Impeachment: American Crime Story brings twentysomething drama to political intrigue
The second episode of the season dares to ask: Is Bill Clinton the ultimate fuckboy?
TV Reviews Impeachment: American Crime Story
As has been widely reported, Monica Lewinsky was the main consultant on Impeachment: American Crime Story. Part of the publicity campaign leading up to the show framed it as an opportunity to tell her side of the story. Lewinsky has also never wavered on the fact that the indiscretions she and Bill Clinton engaged in were consensual, describing it multiple times as an affair in the 2014 Vanity Fair essay that finally broke her silence.
This means that for the second episode of Impeachment, the show doesn’t go for President-as-Predator, in case you were holding out for that angle. It maybe goes for President-as-Creepy, but in the sense that most fortysomethings hitting on recent college graduates are creepy. What we do get is President-as-Fuckboy. So straight out of FBOY Island central casting, I fear poor Sarah will ditch Garrett only to land in the arms of Bill.
How is Clinton reminiscent of whatever beefy-faced Brad broke your heart in your youth? Let me count the ways. During their first conversation, Clinton (Clive Owen, looking like an escaped animatronic from Disney World’s Hall of Presidents) asks Lewinsky for her thought on the government shut down only to mumble about his own thoughts instead of listening to her answer. Once their affair begins, he disappears for weeks, leading Lewinsky to wait for his calls at home instead of enjoying the D.C. nightlife. To be fair, that’s the equivalent of a wild night out in D.C. anyway. She admits to her BFF Kat that she confessed her love to him. Clinton’s response? “That means a lot to me.” Ouch.
Like many a lovesick youth, she cannot stop fixating. She does the ’90s equivalent of social media stalking: poring over Clinton’s schedule for clues on whether he’s busy or not. She cannot stop blabbing about it to Linda Tripp, though she is careful not to name him. She holds onto the fantasy that once he wins re-election, their “thing” will go back to normal; she gets her hair done and revamping her wardrobe in preparation. Yet she’s still alone at home that night while the Democrats celebrate.
This is such a twentysomething storyline, I feel like I’m recapping Sex And The City: The Lost Carrie Years. As tabloid-ish as it is, it drives home Lewinsky’s youth more than Beanie Feldstein’s baby voice ever could. On the other hand, are we ever going to get beyond the salacious aspects of this case to include a more keen analysis on the power dynamics at play? It’s interesting to note the episode titles puts the action squarely on Clinton’s shoulders, but what we get is relentless pursuit from Lewinsky.
The cringe-worthy carnival of crush horrors continues. She is filmed greeting him after his win, where she receives a hug but is also elbowed aside so he can greet other constituents. Ladies, get yourself a man willing to acknowledge who you are to him in a worldwide coverage of his reelection! Honestly, this had me mumbling “oh, honey, no” like a concerned tía.
During a particularly depressing lunch, she lets everything out.
To Linda Tripp.
She tells Tripp how “when that man focuses his attention on you, the world stops”. It’s so H-A-W-T, she returns the favor by flashing her thong. For the kiddos out there, this was the 90s version of a thirst trap. Lest you judge Lewinsky, please scroll through your Instagram to see what kind of questionable selfies you’ve posted in your twenties for public consumption. She brings him food to his office to complain about being lonely. She emphatically tells Tripp it isn’t only about [redacted]. They talk! He buys her gifts! He tells her about his stepdaddy issues! Been there, girl!
As for Tripp, she is eating this up like the microwaved hot potatoes she loves. While earlier in the episode, her talk of motherhood revealed some redeeming qualities, we are now back in vindictive land. For though Lewinsky is ready to give up, Tripp convinces her it is only the beginning. She feeds the obsessive nature of Lewinsky’s infatuation by suggesting she use excel spreadsheet to record all the events of her affair to search for patterns. You can hate Tripp all you want. Her uttering the word “moist” at the top of the episode is fodder for the commentariat to hate her even MORE. But you can’t say she isn’t clever, for she is wielding all her cubicle-acquired knowledge for her own evil reasons.
Over on the Right, the manipulation of Paula Jones continues. Susan Carpenter McMillan (Judith Light, radiant) an anti-abortion activist with a love for the theatrics, has come barreling into her life. She consults Jones on how to present herself in the media. She takes her to Nordstrom and buys her clothes appropriate for country clubs that prohibit minorities. She trains her in exactly what to say to the press that is starting to latch on to this scandal.
She’s not the only preternatural blonde with questionable motives. Over in a dungeon controlled by the Mumm-ra spawn known as Ann Coulter, minions are working on briefs in the Jones case. Her underlings believe they’re approaching the legal case for reasons of American values or justice or something lofty, but Coulter sets them straight. This is about impeachment, chaos, and her desire to eat one day someone’s young.
