to say something about the vacuousness of "gay culture", but his approach comes across as moralistic and reductive. Penelope Cruz is a great actress when she's in an Almodovar film, but here she's just a beautiful woman in a bad wig. In any case Donatella Versace should feel extremely flattered, because Penelope is what she wishes she looked like.

The OJ season was so much better than this.

 

[YohjiAddict]

Watching this show I get the feeling that choosing to portray Gianni's life was nothing but an excuse to build very expensive and elaborate sets. At the end of the day the story that takes center stage is only tangentially related to that of his life and could have been told more effectively as straight up fiction. Getting people to watch because of the Versace name and getting them hooked with a morbid tale that will have straight people wondering what's wrong with gay people...I can totally understand why Donatella won't be watching whatever this is.

Share the sentiments of mepps, so far OJ is winning, getting to know his dark side in an actual recreation of the trials was actually much more effective as a story telling device. It helped that he was family with the victim, here the connection feels thin at best.

 

[vogue28]

Must admit that I like how the show is heading, and how Ryan Murphy isn't just sticking with everything Versace Versace Versace. I've just watched Episode 3, where there's almost no mention of Gianni Versace himself and found it to be the best episode to date.

Prior to watching the show, I had zero knowledge surrounding Gianni's assassination, or Cunanan's other victims and I'm constantly on Google finding out the facts as the events play out. I'm hooked!

 

[cleo715]

I'm also hooked (as I was with season 1). Such a great show! Granted, I'm a true crime junkie plus I was in high school when Gianni Versace was murdered (and it was a HUGE deal, which ended very dramtically)so I do remember this assasination, I remember the name of the killer and that it had been part of a spree, however nothing was really mentioned about any of his previous victims or really about who Cunanan was and what drove him to this, I remember him being referred to as a psycho, no further explanation needed, end of story.
For this reason I really like were this show is heading too. It's not just focusing on the most famous of the victims as if the others didn't matter (I was also googling constantly after this week's episode). The true crime nerd in me is really enjoying the profiling of Andrew Cunanan's mind. Maybe we'll never truly know the motive behind Versace's murder specifically, but an understanding of his particular narcissistic sociopathy might give us a clue.
However, I think the main story that ACS S2 is trying to tell is how at the very least Versace's killing (and maybe of both of the guys in Episode 3 too) could've been prevented if the authorities regarded crimes within the gay community seriously. The behavior of the FBI and law enforcement agencies in general (which is one of the true unarguable facts in the series) was flawed and indifferent, to say the least. This guy made the FBI top 10 list, and it was regular people who were reporting actual sightings and tips based on shows like America's Most Wanted,etc for weeks before Versace was shot. The guy was living a couple of blocks away for a couple of months...Anyway, I'm really look forward to next week's episode. I had my doubts at 1st but the show is also proving to be very, very well acted.
PS. How bout the Versace mansion recreated in all it's 90s glory? Ugh, so baroque and decadent. I'm living!!!

 

[cleo715]

A half naked Ricky Martin and a fake italian woman like Penelope (bad actress by the way), I can't take this seriously. I don't get this Ryan Murphy guy.

I think Penelope is amazing in here. She's not playing just "an Italian woman", she's playing Donatella Versace: a caricature of an idea of the Italian woman. A "fake italian woman" herself, with her permanent extreme tan, her deep voice and her unapologetically obviously fake platinum mane. Yet she's giving her depth and not reducing her (and her realationship with Gianni, who is exceptionally well played by Edgar Ramirez) to a joke. She respects the character as well as the real woman behind her.

Now about Ricky...I can't really defend him. With this cast, he definitelhy sticks out as the weakest link

 

[pollyanna90]

Episode 3 was the best so far. Judith Light was so riveting in her role. I sincerely hope she gets an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for the performance! The direction of the episode was fabulous. I loved the wide shots around the house which made the atmosphere even more tense and the focus upon silence and what was revealed from that silence created such a haunting, somber effect.

It does seem like the next few episodes will be focusing more on Cunanan but I do hope that we get to see a focus on Gianni and Donatella's lives and more of the aftermath of his death in the second half of the season. I'd like to get at least three episodes dedicated to their stories and histories.

 

[Belowen]

It was more like The Story of Andrew Cunanan, but I enjoyed it. It felt like a completely different show to season one though, which had some heavy hitters and was better in a few different ways.

Having said that, both Edgar Ramirez and Darren Criss were exceptional, I thought.

Any idea why most of the music was from the 80s?

 

[vogue28]

For some reason I thought we'd be getting an Episode 10! Quite disappointed the season has come to an end already but thought the finale was brilliant. The whole entire series had me gripped from start to finish, and I was constantly fact-checking via Google once an episode came to an end. I also must admit that I started to like how it wasn't so full-on Versace.

I loved this season so much, I felt the need to download The People v. O.J. Simpson - and I'm glad I did! Once again, I was hooked from start to finish and thought Sarah Paulson was incredible as Marcia Clark. Sterling K. Brown done an amazing job too. Did anyone else watch Season One?

 

[mikel]

Yeah season one was such great television! That’s why I was slightly disappointed by this season. It wasn’t bad or anything, but my expectations were so high after season 1, that it all felt a bit underwhelming.

 

[Yohji]

I'm only on episode five but I'm liking the stucture and overall trajectory of the show. The focus on Andrew's other victims has the been the highlight thus far.

 

[YohjiAddict]

I finally finished the show on Netflix, I only bothered with the first two last year. Some very grey episodes after the initial two that weren't all that compelling to begin with, it is a tale of what it meant to be gay in the 90's and as such I could see its value and by mildly entretained by it but Criss's character was a bore to sit through since he looks plucked out of a bad sitcom and I couldn't be bothered with his descent into the abyss, some more humor and maybe a semblance of self awareness would have done wonders for the character. The fact that this story is told backwars could be to blame for my disinterest since I though it was such a poor decision on the screenwriter's part.

I liked Marylin Miglin's story, how Penelope nailed the accent and the fact that one scene where a drag queen asks to be left into Gianni's mansion. The second to last episode would be my favorite, the making of a murderer told with great humor, just seeing his equally inmoral father slapping him across the face had me cheering at the screen, the whole dance sequence was hilarious and Criss's acting did seem more convincing in this one. I would never watch this again but somehow it made me want to watch last season for a second time.