Written by Jon Robin Baitz
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Capote (to Babe): "The accident was a blessing and there's something else. You have a new best friend. Now let's have a cigarette."
It's been seven years since Feud: Bette And Joan. Originally a second season was supposed to focus on Charles and Diana but something tells me that the success of The Crown might have put paid to that idea. In some respects, that's probably for the best.
Instead we've got a look at Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) and more specifically his relationship with a group of socialites that he dubbed the Swans. A relationship that started off well, until he went and ruined it by spilling secrets in a very public fashion.
In this first episode, there's a strong emphasis on two of his relationships with two particular women. The first one being Ann Woodward (Demi Moore), whose use of a certain F word had Truman embark on a campaign where he told everyone that she murdered her husband. Eventually the public reveal of this drove Ann to commit suicide, an act that would sour Truman's relationship with the other women.
The biggest emphasis however was Truman's relationship with Babe Paley (Naomi Watts), the wife of CBS president Bill Paley (Treat Williams). Babe had made the grave error of letting Truman in more than anyone else and making him too privy to Bill's infidelity with a governor's wife. As a result, Babe ended up publicly humiliated.
Between Ann's suicide and Babe's public humiliation, it was Slim Keith (Diane Lane) who decided that Truman would suffer a death of the slowest kind and she genuinely looked like she meant business with that sentiment. Going by the moody shots of Truman at the beginning and end of this pilot episode alone and his pointed looking at swans, even he realised that he messed with the wrong women here.
As for the rest of the episode, the only other Swan we met was CZ Guest (Chloe Sevigny), but she didn't have a lot to do here. There was also Truman's long suffering boyfriend and fellow writer, Jack Dunphy (Joe Mantello) who seemed done with Truman's alcoholism while the much younger John O'Shea (Russell Tovey) can definitely be blamed for Truman writing that damning piece for Esquire magazine. The Swans were right about John.
- This season is based on the book Capote's Women: A True Story Of Love, Betrayal And A Swan Song.
- FX released the first two episodes in a double bill and I'll tackle the second part by tomorrow.
- Truman played on Babe's vulnerability over a car accident while giving a very pointed Swan speech to John about her, Slim and CZ.
- Chronology: Various times but 1955, 1968, 1975 and 1984 in New York.
The Pilot certainly opened things on an interesting enough note. It's certainly got the camp factor but not as outrageously as the previous season did. There's still time for that though. Tom Hollander does excel as Capote and the Swans so far seems like a force to be reckoned with.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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