Despite being a big fan of The People vs. O.J. Simpson, I was decidedly not at all excited for The Assassination of Gianni Versace. I'd like to say that I was wrong not to be, and that this season of American Crime Story was quietly excellent. But it wasn't! This never really grabbed me, and aside from its premiere and finale - the only two episodes that had to do with the titular murder of Gianni Versace, really - I just found myself not really caring.
I've heard some people say that by focusing on the closeted gay killer and his spree of killing mostly closeted gay victims, and not the famous gay victim, the show was being bold about the plight of gay men in the '90s. I'm sorry, but I just don't see it that way! By focusing on the killer, the show is jumping through hoops to find ways to empathize with, you know, a sociopathic torturer and serial killer. I'm all for exploring motivation through empathetic means - what might have driven such a person to do such terrible things? - but this season had nearly nothing to do with the way he was able to hide from the FBI in plain sight in Miami, or the way the public did or didn't care about this spree of dead gay men. I mean, the show is called American Crime Story, and I get that it's going to explore and maybe even grotesquely celebrate famous American crimes, but this season intermittently bored me and rubbed me the wrong way.
Still looking forward to the Katrina season coming later this year. That story sounds intriguing and ethically complex in a way that "insecure gay guy murders people" doesn't quite.
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