Am I the only one who found Feud: Capote vs Swans unwatchable?

I really looked forward to it, and then I started watching it and I was so uninterested in everything. There was no character development, no real tension, just so much boring crap repeated over and over again in long monotonous conversations, and I kept hearing people talk about how much they were loving it, and a friend of mine was like, oh my god, isn’t the new season of Feud sooooo good, and I thought maybe it’s me? Maybe I’m not getting it or appreciating it, but I had all of the same takeaways as you OP and every episode felt more like a chore to watch than something I looked forward to.

I saw this exact same post on Reddit. Did you copy and paste?

I am a member of both communities R2.

Also I live in Raleigh and my grandmother was part of the Southern genteel social set, and she dressed with more panache!

I expected more is all I can say. More mink, pearls, more Chanel. It’s like they went cheap on wardrobe, just like they did on the lackluster sets. Feels like the majority of the budget was spent on cigarettes for Naomi Watts.

It was awful. The entirety of the “feud”was covered in the first episode and then it spent 7 episodes spinning its wheels and rehashing the same notes because it had no plot. It also took huge liberties with the story (the black and white ball wasn’t documented by the Maysles; Bill cheated but not with Babe’s friend Slim Keith; and don’t even get me started on the imaginary lunch with James Baldwin). The cast was full of famous actresses but they were all playing non-characters most of whom had no discernible personality beyond one trait each.

That’s what I can’t fathom R5. Why take so many liberties when the true story is already so interesting?

It was filled with Ryan Murphy inventions that happened only in his mind, but at least it was beautiful to look at.

I gave up after the B/W ball episode. What a snooze.

And that was the best episode, R8. Yikes.

It felt like the series began in the middle of the story it was trying to tell. In fact, as I watched the "first" episode, I wondered if I had missed earlier ones. Having grown up watching Capote appearing on TV in, for example, "The Dick Cavett Show," I thought Tom Hollander did a great job.

I agree R10 the nonlinear timeline was a huge mistake and did a massive disservice to the story they were trying to tell. It was very confusing and difficult to keep track of when things were supposedly taking place.

Also, why was Truman’s adopted “daughter” still a teenager in the final scene at the auction? I thought surely it was a different actress but I went back and double checked, and it was her! She would have been in her 60s by that point?

It's primetime television.... involving people from the SILENT generation.

I think the thing that irks me the most is how much time we spent in Truman’s alcohol induced fantasy land and how little time we spent getting to know the women. Such a waste of an incredible cast. They never let the swans, swan…

Cote Basque was THE place to be seen and yet in this show it had all the glamor and sexiness of a retirement home dining hall.

The topic of this show holds a very narrow, niche interest.

R15 Perfect for the DL.

La Côte Basque was a dump. In fact many "in" watering holes were dowdy before the 1980s upgraded everything. Elaine's was threadbare utilitarian. Ok the Grill Room of The Four Seasons was indeed glamorous but the professional men and women were there not the ladies who lunch.

I watched the whole thing but only because I was waiting for something to happen. It never did.

Inconsistent. I thought the show was interesting when it focused on Truman's romantic or emotional life and extremely boring when it focused on Babe Paley. I know she held a special place in Truman's heart but the show failed to make her interesting or special, imo. The clothes and sets were pretty eye-catching, I'm not sure what r4 was expecting. It wasn't on the level of Boardwalk Empire but they were probably working with 1/5 the budget. It didn't look like a cheap show.

Really OP, does it matter? This poor attempt at entertainment was clearly written by two old fags who flamed higher across the sky than JFK’s brains that day in Dallas.

I wouldn't say 'unwatchable' but I would say forgettable. I felt no emotional engagement in the story or the characters. Happy? Sad? Angry? Dying? I just didn't care and it's not that hard to hook me in. It was a fail.

I won't watch it because I can't be bothered with Ryan Murphy. But while there's enough of a resemblance in makeup and hair, Naomi Watts is far too attractive to play Babe Paley....who was not beautiful at all. Not inside. Not out. She was as neglectful as Conald's mother was to her children. Possibly even moreso.

My straight female friends are living it because it’s all new to them. I’ve read all the Capote biographies and Answered Prayers. It would be redundant for me to watch it.

[quote]What bird dies when its companion dies? The swan. The swan will ocassionally drop itself through a forked branch to commit suicide either breaking it's neck or strangling if it has been mated for a long time and loses it's mate. They have also been seen to drown themselves, that was captured on camera once.

OP: Yes, you're the only one.

My question is from the first episode. Did that mistress have her period or had she been stabbed in the abdomen? Granted, I’ve never seen a woman menstruating up close but Jesus.

Yes it was unwatchable. I quit after 3 episodes.

It felt like it was happening in real time. I’ve read all of Capote and still found this tedious.

[quote]Also I live in Raleigh and my grandmother was part of the Southern genteel social set, and she dressed with more panache!

In name brand tobacco sacks?

You’re not funny R29.

Agree with all the comments about the first one or two episodes being ok but it became hard to watch after that.

