Bill Clinton goes for the oldest trick in the book on Impeachment: American Crime Story
We get way too much Bill Clinton on a functional but tired episode.
TV Reviews Bill Clinton
Let’s say you are the most powerful man in the world. You have been educated in elite institutions like Georgetown, Oxford, Yale. You have seen your meteoric rise in the world of politics. You have at your beck and call some of the brightest minds of your generation. You have every tool at your disposal to get what you want. What do you, then, when your presidency is at risk because you can’t keep it in your pants?
Why, go for the “bitches be crazy” defense, of course. No point in attempting a cleverer angle when Old Faithful will give you the outcome you want.
At least this is your thinking if you are Bill Clinton in Impeachment: American Crime Story. Coming on the heels of the season’s most triumphant effort, this week’s episode feels deflated—confusingly so. After all, it details the fall-out of Lewinsky’s FBI interrogation and the media frenzy surrounding her affair. It was an explosive moment in the Clinton presidency, and maybe the one aspect of this whole mess that most of us remember. (Unless you were a zygote then, in which case I curse you and your childlike wonder.)
And yet, this episode feels less like an intensification of the storyline and more of a flatlining. Part of it is that its energy is diffused in several threads of disparate degrees of importance—Isikoff’s drama at Newsweek simply doesn’t hold the same weight as Tripp becoming the Most Hated Woman in America.
But the biggest culprit is that we spend too much time in Bill Clinton’s head. Powerful men at the brink of a possible abyss can be a tremendous source of great storytelling. (Looking at you, Logan Roy). Regardless of what one may think of Clinton, the actual person, there is reason to believe Clinton, in Impeachment, could be a source of morbid fascination. First off, he is a mobile personification of the Uncanny Valley theory. Then, we have the politically motivated, inquisitorial persecution led by Starr to factor in. He is protective of his wife.
Nevertheless, the audience has spent the bulk of the season in the universes of Paula Jones, Linda Tripp, and Monica Lewinsky. With the latter, there has been a tremendous effort to endear her to us. This is the space we are invested in. So why distract us with Clinton breaking a sweat? ’Cause what we get isn’t a portrait of a complicated man in a political conspiracy. We get Bill Clinton, Your Worst Boyfriend From Your Twenties, weaponizing the “Bitches Be Crazy” defense wherever he goes.
“Bitches be crazy” like Paula Jones, who excuses herself from Clinton’s testimony in tears, after he empathically denies any part of her own testimony.
“Bitches be crazy” like Linda Tripp, who does have her own issues with an aggrandizing sense of self, sure. However, if it wasn’t for her tapes, Starr and his Altar Boys wouldn’t have any evidence to continue their own maniacal pursuit which was not, I repeat, was NOT to bring justice to the women Clinton may have wronged. She too is left to her own defenses, tossed to the side by the political ideology she so admired.
It is very difficult to pity Tripp, as much as Sarah Paulson has brought wit and compassion in her portrayal. But when she admits to her daughter why her classmates nicknamed her Gus—earlier in the season she tells Lewinsky she had no idea why they called her that—we are given a reason for her intense desire to become a hero. She has spent her life being ridiculed, often through cheap shots regarding her looks. John Goodman is nothing more than a continuation of this.
And “bitches be crazy” like Monica Lewinsky, who is described by Bill Clinton as troubled and fixated. She spends most of the episode trapped in her apartment, a bloodthirsty pack of journalists outside the door, watching the news. It doesn’t take much for the media to latch onto the worst, sexist tropes possible when reporting on the 24-year-old intern.
They consider fat camp to be an important and revelatory fact about her life. Her “broken home” is directly tied to her stalker tendencies and wild fantasies about her relationship with the president. Evidence for being the kind of “psycho ex” men fear? Her eighth-grade boyfriend and a high school acquaintance. Even the former teacher that sexually abused her gets his own press conference, where he plays the victim.
While the women are slut-shamed on late night, made fun of on Saturday Night Live, and generally treated like garbage by the public at large, the men in this story are indulging in their most psychopathic tendencies. Bill Clinton either lies or hides himself from the world. Bill Ginsburg continues to bellow and then makes the massive faux pas of going on news shows to defend Lewinsky, after he managed to secure immunity when he should have been laying low for the sake of his client. Starr decides to take the deal off the table in petty retaliation.
If you’re thinking this is too tired an angle, I can’t blame you. It’s tiring to even write about. However, it’s even more tiring that this is such a predictable pattern in real life, that there is no way the series could have really avoided it.
It’s a malaise that even tinges the reappearance of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been kept away from the screen for almost the entire season. For those who have been anxiously awaiting her return, this too is a bit of a letdown. There’s no real splash as she learns about the allegations and no real fire as she advises Clinton to make a statement during one of her events. But maybe that’s an accurate representation of HRC, who has been criticized for her cold and aloof demeanor.
“Bitches be crazy” like that too. And the worst aspects of the news media won’t ever let you forget it.
Stray Observations
- A simple plea for the writers, though I know it’s be too late: better character introduction! The amount of Googling I must do to figure out who the new white men in the cast are. For those who also need a guide, this episode includes Patrick Fischler as Hillary Clinton confidante Sydney Blumenthal and Scott Michael Morgan as stressed-out press secretary Mike McCurry.
- Drudge breaking the news of Monica Lewinsky before Isikoff’s Newsweek article is considered one of the early examples of the internet as a news driver. We also get glimpses of the relentlessness of the 24-hour news cycle, whose own origin is wrapped up in the O.J. Simpson Trial—another aspect of 90s history dramatized in the series.
