My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - Alone

Written by Tom Rob Smith
Directed by Daniel Minihan

Andrew: "It's terrible. I hope they catch him."

And so endeth the miniseries here. This has been something of an interesting show that started decent, hit some intriguing dramatic highs in the middle but somewhat petered a little bit in it's final two episodes. This finale was better than the previous episode but it also suffered from being needlessly too long for it's own good as well.

Andrew finally got the attention he wanted with Versace's murder as a manhunt for him had ensued but he also realised a little too late that it wasn't worth it either. Betrayed by his own fame hungry father, hated by the LGBT community and even forced to eat dog food at one point, the only way this could end for Andrew was in his own death and creative licencing to one side, I'm not surprised that he killed himself rather than face justice for the pain he caused so many people during his murder spree.

I think it's safe to say this series will earn Darren Criss some award love in the next couple of months and he's certainly deserving of it but there were times when I wondered if we got too much of Andrew to the series detriment. Last week's episode certainly felt unnecessary and even here, Tom Rob Smith somewhat prolonged Andrew's inevitable demise for a good portion of the episode.

If anything, it was the non Andrew scenes that were the best part. For instance, seeing Ronnie schooling the detectives on their own homophobia was particularly well done along with David Madson's father maintaining that his son was a victim of Andrew's killing spree than an accomplice as well as seeing Marilyn Miglin express anger over Andrew not being caught before allowing herself to be relieved when she learned than he was dead.

We got some needed Versace focus here too with Gianni's funeral coming into play and the harsh treatment that Antonio had to endure. Literally being snubbed at the church by the priest and even given a cold shoulder by Donatella was pretty painful to watch along with his attempted suicide. It was also somewhat irresponsible for the episode not to clarify that Antonio survived his suicide attempt. Much as I have liked the series, it's no wonder the Versace family and Antonio have been so critical of the show. A lot of the criticism has been justified in that regard.

As for the one scene with both Versace and Cunanan, echoing the opening episode - nicely played. Even though Edgar Ramirez wasn't always given as much as Darren Criss in this season, he did a bang up job in his portrayal of Versace that I'm really hoping that both him and even Cody Fern (David Madson) appear in other productions from Ryan Murphy in the immediate future.

- FX aired a trailer for Murphy's next series, Pose, due to air in the summer while also seeding some hints for Feud: Buckingham Palace (still not looking forward to that) with the Diana mentions here.
- The episode got most of the stuff in relation to Andrew being on the run but exaggerated how Marilyn viewed him and the general media coverage.
- Great use of music in the episode, especially with the opening of VOX's Vienna.
- Chronology: July 15th 1997.

Alone brings about a decent but somewhat overdrawn ending to a good series. I enjoyed this season more than the OJ Simpson one that proceeded it but I still can't help looking at the events objectively, if FX somewhat should've gone with a shorter episode run for this. It's unlikely that I'll be reviewing the Katrina season, though I do intend to watch it.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - Creator/Destroyer

Written by Tom Rob Smith & Maggie Cohn
Directed by Matt Bomer

Modesto: "You're not upset because I stole, you're upset because I stopped."

So for the penultimate episode of this series, it's case of Mommy knows best and Daddy is quite literally the worst for both Gianni and Andrew but mostly the latter's past was emphasised as Gianni's brief scenes as a child in Milan discovering his love for fashion and gaining his mother support generated the least amount of focus in favour of Andrew once again.

I know it's been the main focus of the season - the Andrew side of things but I was really hoping that with the title for this one, there would've been something of an even focus on both him and Gianni but I digress. On one hand, there's some terrific acting in this episode like there has been all season long but on the other hand, this was an episode that needed a trim.

I'm not sure we needed to see so much detail on Andrew and his family leaving Manila and coming to America as well as the focus on his father, Modesto and the role he played in Andrew's sense of entitlement. That said, a genuinely riveting performance from Jon Jon Briones as Modesto certainly did help the episode along though.

It was easy to see why Andrew went from fearing and idolising his manipulative father to loathing him when he realised that Modesto's stealing didn't leave to much in the way of actually saving money, considering how quickly Modesto had abandoned his family when he was caught out in the end.

It was also this realisation about his father that somewhat sent Andrew down on his own path of lying as well, given the whoppers he told the pharmacy manager at the end when applying for a job at Thriftys. Now that we've gotten Andrew's fairly elongated backstory out of the way, next week can actually focus on the aftermath of his most famous and final of kills and conclude the series.

