Feud: Capote vs. the Swans

[Gray Bunny]

I am watching and I must admit, I know nothing about Capote, though this all makes me want to go and research the true story and watch the film with Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

I've always had a bit of a girl crush on Naomi Watts, so I enjoy anything she does. 

[DaytimeFan]

I don't find Diane Lane weak - I think the accent she's using is very typical of women in the 1960s who lived between New York and London, as she did in reality. It's definitely mannered and stiff as a board, but if you watch movies from the 1960s, you'll see plenty of actresses speak the same way. 

I thought the fictionalized meeting of Babe and Truman was meant to be a figment of both their imaginations as they were talking to their respective therapists during that scene. 

Oh, I find it depressing as well. Truman is not a character I have much empathy for and most of the Swans aren't deserving of much empathy either.

[Maxim]

Compared to season 1... it's weak. If you don't compare it... it's okay. 5/10. 

BUT it all feels very rushed at some points and fake. 

And some casting choices are BAD. Really bad.

[DaytimeFan]

The last episode ended the show oddly, unevenly, without wrapping up a story thread or two while relying on fantasy imaginings of what Answered Prayers said, with plenty of hallucinations from various Swans.

The last scene, where some of Truman's ashes being auctioned as part of the estate sale of Joanne Carson - did happen in reality...it's just a shame the writers left out the best part...that Joanne had told Truman's former partner that he'd received all of Truman's cremains when, in fact, she'd kept some for herself. Once he found out, he never spoke to her again.

The John O'Shea part of the story was never resolved. Does anyone know what happened to him in real life?

I don't think the writers did the Swans justice in telling any of their epilogues after Truman's death. 

Overall, it was like much of Ryan Murphy's work: great premise, superb casting, impressive sets, costumes, and makeup, plenty of witty lines, some great performances...but an overall mess of a show that seems to forget what direction it's headed by the halfway point. 

[j swift]

from Vanity Fair

In late 1976, Truman was locked in a nasty battle with O’Shea, exacerbated when O’Shea became involved with a woman. Claiming that O’Shea had run off with the manuscript of the “Severe Insult to the Brain” chapter of Answered Prayers, he sued his former lover in Los Angeles Superior Court, eventually dropping the suit in 1981. The two men reconciled, then broke up, again and again. In an attempt at revenge, Truman hired an acquaintance to follow O’Shea and to rough him up. Instead, the person ended up setting O’Shea’s car on fire.

O'Shea died in 2014 after years of battling Alcoholism and his daughter Kate went on to be a costume designer

I tend to put more of the blame on Jon Robin Baitz's writing. I've never been a fan of his plays.  And this script felt under researched and lacked a point of view.  For all the focus on the swans, they lacked any exploration of their motives or circumstances.  Lee was jealous of Jackie, and lusted after David Maysles.  I feel like that's one Town and Country article and it is not exactly a fresh take.  And blaming Truman for Anne Woodward's suicide is reductive to say the least.  She didn't go to the Black and White Ball, in fact she was barely social by the early 70s.  So, to portray the article as the straw that broke the camel's back is very unfair.

Gus Van Sant's direction was also a bit heavy-handed.  All the dreaminess felt similar to a lot of his prior work, and it doesn't work as well in a multi-episode series versus a 90-minute movie. 

Most of all, I think they failed in explaining the main point of the story, which was why Truman chose to betray his friends.  They vacillated between saying he was just a jerk, or the swans weren't really good friends because they used the "f" word and didn't make him stop drinking.  But, it lacked a theory as to why the titular feud erupted. 

Edited March 18, 2024 by j swift

[DramatistDreamer]

Thank God that’s over! The only reason why I watched the final two episodes was I felt obliged to finish the series. The writing and overall direction of this series began in an interesting way but increasingly became a slog as it wound its way to the end. 
Also, I read that one of the grandchildren of Babe Paley is crying foul on this series. It is a work of fiction but when the writing starts playing with the sequence of events in addition to relationships, it’s a sure bet that someone will be crying foul.

I wonder how this series would have played out had it been 5 episodes instead of 8? It might have been much tighter constructed in terms of the storytelling and perhaps had spared us some of the excess dreamscape filler.

[Paul Raven]

Glad I decided to give it a miss. I learned the hard way not to commit to a show until the whole season is done and dusted and reviews/comments are in.

The trailer looked great, visually impressive but the Ryan Murphy brand had me wary, with good reason, it seems. Plenty of other stuff to watch.

[j swift]

To be fair, there's no evidence that he had creative input in the series.  He didn't do any promotion beyond an Architectural Digest tour of his new home.  Unlike American Horror Story when he was interviewed in print and on video.

I think the blame lies mostly on Jon Baitz's script and Gus Van Zant's direction.  They just aren't ready for prime time, and their style is better for suited for other forms of media.  As well as the source material which was a gossipy, poorly written, and superficial record of the times.  It made The Swans very unlikable, to the point that Truman's duplicity felt deserved.  Meanwhile, they were the muses to a generation of directors, writers, and entrepreneurs, so they couldn't have been completely terrible people.  Yet, in the TV version, we were given no reason to understand why they were so enthralling to the men in their lives.

Edited March 21, 2024 by j swift