Episode 4, “More, Or Less” marks the halfway point for Feud: Bette and Joan, and this episode focuses on power and limitations, not only for its title characters, but for everyone surrounding them.
This episode sees both lead actresses confronted by a lack of offers after the completion of shooting Whatever Happed to Baby Jane?. Susan Sarandon’s reaction to meeting her new young agent is priceless, and Jessica Lange has a “fuck you fellas” scene that feels right out of Mommie Dearest.
For all of those hunkered snug in the cold and goin’ crazy down by the lake after a year of anticipation over the third season of the FX anthology series Fargo -- inspired, of course, by the Coen Brothers dark comedy of the same name, not to mention a buffet-filled bevy of narrative and thematic homages that span across their entire filmography -- here’s a home baked slice of warm comfort: the official trailer for the long-awaited return has finally been released.
While the idea of adapting the iconic Midwestern crime saga for the small screen may have once seemed to border on the sacrilegious, the first two seasons delivered enough satisfying, respectful riffs on the source material to silence its naysayers while also surprising audiences with its acute yet divergent grasp on the world and wit that made the original film so great. For my money, the second season’s political allegory around the bait and switch of small town community values with a nationalized corporate identity in 1980s America resonates even more presciently today than it did upon first air not too long ago. The teaser seems to hint at a desire to grapple further with contemporary themes in the United States, this time about class and the routine desperation growing within the gulf that separates economic strata.
Fargo series creator Noah Hawley wasn’t met with the same critical hosannas for his latest television project, the superhero-adjacent Legion on FX, but this trailer is rife with enough idiosyncratic potential to soothe any doubt one may hold for his next one. For starters, the mere prospect of Ewan McGregor playing against himself as hero and villain -- identical twins with opposing haircuts, no less – is enough to make you see double. Throw in the equisite supporting cast of Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg, and I’m counting down the days to the premiere on April 19.
The first two seasons of FX’s Fargo: ground worth retreading or not up to the legacy of the classic Coens film. What's your take?
In the fifth episode, we've reached what has to be a boiling point as Jane, Madeline, Celeste and Renata all seem to be coming absolutely unhinged simultaneously. Spoiler alert for the rest of this post: this show is just superb and it's giving us more actressing than we even know what to do with. *tosses roses at television*
Top Ten MVPs of Big Little Lies. Episode 5 "Once Bitten"
10. Madeline's Dream Bonus points to the show for having a sense of humor about its hardcore annoying refusal to let us know who was murdered. Also any Avenue Q reference is golden.
09 "Bully Free Zone" That damn bright yellow & red sign.
Don't you feel like it's constantly just taunting everyone in the school? At least half of the adults in this show are bullies themselves and everyone seems so helplessly ill equipped to deal with bullying in school on top of their other issues...
Feud's writing team is nothing if not devoted to playing to a single theme per episode. All but a couple of scenes in chapter 3 of Feud are devoted to the notion of mothering (though Victor Buono's more generous notion of "legacy" might have been a smarter move for retroactive potency). Or at least the show spends this hour playing with our pre-conceptions of the mothering skills of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. That's evident in the way it pulls the episode title from the infamous Christina Crawford memoir that damned Joan forever in the public eye as a psychopath and child abuser. In one of the earliest scenes we even get a potent reminder of this memoir as Joan pretends she's not going to send Christina a card congratulating her on the opening of a play until she reads reviews, but then signs the card "Mommie Dearest," as soon as two of her other children are out of sight.
Editor's Note: We're passing the baton around for Big Little Lies so that we keep up. Nathaniel took episode 1 and 2, Spencer looked at episode 3. Lynn Lee takes the baton for episode 4....
Coming off the high of Episode 3, Episode 4 couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a comedown, even as it ratcheted up the multiple tensions just a wee bit more. Feels like something’s gotta give soon, doesn’t it? We are, after all, at series midpoint and we still don’t know who the murder victim is. It doesn’t bother me, though, as long as we’ve got such juicy character dynamics and relationships, not to mention such fantastic actressing, to distract us...
Monday, March 27, 2017 at 5:40PM 
Previously
