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“The Ryan Murphy FX series on Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton failed to score 1 million viewers on Tuesday night,” reports Roger Friedman. “The total rose to 916,000.”
Ouch.
For context, Friedman reminds his readers that “” Impeachment “didn’t come close to other Murphy’s series like” The People vs. OJ Simpson ”. Another Murphy’s series, “Feud”, about the standoff between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, started with 2.26 million viewers, for example.
In reality, The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story was so popular that it ended up being the most watched new series of 2016. The first episode drew five million viewers and the last episode drew 6.2 million.
Impeachment: American Crime Story is the third entry in this franchise. The second was The assassination of Gianni Versace, and it opened with 2.22 million viewers.
I think the problems with Accused are many. First of all, America doesn’t trust Hollywood to tell the unvarnished truth about Bill Clinton, what really happened, especially when the series is based on a book by disgraced CNNLOL commentator Jeffrey Toobin. .
Gee, let me guess: Republicans are bad, Democrats are good.
Second, after a terrific run, the bloom comes from the Ryan Murphy rose. This is not a criticism in itself. He’s had one hell of a run, and most performers only have a handful of great ones before the muse moves on. The truth, however, is that his recent offerings – the awakening Pose, the alarm Politician, the alarm ratchet, and more particularly the awatchably awakened Hollywood – prove that he has lost the golden touch. It’s death when you’re a brand. People stop trusting your judgment. There are just too many other options to waste your time with a guy who has disappointed you so many times.
Finally, Clive Owen looks silly in this prosthetic nose playing Bill Clinton, and Beanie Feldstein looks nothing like Monica Lewinsky. The casting is horrible. In fact, this may be the first time in history that real people have ten times more charisma than the stars supposed to represent them. Usually it is the other way around.
Whatever you think of Bill Clinton, and I don’t think much of it, he was a dazzling presence, and none of that comes through in the portrayal of Clive Owen.
Same thing with Monica Lewinsky. Beanie Feldstein is round and blah, while Lewinsky was (and still is) a real beauty and never seemed anything close to round. As bad as this relationship was, you could at least figure out where the sparks were coming from. These actors don’t produce any of that, which is a mind-boggling casting failure.
It’s a shame too. I was excited about the American crime story franchise. Nothing but Murphy really interests me (Quarrel it was good), but The People c. OJ Simpson is so good that I have already seen it twice. But then the second part came along, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, and I didn’t even pass the first episode. Maybe it’s my fault for being so heterosexual.
Another problem could be that with the documentaries, reports, and magazine profiles of recent times, we’re all a lot like Monica Lewinsky.
Either way, Murphy has a real problem on his hands. All he has is his brand and Netflix just buried him in cash, but he’s not delivering anymore.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook page here.
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