- Good guest actors with both Edouard Holdener and Billy Cruz playing younger versions of both Cunanan and Versace this week.
- Again no Gianni, Donatella and Antonio in current day scenes but there's always the finale for that.
- Matt Bomer directed this episode, so it's nice to see he's still involved in the Ryan Murphy TV universe while this is the only episode co-written as well.
- Chronology: Both 1957 Milan for Gianni and 1980 and 1987 in Manila and the US for Andrew and his family alone.

Creator/Destroyer felt like a filler episode at times with too much focus on Andrew and not a desired split between both him and Gianni when it comes to origin stories. It's not a bad episode as such with some great guest performances but it certainly could've done with a shorter running time in order to convey the same message. Hopefully the finale will give the series a good conclusion.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - Ascent

Written by Tom Rob Smith
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Andrew: "If they could see me now."
Norman: "Who?"
Andrew: "Everyone."

Credit given where it's due, this episode felt slightly more like an even split between Andrew and Gianni with both of them getting nearly equal amount of screen time, instead of the focus being predominantly on Andrew as it has been for the majority of the season.

Delving into the Versace aspect of things first, we saw him in Milan running his business and also arguing with Donatella on what would actually sell, fashion wise with Antonio trying to be a neutral party with the conflicting siblings for the most part.

It was nice to see both Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz properly play off each other this week and I think they did a great job in the scenes where they designed that rather risque dress, only to later fall out over it when Gianni's ear cancer storyline also came to a head in this episode as well, forcing Donatella to take over the company while her brother recovered in Miami. Giving the siblings the focus they needed was something of a nice change for this episode.

Of course seeing as this series has mainly been about Andrew more than his famous and final victim, the focus also went back to his disdain at working at Thrifty and his mother buying cheap ice cream, so he decided to do a little escorting on the side, only to be told by a madame that he wasn't what they were looking for.

Giving that Andrew's biggest issue is people saying no to him, it wasn't too much of a surprise that he decided to go independent on the escorting front and with this plotline we saw him meeting and seducing Norman Blachford and Lincoln Aston (Todd Waring), the latter whom also had grown weary of being used by Andrew before he was murdered by another man.

I have to admit I was actually shocked to see a grisly murder in this episode that didn't actually involve Andrew (even if he did tell Bond to run after killing Lincoln) but the latter's violent streak did come out when he attacked his mother though and next week, it seems we're getting more from that destructive relationship as well.

- Jeff made another appearance here as did David, given that we finally got to see his first meeting with Andrew. The latter then stole his story in order to charm Norman into moving into Lincoln's house after his death.
- The episode mostly got things right - Donatella's dress, Gianni's ear cancer, the extent of Andrew and Lincoln's relationship and the latter's murder.
- The escort scene however and the ex-wife bits were somewhat exaggerated regarding Andrew.
- Chronology: 1992 for most of this episode.

A bit stronger than last week's episode, I did like that Ascent was a bit more balanced between the screen time allotted to both Andrew and Gianni this week. I also appreciated more on Gianni/Donatella this week and that bit with David Madson was still a nice highlight but it is a good thing that we're heading into the final hurtle with the series now.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - Descent

Written by Tom Rob Smith
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Andrew: "What else you got?"
Gianni: "I'm loved."

We're definitely at the point in the show where the pretense has been dropped about Versace himself being the main character as for the fourth episode in a row, it's more of a look into Andrew's descent in madness and murder as he faced a birthday party from hell and rejection from two lovers for the price of one.

First of all, this episode opened with Andrew having a friends with benefits style relationship with the much older and influential, Norman Blachford (Michael Nouri) but unlike some of the older guys that fell prey to Andrew's orbit, it seems that Norman wasn't entirely daft enough to believe Andrew told him.

I did like that Norman actually did his own research into Andrew and despite a foolish willingness to let some of the latter's lies slide, Norman was also willing to cut Andrew loose when the fantasist got too demanding for him. One of the end scenes where Norman rejected a strung out Andrew did more to generate less sympathy for Cunanan than before.

Of course it wasn't just Norman that rejected Andrew in this one. Because things are playing backwards yet again, both Jeff and David were also around to witness Andrew's erratic behaviour. Jeff rightly decided to cut Andrew loose when the latter tried to maliciously out him to his family and while David indulged Andrew's expense date, he halted the breaks on any sort of potential relationship when the latter's inability to stop lying became too much.

This episode certainly lived up to it's title as even later on in the episode, Andrew's non stop lying was starting to weird out the cute barman while his descent into drug abuse saw him harassing Norman before the latter rejected him again. Then there was the brief sequence with Versace, while not real was still rather disturbing nonetheless.

The last few moments of the episode then focused on Andrew reconnecting with his mother as she indulged some of his whim and believed his success story lies to boot. It was a good way of ending another strong episode, although it was also blatantly taking a bit more creative licencing as this series has been doing from the start.

