Saturday, September 11, 2021

What I’m Watching: American Crime Story: Impeachment (Season Premiere)

American Crime Story: Impeachment: Season 3, Episode 1 “Exiles” (B-)

I’ve only ever seen two episodes of this anthology series: the first of “The People v. O.J. Simpson” and the first of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.” I know that others have been marvelously impressed and they both collected truckloads of awards, so I’m determined to stick with this one presuming it will end up with the same acclaim. I’m also interested in the subject matter, though I’m young enough that I didn’t know many of the details of all these people given that these events unfolded when I wasn’t even yet ten. That does make the experience of watching it a bit dizzying and confusing, since there are so many people introduced that I’ve never even heard of and I’m not sure if are supposed to have any significance, and others whose names I know but whose relevance isn’t as clear to me. The structure of this pilot in particular was hard to follow, jumping around so much and focused almost entirely on Linda Tripp, not Monica Lewinsky. I had a feeling that Sarah Paulson would be in this show but didn’t recognize her as Tripp, and that makes me even more impressed with the way that she completely disappears into the performance. Beanie Feldstein is a great choice to play Monica Lewinsky, and I’m curious to see what Clive Owen is going to be like as Bill Clinton. Other notable faces included Kevin Pollak, Elizabeth Reaser, Annaleigh Ashford, Margo Martindale, Cobie Smulders, Colin Hanks, and, of course, Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton. I’d like to see more active pacing in episode two, because I am genuinely intrigued by the subject matter.

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