In addition to Republican trolls, we also have reporter Michael Isikoff (Danny Jacobs) hot on the Kathleen Willey story. He shows up at the Pentagon to ask Tripp if she can corroborate Willey’s story on Bill Clinton groping her. Holding on to her petty grudge, fueled even more by her daughter’s dismissive comment about her job, she refuses to do so but not without warning Isikoff first that there is a much bigger story he is missing.
Stray observations
- If you’re curious to learn more about Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a 1997 Slate article offers background into this “conservative feminist.” Spoiler alert—she got an abortion but doesn’t want YOU to have a right to one!
- The episode also points at another fun fact: If it weren’t for the 1995 government shutdown, Clinton and Lewinsky may have never met. The shutdown was due to Newt Gingrich, a man of impeccable moral standing (lol), refusing to approve the budget. This resulted in the ye olde American tradition of exploiting interns when your organization goes to hell, landing Lewinsky right in the West Wing.
- I could write a whole other recap solely on the depiction of Tripp and Lewinsky’s toxic relationship to food. Though the debate about Paulson’s use of a fat suit is valid, and we could certainly do without the talk of deprivation from both, it isn’t exaggerating the ’90s terrible diet culture. It could also be a way to symbolize the lack of control Tripp and Lewinsky had in other areas of their life, to attempt to hyper-manage the one thing they can: their bodies.
- A line that made me cackle, courtesy of Carpenter-McMillan: “You have a look that says rural Arkansas that I love.”
- A line that made me wince, courtesy of Betty Currie to a desperate Lewinsky: “He said you were a good kid.”
53 Comments
Fuck Newt Gingrich. One of the most craven, awful people ever to emerge from America.
He really was one of the forebears of our stupid era. He dumbed down the House by gutting various agencies so they were more beholden to lobbyists for basic information. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/01/11/feature/why-is-congress-so-dumb/https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-02210-congressional-expertise-20190220-story.html
When Clive Owen says, “People look at me, they see this upbeat guy with this accent…”, that line might’ve hit harder if Owen were doing Clinton’s accent, at all. Sure. He has a very light twang, and he’s got the whispery I-feel-your-pain thing down. But it’s not in the same universe as Clinton’s accent.Also, do we think Owen looks this terrible on purpose—-like Murphy’s trying to underscore that Clinton wasn’t a sexy, charismatic young president, but just a creepy, gross old man? Or is this just Cuba Gooding-as-O.J.-level bad casting?
“Or is this just Cuba Gooding-as-O.J.-level bad casting?”
Nah, bad accent aside, Clive Owen is a handsome guy–and certainly would look particularly handsome among a room full of politicians. I firmly blame the prosthetics here (which I couldn’t do with Cuba…)
Oh, yeah, “Clive Owen as Bill Clinton” sounded like a great idea on paper. Having him wear a Bill Clinton Hallowe’en mask was a choice.
It’s odd, though, that he and other characters keep talking about his weight and love for fast food (as people did at the time) but CO is up there as svelte as ever.
I also thought he needed to be a bit pudgier to be more accurate as Clinton.
Cuba was good in that he can play the charming guy you want to root for, which OJ was to everybody for a long time until he wasn’t.
There is no way in hell Ryan Murphy can’t make Bill Clinton look uncharismatic. There’s a reason why this governor from Arkansas got elected president: he was so damn charming he could get an Inuit to eat a hundred snow cones.
I think it works. Owen is an attractive guy made to look just a little bit goofy. That’s kind of what Clinton was. He was just a little off from being actually good-looking.
Or is this just Cuba Gooding-as-O.J.-level bad casting?That was definitely a miscasting. Clive Owen as Clinton was fine, but I think the casting of Beanie as Monica was worse. She’s too short and stout, and bears no resemblance to the real Monica at all.
Betty Currie played by 80s “it” girl Rae Dawn Chong! (Yes, Tommy Chong’s daughter.)
Also from Commando, the greatest Arnie film of all.
Let off some steam!
THESE GUYS EAT TOO MUCH RED MEAT!
Wow did not realize that – she certainly looks different in that role!
I’m no Ann Coulter fan, but if that part is true, and she knew then that Clinton wouldn’t be impeached for boning an intern (which is what most people still think happened), but for perjury in a federal civil rights action, that’s kinda hilarious, as was how she walked in with a bottle of wine and casually started day drinking in front of everybody.If she just wasn’t so evil, I could love her.
To be fair to Ann and her wine, I was pretty sure it was night (or at least after work hours) when she came in, no?? (I know it’s hard to tell as this show is literally so dark.) Still hilarious.
This is a very dark show. Dim lighting, muted color pallet, most scenes at night, and overall cold aesthetic. Watch it on mute and it could pass for a thriller. An interesting visual choice, given the subject matter. Personally, I always found the Clinton scandal quite funny. This isn’t the Assassination of Gianni Versace or something. This was just legendary foolishness at the highest level. Yet, at least tonally, the showrunners have opted for something more sinister.