- Having Andrew in a birthday picture with three of his victims (David, Jeff and Lee Miglin) as well as Norman was pretty unsettling and not actually accurate.
- Most things here such as Andrew having a master bedroom and working in a thrift store pharmacy were actually true though.
- Another episode where both Donatella and Antonio sat out.
- Chronology: 1996, mostly LA.

Descent isn't quite as impressive as the previous two episodes but it's still a rather engaging episode with some good direction as Andrew's descent into madness is keenly felt here. It's the characters who see through his lies that are compelling me the most now, even if you fear for some of them.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Written by Tom Rob Smith
Directed by Daniel Minahan

Jeff (to Andrew): "You destroyed me. I wish I had never walked in that bar. I wish I had never met you."

Last week the focus was on David Madson (Cody Fern), so it was only fair that for this week's episode, we went backwards and put the spotlight on Andrew's first victim, Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock) as his life took one hell of a bad turn upon meeting Andrew two years prior to his death along with his Navy career coming to a messy end in itself.

Focusing on the Navy aspect first, those scenes were genuinely uncomfortable to watch. Jeff did the right thing by standing up for a fellow officer who was being tormented and beaten for being gay but by doing this, he inadvertently exposed his own sexuality and while he didn't receive beatings like the officer he saved, Jeff had come to the realisation that his career was over.

The fact that he volunteer to speak on the side of things with his image blackened and voiced distorted meant that he knew on some level that he was never going to progress in the Navy. Andrew in a moment of clarity, even pointed out the risks Jeff was making with that video and it was clear that prior to his death that Jeff craved to go back to his old life again.

Jeff's meeting with Andrew felt low key but it was easy to see why the pair of them were drawn to each other. However like David, Jeff had also become aware of how much of a fantasist Andrew truly was and had done his best to avoid contact with him until the night of his death. Even David had to make it abundantly clear to Andrew that he had no desire to marry him as well during a night out with David's work colleagues.

The episode nicely builds back to the final moments of Jeff's life and while there are some liberties taken with the juxtaposition of Jeff's sister going into labour as he's being killed, again the show has to be credited for putting more focus into Cunanan's other victims and while Cody Fern stole the show last week as Madson, Finn Wittrock indeed was excellent here as Trail.

As for the Versace segment of the piece, Gianni was back this week as we went back to when he decided to come out with Antonio for an interview for The Advocate magazine, despite Donatella's reservations. This of course cut into Jeff's own public outing as well, showing the contrasts between both of Cunanan's victims and the lives they lead.

- The episode mostly got things right, except for Jeff already being an uncle and his sister giving birth the day before he was murdered by Andrew.
- Andrew was a regular in the Flicks bar that he met Jeff in this episode.
- UK viewers will be able to watch the series from February 28th on BBC2.
- Chronology: June and November 1995 as well as April 1997, San Diego and Minneapolis.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell was another powerful episode. A sublime performance from Finn Wittrock as Jeff Trail but unlike the last two episodes, there was also a sizeable focus on Gianni himself as we saw Cunanan's anger over his rejections from both David and Jeff manifest in the worst way here. With a break next week, it'll be interesting to see how the final four wrap up the season.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - House By The Lake

Written by Tom Rob Smith
Directed by Daniel Minihan

David: "You can't do it, can you?"
Andrew: "Can't what?"
David: "Stop!"

For the second week running, the show decides to rest the title murder of the piece in order to focus on two of Andrew's earlier kills and like last week, it's an interesting direction that pays off and results in easily the best and most harrowing episode of the series so far.

Going back a month earlier from Lee Miglin's death, we're now in Minneapolis where Andrew has been involved with both Jeff Trailer (Finn Wittrock) and architect, David Madson (Cody Fern) and sensing that both men are becoming increasingly weary of him, he arranges it so that David is forced to witness Andrew's pretty violent murder of Jeff within the first ten minutes of the episode.

The tone for this episode almost took a horror style route with the way Andrew arranged to have David witness seeing Jeff being killed and I even thought we were going to have a moment where David's poor dog Prince was also going to end up on Andrew's kill list as well. Fortunately the dog actually survived the episode when Andrew took David captive and was forced to flee from the latter's apartment.

If last week's episode was successful in giving audiences familiarity with both Lee and Marilyn Miglin, then this episode does one better with David. Not only do we actively fear for the guy during his forced road trip with Andrew but we have both his landlady and co-worker give us insight into the kind of man he is along with flashbacks with his father (along with detectives later talking to his parents).

