I have been a big fan of FX's American anthology series (the horror one and the more recent crime-related one) for a long time. I watched the first season of American Crime Story mainly because it had a well-known actress from American Horror Story (Sarah Paulson), and it ended up being a good crime show.
The first season was focused on O.J. Simpson and his trial, which is why I was expecting the new season to focus more on Versace, he is the famous person and it is even mentioned in the season's name: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.
But instead, the new season is focused on the criminal who murdered him. As the season was advancing I was left more and more puzzled because the main names involved in this series: Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin, and Édgar Ramírez, they are the Versace clan, so to speak, but they only appear in about 20% of the season. The remaining 80% is dedicated to the killer, his background, his previous lifestyle, and pretty much everything that he went through before killing Versace.
The story is also told backward, it begins with the assassination and each episode goes deeper into the past until we reach the final episode, where we will see how this story has its proper ending.
If you aren't familiar with Versace's story, it is a full-blown gay drama. Versace was an extremely wealthy gay man who was murdered by a gay psychopath in poverty with delusions about greatness. This murderer was Andrew Cunanan. He whored himself out to older and wealthy men so he could live a good life, the life he thought he deserved.
He was also a total psycho. Expert in manipulation and always plotting to gain control over other people, incapable of stopping lying and have honest conversations, which in turn, made him unable to maintain real bonds with other people over time. This will eventually cause him troubles in his personal life, and inevitably he becomes a real mess.
While watching episodes 2-8 we will see how deep of a psychopath this murderer really was. His bizarre upbringing certainly had something to do with this.
On the other hand, Édgar Ramírez and Ricky Martin make a good job as Versace and his lover. Penelope Cruz had a weird accent that felt very uncomfortable but she is great expressing the emotions her character is going through.
I would recommend this show for those looking to watch a good crime biographical story. Almost every character is gay in this series so if you are ok with that you will probably enjoy the entire season.
The best
- Interesting job providing the backgrounds of the murder.
- Intense drama moments, especially with Penelope Cruz.
- Excellent portrait of a real manipulative psychopath.
The worst
- I was expecting to see more about Versace and less about the murderer. In season one the main names were Sarah Paulson and Cuba Gooding Jr. and they were also the main actors in the series. This time the main actor was Darren Criss which is something I wasn't expecting.
- Penelope Cruz accent was very weird.
More information: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/64513-american-crime-story
Review: AAA
In numbers: 7.5/10