Wait till Billy Eichner’s Drudge shows up.
I was about to ask if he was in it (he has to be) and that’s perfect casting
You must think the Harvey Weinstein scandal is a laugh riot.
The thing that makes it not so funny is all the lives that were ruined along the way, which include a lot of the characters depicted here. Not the least of which was the first literal casualty was Vince Foster.
I honestly think that’s somewhat true. Her and Drudge made their griftbones during this scandal.
I know, if I didn’t know more about Ann Coulter, I’d think I have a crush based on that scene. Wait, maybe I still do.
I did for a while, as smug Liberal noses need to be tweaked as much as smug Conservative noses do, and she can be wickedly funny about it.But she takes it to far, and she’s just too mean, and she says things that actually hurt people who can’t fight back.I liked when she punched up, but she punches down way too hard.
I pictured the “thong flashing” completely differently.I was really curious cause I thought she must have bent over somehow and “accidentally” hitched her skirt up or something, especially since she seemed so embarrassed about it
Showing a little above the skirt whale tail seems pretty passé for the time.I guess I always sort of literally pictured this Boomtown Rats lyric.And then later up in marketing while going through the files,
She bent a little too far down, then turned around and smiled.
The popularity of whale tail came like 5 years after she did it, the ‘90s were still rather buttoned up.
I never thought it was an accident but I do admit I had pictured it as far more sexy and flirty than it came off in the show, which just felt extremely awkward. Also there were A LOT OF PEOPLE AROUND!
Note that “accidentally” was in quotes for a reason.
Oh I know, I just meant I didn’t think it was even a pretend “oopsie.” But this version was like the least sexy thong flash I’ve ever seen, though on the other hand I don’t really know what a sexy thong flash would look like.
“On the other hand, are we ever going to get beyond the salacious aspects
of this case to include a more keen analysis on the power dynamics at
play?”That wouldn’t make for good tv.I’m not watching the show but does Sarah Paulson look like she’s wearing a really bad disguise in it or is it just the pictures?
Most of the cast looks like they’re wearing really bad disguises.
Did we all look like we were wearing bad disguises in the ‘90s? I don’t feel like that was the case but it was a while ago so maybe I’m forgetting…?
It’s a bad disguise, which is a shame. She’s excellent in the role but the terrible face-suit is distracting as hell.
The ironic thing is that this show is actually ignoring the salacious aspects, to the point that it is practically a whitewash of Lewinsky’s behavior (which is understandable, given her involvement). So far they haven’t even mentioned the “presidential knee pads” comment showing that she arrived at the White House with the express intention of blowing the president (and making her one of the few WH staffers to truly earn a “Mission Accomplished” banner).I get that the show is not a porno, so we are not going to see, e.g., the “oral-anal contact” referenced in the Starr Report footnotes. But by cutting out the furtive, one-sided sex acts that constituted the bulk of their time together, the show makes it look like the lie Clinton told during his supposed confession: that it was a friendship that grew into something inappropriate. But in reality they went from speaking for the first time to oral sex in about three hours, which would be fast in a meat market bar but is incredibly fast for an office workplace. I could understand if they were playing on the irony in Lewinsky’s immature view of the situation, where she sneaks off to a private office for five minutes to suck a guy’s dick yet later that same evening recalls the incident as a romantic make-out session, but that’s not what the show is doing. They cut out everything that made the affair appalling and reckless, so that only Leaves of Grass is left. Not a fair representation of how it all went down.
Lewinsky’s involvement with this show was always going to compromise the perspective of the story. (I don’t know why most people treated this fact like a good thing)
Yep. On the one hand I sympathize with Lewinsky given she went through an unbalanced amount of sheer hell afterwards and am glad she’s finally getting a chance to (mis)represent her perspective, but on the other as you mention there’s a substantial amount of evidence she went into the internship with the direct intent of hooking up with Clinton. This isn’t being honest about that either, and softening it up moves this from the truth setting someone free finally to yet another glossy retelling.A better docudrama would have focused in on both that and that Clinton didn’t give a rats ass about the inappropriateness of doing so or the potential getting caught; not just a fuckboy, but someone (as people I know who knew the Clintons very well have told me over the years) who was a slimeball who thought he was smarter than everybody else and could get away with anything in any area. He had indeed done so for most of his life.The other aspect that this misses – and has been touched on inadvertently by both the reviewer and those who weren’t adults during all of this – is that it misses that despite being the Big Mac Bill of the famous SNL skit, Clinton was indeed lusted after by an awful lot of women. The guy was incredibly charming despite his looks, and especially during his first term it was something you heard quite a bit. It’s a problem with Owen’s portrayal.