It would've been easy for this show to have portrayed Andrew's non famous victims as an afterthought but kudos to the show for now doing that with them. David's fate is treated with the utmost of seriousness as he goes from being passive to Andrew's increasingly erratic behaviour to finally getting the chance to call Andrew out on the fantasist that he is.

The death of David itself is pretty bleak, encompassing the last few minutes of the episode as his attempts to reason and escape from Andrew end up being rather futile. Cody Fern gives a pretty powerhouse performance throughout the episode and while this episode might have killed off both David and Jeff, it seems that we're not done with them yet as the trailer for next week indicates.

- The show mostly got David and Jeff's backstories, including the thing about the buzzer right.
- Again no Gianni, Antonio or Donatella for this episode but they're all back next as are David and Jeff.
- Aimee Mann was singing in that bar that Andrew and David were in before the latter's death. Nice cameo there.
- Chronology: April 1997 Minneapolis.

House By The Lake in some respects reminded me of that Six Feet Under episode, That's My Dog, despite the events here actually being true and far worse than said episode. With some truly excellent performances from Darren Criss and Cody Fern, this is easily the best and most harrowing episode from this season so far.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - A Random Killing

Written by Tom Robb Smith
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Marilyn Miglin: "Just think of the little red light as the man you love."

I have been wondering if the titular character's life and death would be hard for the show to sustain over the course of nine episodes and to a certain extent, this episode somewhat proved a point as the focus moved away from Cunanan's obsession with Gianni to pay focus on two of his victims in an episode with a rather pointed titled.

Husband and wife business tycoons, Lee and Marilyn Miglin (Mike Farrell and Judith Light) were the primary focus of this episode as they appeared to be the ideal couple to their friends, family and media but in private, theirs was a marriage filled with secrets that threatened to come out in a big way, following the gruesome murder of Lee by Andrew's hands.

I found this somewhat change of pace rather interesting with Farrell perfectly conveying Lee's internal struggles between wanting to be a good husband and deny his true feelings to also trying to impress a visiting Andrew by taking about a famous building he was modelling. I think because of all this, it made Andrew's murder of him even more horrific to watch, despite not actually being that gory onscreen.

The aftermath of Lee's death was where the episode did excel though. Judith Light gave a wonderful guest performance as Marilyn was blatantly in denial about her husband's other life while at the same time, she was given a beautiful moment to break down and mourn his murder. The final scene where she spoke on television about her husband was just a lovely moment to end the episode on.

As for Andrew himself, this was clearly the time in his reign of terror that he was coming apart at the seams. His killing of Lee was sloppy, given that he also went out of his way to humiliate the man in death while the cops also managed to quickly figure out it was him and nearly came close to tracking him. This forced Andrew's hand into murdering another man - Reece Williams for his truck and while that death was less planned out than Miglin's, the episode did show that Andrew didn't always use his charm offensive to get what he wanted.

- Whether or not there was a real connection between Andrew and Lee seems to be up for debate by the family of the deceased.
- Going by next week's trailer, the focus will be shifting onto both David Madson and Jeffrey Trail, Cunanan's first two victims.
- The only thing Versace related to appear in this episode was Andrew briefly looking around in one of his stores.
- Chronology: May 1997 in Chicago, Illinois.

A Random Killing seemingly took a change of pace from the Versace/Cunanan focused first two episodes. For the most part, I think this actually worked well and while this wasn't Darren Criss's best one (though he can convey menace quite well), the guest performances from both Mike Farrell and Judith Light were second to none brilliant.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - Manhunt

Written by Tom Robb Smith
Directed by Nelsan Cragg

Ronnie: "Andrew, what do you do?"
Andrew: "Nothing. I've done nothing. I've done nothing my whole life, that's the truth."

And we're onto the second episode of this fashion killing themed season. Going with the first episode,  it seems we'll be bouncing back and forth between years as the time here was split between Cunanan's arrival in Miami and the Versace family dealing with illness, fashion shows and fidelity.

Sticking with the Versace part first - I know this series is going by Maureen Orth's Vulgar Favours book about Cunanan and Versace but as much as I am enjoying this series, I can see why the latter's family are more than happy to distance themselves from it as well. It's one thing to speculate that Gianni had HIV but it's another thing to actually pass it off as factual, even if it might have been potentially true. Considering that Feud itself got a lawsuit set on it, I'm surprised it didn't happen here as well.

Last week, I wasn't really that impressed with both Ricky Martin and Penelope Cruz as Antonio and Donatella respectively but I did think both of them put in better performances this week as flashbacks showed the two of them clashing over Gianni's condition and lifestyle while unable to band together following his death at Cunanan's hands this week. The good thing about this episode is that I think it did a great job of conveying both Donatella and Antonio's respective pain for losing Gianni.