- It’s interesting to revisit the headlines that accompanied the articles in both The Washington Post and The Drudge Report—neither put the affair front and center. The Post’s headline highlights the lie as opposed to any sexual indiscretion and Drudge’s take frames Newsweek’s decision as if to imply they were somehow protecting Clinton. It’s difficult to conceive this would be the case today.
- On the other hand, Dick Morris’ polling that indicates the American public could forgive the sex but not the perjury is worthy of further examination.
- Monica Lewinsky has suffered worse indignities but news reporters blasting her work ID photo for the entire world is adding insult to injury.
- Fun fact: According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 78% of stalking victims are female and 87% of stalking perpetrators are male.
32 Comments
Is this review a day early, or am I missing something?
I was just thinking that.
It never fails to crack me up when someone describes the President of the US as “the most powerful man in the world.” Uh… besides being hamstrung by opposing forces in Congress, the court system, and the media, plus having to constantly fundraise and work to get re-elected, yah, there’s some power there. But you do realize that Xi Jinping is leader for LIFE, right? Head of a little country with some 1.4 billion people and half the world’s GDP? Perhaps you’ve heard of this country? Hmm, you might know it better as crackhead Hunter’s second-favorite place to do business LOL
kill yourself
kill yourself
This is my favorite gimmick account. Now do Turkey!
Clearly you’re unbiased
Stray ObservationsA simple plea for the writers, though I know it’s be too late: Maybe wait until the episode already airs before writing a review.
The review was obviously posted early, but critics usually get screeners so they can write a review before the episode airs and post it when it does. In this case, most of the reviews before the show started noted that critics were given the first 7 episodes upfront.
Was anyone else kind of hoping John Goodman would play himself playing Linda Tripp? Of course, that may well be the case as none of us have seen the episode yet.
we DID get a clip of Goodman as Tripp!
I thought Falco was made up to look more like HRC in the earlier few glimpses we got of her. I remember not recognizing her at first in the bathroom scene, either as Falco or Hillary.Now she looks exactly like she did as Carmela Soprano.
I was waiting for Bill Clinton to ask her for the gabagool.
Even as an overweight person who has been subjected to fat shaming, I can not sympathize with Linda after she herself fat shamed Monica into keeping the stained dress. Woman knew exactly what she was doing to Monica and did it anyway.
Yeah, I felt like the show was trying to get our hearts to bleed for her by having her say she hoped SNL would treat Monica “fairly,” only to have herself be the one treated unfairly. Hard to buy that she could have actually hoped for fairness toward Monica with even a modicum of sincerity so that “twist” got no sympathy from me.
It was a slimy move, but think of what Clinton would’ve done to Monica if she hadn’t kept it.He was in scorched Earth mode. She’d have ended up on the ash heap with all the other women who didn’t have physical proof he was lying about what he did.
“She’d have ended up on the ash heap with all the other women who didn’t have physical proof he was lying about what he did.”This is exactly right. What Tripp knew at the time that Lewinsky was in denial about was that the story of the affair was going to get out one way or another. It’s not like Tripp was the only person Lewinsky told, and it’s not like Lewinsky was good at keeping her mouth shut (especially when the topic was herself). Tripp honestly believed that proof would save Lewinsky, and she was right in a way.
Sure, but my problem was with the fat-shaming part of it.
I’m now curious if the show will cover Monica herself actually going on SNL at the height of the scandal. I imagine there’s plenty left to fill three episodes already, but it’s such a neat little footnote to the story that I’d love to see more of what went into that decision.
Yes, I’m curious to see what went into the whole “she should go out in public and be open and show that she can laugh at herself” approach to damage control that eventually took place. (This is such a common approach but I suspect at the time it did more harm than good)
How much time is “too much time” inside Bill Clinton’s head?
I read that as “How much time is too much time giving Bill Clinton head?”
understandable.
Remarkably, it’s the same answer to both questions!
Edie Falco is an amazingly talented actor, but she does not even seem to be trying to play Hillary Clinton here. I was very skeptical of Clive Owen as Bill Clinton, and while I agree he does not exude the natural charm the former president is famous for, he is still nailing the voice and mannerisms.Hillary has just as distinct a voice as Bill, but Edie has decided not even the slightest effort of mimicry is necessary. Considering how well everyone else in the show has done, I am surprised the directors let her get away with just playing herself.I think someone like Elisabeth Shue or Hope Davis could do a much better job at playing one of the most famous women in the world. In fact, Davis already played Hillary in another TV program. Really, just about any actress around the right age and bearing even a cursory resemblance could have done a better job than what Falco is giving.Maybe she will shine in later episodes, but right now it is probably the biggest disappointment of this otherwise stellar cast.
Shout out to the 22% of men being stalked!
It’s not fun. I’ve been stalked repeatedly by my father’s former mistress over the past four years. It’s fucking disturbing.
That’s the worst. I’ve encountered those, “The parent doesn’t want me, so I’ll stalk the child of my lover because they might be a clone of what I want.”
*shudder*
No mention of the all male writers’ room making bad Monica Lewinsky blowjob jokes?
What is the deal with–men who mock women who are known to give BJs? We ALL know men want them. ALL men. Why do so many guys try to shame women for giving them what they desperately want? Never mind, I know the answer–misogyny.
I love Edie Falco in just about everything she does, but I’m afraid she’s miscast here. We’re getting Carmela Rodham Soprano.
The Paula Jones lawyer grilling Clinton early in the episode is a sexual lemon.