*Huh huh * “how it all went down”
I’m just now getting to the show, but I don’t have an issue with her appearance. She also seems to have adjusted her voice. When I’m watching it, I pretty much forget that it’s Paulson under there.
Ugh, it’s all so sordid and icky. I’d take cold-blooded murder over this guff any day.
😆
I’m a big fan of Beanie Feldstein fan, to the point that I make a point of watching everything she does, but she’s just not doing it for me here. She really needed to kill it performance-wise to justify the fact that they cast someone who looks nothing like Monica Lewinsky, and I think at best she’s been “passable”.
She’s great, usually, but this was really bad casting here. This show sucks, I am sad to say, and Beanie is part of the problem and not any part of the solution. Oh well, can’t win them all, but I think I’m done watching this.
I would love to read more about the terrible diet food culture on display in this. Nobody is on Slim Fast? One point I have to make: someone who is staying in for the evening has no excuse to pick a microwaved potato over a classic, slow-cooked, two-hour jacket potato. I had my first one a year ago, mainly because I didn’t realize the correct way to bake a potato is not in foil, and it was a revelation. Never again with the shortcuts.
I’m British, so I feel like this is maybe a difference in food culture, but I think I speak for the whole nation when I say that we genuinely believe the microwaved jacket potato to be an abomination. No self-respecting Brit would cook a baked spud this way unless it was a lunch of desperation in an office kitchenette with limited time and resources. In fact, there was a great ad for a brand of butter over here a few years ago that said something along the lines of “we haven’t been growing potatoes for six thousand years to shove it in a microwave for its last 10 minutes”. It then said something like “baked potato, the clue is in the name. It deserves respect”. Nail on the head! For what it’s worth, I’ve discovered over the years that the secret to an amazing baked potato in the oven is to cook it in cast iron. I’ve got a billion odd year old Le Creuset casserole that belonged to my grandparents and a bit of olive oil in it, in a hot oven for 10mins and then chuck the pierced potato in, salt and pepper, shake it about in the oil a bit and put the lid on. Cook in a very hot oven for an hour. No better way I’ve found than this. They come out golden and crispy-skinned with a gorgeous, fluffy centre. Now I’ve written all that out, I don’t even recall why we were discussing potatoes, but that’s my two-penneth on cookery. I’ve got nothing very insightful to say about the show other than that I’m really enjoying it, besides the shonky prosthetics that everyone else has mentioned. My husband had no interest in this series because he wasn’t especially compelled by the case- he had liked the OJ one and knew a bit about the case going in, but neither of us were interested especially in Versace and couldn’t get into that series- but he’s been sucked into Impeachment and we’ve both been really wowed by Paulson’s performance, the fat suit accepted as being crap, obviously. I hope it carries on being as good as these first couple of episodes have been; amazing how they keep you on the edge of your seat despite the fact that you know what’s going to happen!
Except for an airfryer if you have one. Faster but also sincerely way better – crispier on the outside, fluffier on the inside.(off-topic, yes, but I justcan’t let you move on without this knowledge)
I just bought an airfryer and hadn’t heard of doing this- how long and at what temperature? Thanks for the heads up!
There are various recipes out there, not difficult to find, but my method:- Prick your spuds with a fork or something in several places.
– Rub them with some EVOO, coarse black pepper, salt and garlic granules.
– Preheat your airfryer (200C/425F -ish)
– Place spuds in the basket, making sure none touches.
– Airfry for 30 to 40 minutes*, turning them once or twice in between and until skin is crispy and you can easily pierce them.
– Wait a few minutes and dig in.My personal favourite topping, which is unconventional but delicious, is a stir fry of seitan, blistered green beans, broccoli and thinly sliced red cabbage, seasoned with ginger syrup, chili flakes, garlic, sesame oil, sesame seeds, coarse salt and more evoo.* time depends on the number and size of spuds and the specifics of your airfryer.
Do you really turn on your whole oven for 2 hours for one potato?!
I do! But I only do it once every couple of months- I’m not much of a cook. I bake something else maybe four times a year. Otherwise, I use the stovetop, microwave or toaster oven. Mainly, I cut stuff up and put it in a bowl.
Re: Ann Coulter’s “minions,” those aren’t just anonymous underlings. The uptight rule-grubber is Jerome Marcus, one of the conservative lawyers who later represented Trump in his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, before getting an attack of conscience and withdrawing his representation after the January 6 insurrection. And Ann’s giggly partner in depravity is none other than George “I hate Trump even though my wife is his #1 enabler” Conway.
Yeah, I feel like the first episode made a winking reference to “George…George Conway” in a situation where no one in the scene would’ve plausibly needed that context. But outside of that reference, it’s news to me that those characters aren’t just supposed to be random goons. It’s interesting, because Murphy usually overplays the real-life connections (see: reference to Kardashian daughters in the O.J. season), but he’s mostly underplaying them here.