Another strong point was the rivalry between Donatella and Gianni as well as seeing something of a shift in the latter's relationship with Antonio when he wanted to give up bringing men back to their place and settle down with Gianni. I think both Edgar Ramirez and Ricky Martin are playing off each other extremely well in the tender scenes they're sharing.

As for Andrew Cunanan. we saw him arrive in Miami and we saw him charm a lady at a local motel into letting him stay before we saw him also befriend former florist/escort/drug addict Ronnie Holston (Max Greenfield) as the two of them hung out for most of the episode, before Cunanan was forced to flee after his identity was made known to the cops.

Once again, Darren Criss is on fine form as Cunanan's effortless lying to everyone he encounters is genuinely terrifying to watch. There was even a bondage session with an older guy that I'm actually surprised didn't result in death but as the episode reminded us, Cunanan's bloodlust was never far behind as we saw his creepy tribute to Gianni on display and his last encounter with a guy in a gay bar probably won't result in anything good either.

- The story about the other Versace sister, Tina is actually true. The stuff with Ronnie on the other hand, not so much.
- I am a little disappointed that unlike American Horror Story and Feud, this show doesn't go for a more fancier title sequence.
- Standout music: There a selection but the uses of Easy Lover and Gloria certainly stood out the most.
- Chronology: May 1994 and July 1997 for this episode.

Manhunt keeps the pace going pretty well with some better emphasis on both Donatella and Antonio, making them better characters to watch compared to the opening episode but it's still both Gianni and Andrew who hold the most attention. The least go to the detectives but their scenes are at least decent exposition material while the Miami setting really adds to the series.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - The Man Who Would Be Vogue

Written by Tom Robb Smith
Directed by Ryan Murphy

Andrew (to a boyfriend): "I really do have a date with Gianni Versace."

American Crime Story is going to be like Feud for me in the sense that some seasons will pique my interest more than others and the ones that do will get bigger reviews. The first season of this show did a good job with the OJ Simpson trial with both Cuba Gooding Jr and Sarah Paulson on fine form but this is the season of this particular show I've been clamouring for the longest time.

Originally The Assassination Of Gianni Versace was meant to be the show's third season with the events of Katrina intended for the second year but things have been swapped around and we get this one earlier than expected as the episode starts with Gianni's brutal murder while ending with his killer, Andrew Cunanan looking a bit too pleased with himself.

I really don't want to jump ahead here but going by this episode alone, I actually do think Darren Criss could be onto some awards as his portrayal of Cunanan seems to be eerily on point. Through his interactions with his straight couple friends, a former boyfriend and Gianni himself, Andrew is presented as a fantasist whose homicidal tendencies are barely concealed.

Seeing Andrew constantly lie to everyone else around is pretty alarming, especially as his friends and Versace themselves seem to be reeled into his various backstories. I even had a hard time keeping up with them at times but the back and forth between killer and final victim certainly was compelling to watch nonetheless.

Then there's the title character himself. Edgar Ramirez does actually look similar enough even without the makeup and changed hair to Versace but he really seems to get the part pretty well so far. His past is touched upon nicely in a post opera scene with Cunanan and the depths of his relationship with Antonio D'Amico (Ricky Martin) are also looked into as well.

While both Ramirez and Criss are the best parts of the first episode, it's everyone else who are just kind of there. All the detective/police characters feel a little too generic so far, which I'm not too fussed about but I was kind of hoping that Penelope Cruz would stand out a bit more as Donatella Versace herself. So far she seems a bit subdued but given that there are eight episodes left to go in this particular season, I'm sure she'll get moments to really impress. The jury is out on Ricky Martin as D'Amico as well. He might surprise but I wasn't too taken with his portrayal just yet.

- Tom Robb Smith who will be writing nearly all the episodes this season previously worked on BBC drama, London Spy.
- The dove beside Versace actually did happen. That along with Miami Beach, the pawn shop tip, Donatella's arrival and Cunanan's constant were things the episode got completely right.
- Standout music: A few 90's hits playing as well as the overuse of Adagio for the first seven minutes of the episode. I have to admit that did jar things a little at the start.
- Chronology: July 15th 1997 for a good portion of the episode as well as 1990 to depict Versace and Cunanan's first meeting.

The Man Who Would Be Vogue is a good start to this season. It definitely feels like a big enough contrast to last season's OJ trial and certainly going for the glamour factor that appealed to those who would've enjoyed Bette And Joan last year as well. The time jumps that we're going to get for the remainder of the season could make or break things but this opening episode did more than enough to reel me in.

Rating: 7 out of 10