Tom Hollander was wonderful in the revival of Travesties on Broadway a number of years ago. In this, the writing and directing reduced his character to mimicry of a person played in much more interesting ways by Robert Morse, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Toby Jones. I blame the script, direction, and production—there’s only so much Hollander could do with this dross. And the Swans simply didn’t merit our attention—Sevigny as Guest at least created a likable, human person. The others were upscale, indistinguishable Stepford Wives.

Hollander's performance was incredible and made it all worth it. It's rare to see an actor submerge themselves into character so completely.

Murphy is spread thin, for sure, but I also think some of the fault lies with Baitz, ponderous in even his best work.

[quote] either breaking it's neck

Oh, dear.

Naomi Watts was positively brilliant. I was awe struck by her performance.

[quote] some of the fault lies with Baitz, ponderous in even his best work.

I'll never forget Baitz's angry screed when he was booted from Brothers & Sisters. I understand him being upset, but the version of the show he described wanting to make sounded terrible.

This finally made it to the other side of the Atlantic. Huge disappointment. I look forward to the Swans story being told by people who actually care about the material.

It was a fail. A total and complete flop.

R5 got it right. I thought Hollander and Watts were terrific and was glad to see Demi Moore looking so good but felt Molly Ringwald was poor casting for Joanne Carson.

Is there going to be a season 2?

Despite a surprising volume of positive reviews, the AV Club had this show's number.

[quote]It’s yet another glossy, glassy production by Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Nip/Tuck, Monster), compelling as melodrama but unsatisfying as a study of actual humans. This is a brisk, bitchy eight hours of bitter eye candy that feels like about 120 minutes of consequential content.

[quote]If you’re hoping for potent character observation or social satire—anything approaching about 50 percent of what Capote put in print—you may feel as starved as a ’60s socialite approaching resort season.

I only just finished watching it this week. I've been working from home since December so I've been streaming nearly everything out there and I only recently re-upped Hulu so I can watch Handmaid's Tale when it comes back in April. I just happened to notice this was on so I watched all of it, except for that B&W documentary episode. One thing about the characters not having any backstory is that it made it easy to tune out when I had to pay attention to what I was working on. It was so definitely a work of fiction because Capote was NEVER fuckable. It took about halfway through episode 2 that I realized Naomi Watts was Babe Paley.

I made it through two episodes. The Thanksgiving episode with the pummeling at the dinner table was a bit much for me. It was cringe without the comedy.

Should have just been a two-hour Netflix movie.

I couldn’t get past the first few episodes either. They put the climax of the story (Truman publishing his expose) at the beginning and without having built up enough background on how close he was to the women, all the things he’d witnessed etc there wasn’t any reason to watch beyond that.

It was fun to binge watch but if I had to wait a week between new episodes I probably wouldn't have stuck with it. Diane Lane and Chloe were the standouts for me.

There were two really interesting episodes in this--the one about the Black and White ball, and the one with james Baldwin. As stand-alone episodes they worked very well, but the whole thing just didn't cohere. Characters appear for just an episode or two and then are forgotten (like Capote's abusive boyfriend). And the Swans are treated too much like the Heathers, or the Plastics from "Mean Girls": in reality, they didn't spend that much time together (in particular, lee Radziwill had little to do with the others, and Anne Woodward was never part of their circle).

There are just a few really great moments from this I will remember: a dying Babe Paley shocked while overhearing on the telephone her daughter tell her husband how much she loathes her mother; Truman dancing with his mother's ghost at the Black and White Ball; James Baldwin and Truman at the art museum; and most of all, the interview with Kay Graham before the ball being held in her honor, where she's sick with terror at the prospect of it but having to appear grateful and happy. But as a whole there was just too much going on for it to come together.

Yes, the mixed timeline was a mistake for this story. The drama of this is the mutual betrayal, which it works if you are first given the backstory of the friendship. As it was, it was completely disconnected. The supposedly more modern storytelling device did a disservice and took off all possibly emotionall impact. Rich or poor, famous or not, the ending of friendships is hard.

The casting was also all over the place. I was not a fan of Naomi Watts as Babe Paley, but if there was a role that evidenced Demi Moore’s limited acting capabilities this was it, a good actress could have took that small part and roll with it. She was her usually, good looking, middling.

It was shit. Brilliant idea; Murphy does have terrific ideas for shows but the execution is ALWAYS flawed. Even on the "successes" like Glee that was wildly inconsistent from episode to episode.

Both Feuds had great topics but they both needed to be either a 2 hour movie or, at the very most, 4 episodes (of one hour each).

Both suffered from inaccuracies. Yeah, sometimes you need to bend the truth to make things work when you're telling a story on TV or film but there was so much stupid shit changed that didn't NEED changed.

Also, if I remember correctly Babe Paley never forgave Truman and there were never any wistful street meets or phone calls, she simply never spoke with him again.

[quote]a dying Babe Paley shocked while overhearing on the telephone her daughter tell her husband how much she loathes her mother;

R47 I rewound that scene a couple of times. Goddamn but Watts knocked it out of the park in that scene. It was brutal to watch.