Reel TV Review: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

When I wrote my top ten list for the best new shows of 2017, I mentioned that Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, Feud: Bette & Joan, made the list because no one does salacious TV quite like Murphy. He seems to find the beauty in the headlines and the art in the most tawdry of situations. Maybe it’s because the truth is much more captivating than fiction and it creates a solid jumping off point to craft a compelling story. That series dealt with the real-life feud between Bette David and Joan Crawford as they made the film, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? It was a look into the glitz and glam of old Hollywood and the fractured lives of two women who represent two sides of that old Hollywood tale of the waning star needing a comeback and the strong opinions of another overshadowing the success of their project.

Ryan Murphy is also aware of America’s obsession with true crime. From the ID Channel to the rebranding of the Oxygen Network featuring all things criminal, audiences have a fascination with the crimes that make the headlines. This led Murphy to develop an anthology series that would showcase the crimes that have blown through the pop culture stratosphere and that began with the first season: The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Despite many of us knowing all we could know about the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman and the subsequent trial of O.J. Simpson that became its own version of must-see TV, the series became a compelling look at the lives involved in it all. So we may, in fact, know everything the media but the feelings of the key players and the weight of the events that transpired are what made the first season a ratings juggernaut and a key awards player when accolades were handed out after its airing.

For the second installment, Ryan Murphy and his team take on another headline-grabbing case of true crime but so much of it is clouded in mystery that it allows for an element of surprise that the O.J. Simpson lacked. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story begins with the bang that most of us are familiar with due to the media coverage but the rest unspools slowly as we rewind to see how the parties involved end up on a collision course on that fateful morning of July 15, 1997.

In 1997, Andrew Cunanan, a 27-year-old gay man, shot and killed the designer Gianni Versace in front of his South Beach mansion, at the end of a murder spree that had already left four men dead. Upon executing the famous Versace, a self-made, openly gay Italian who had launched a global fashion house, Cunanan became infamous, a tabloid sensation intimately connected to both glamorous and seedy circles of gay life in 1990s America. These events made Cunanan infamous in the moment but one would argue that the fame he had been seeking most of his life, faded not too long after he shot himself at the height of his most wanted status after his murder of Versace sent shock waves across the world. He was a bit of enigma, a person pieced together by those who crossed his paths in life. We don’t necessarily know all the reason’s why he developed a bloodlust that was linked to his desire to be noticed but the series offers a tantalizing look into his psyche. Judging from the first episode, there may be attempts to humanize Cunanan on some level (one of many reasons why the Versace family may be against the series as a whole) but the most interesting aspect of the production is that it looks to have an addicting quality as it moves forward that, through a chilling turn by Darren Criss, will allow Cunanan to achieve the fame he longed for in life.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace follows the stellar The People v. O.J. Simpson, but it does not share that series’ mood and atmosphere. The People v. O.J. was more fun than is probably appropriate for a story about the brutal murder of two innocent people, but this inappropriateness made it just campy enough to reflect the wilder-than-fiction aspect of the actual O.J. spectacle. The series was coy about O.J.’s guilt, a reflection of a larger cultural consensus that the racial politics of the case are too fraught to adjudicate. The murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were the catalysts, but not the focus of the series, an American saga crammed with big personalities, bigoted cops, corrupt policing, domestic abuse, football, money, power, sex, and race.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace, by comparison, is a  more grisly affair. The series does not allow audiences to look away from the murders, because the murders are its very subject, as is the murderer. Cunanan (Darren Criss), not Versace (Édgar Ramírez), is the protagonist and while most film and TV wants you to learn more about its heroes, Versace has you instantly fascinated with its villain. Written almost entirely by Tom Robb Smith and based on Vulgar Favors, Maureen Orth’s nonfiction account of Cunanan’s crimes, The Assassination of Gianni Versace shares a producing team with The People v. O.J. Simpson, but Ryan Murphy’s touch is much more apparent, particularly in the first episode that aired last night. The opening scene, featuring an operatic score that leads to the fateful encounter on the front steps of Versace’s mansion, play out like a restrained installment of his American Horror Story. It’s a hauntingly eerie, yet beautiful sequence that showcases Murphy’s skill of finding the beauty in the mayhem. The series unfolds in reverse chronological order, beginning in 1997 in South Beach on the morning of Versace’s murder, and then making its way backward through Cunanan’s life which consist of the four other murders that will be featured as the series progresses and his uniquely troubled childhood, when he was taught that it doesn’t matter who you are so long as what you have appears expensive enough, a perverse version of the American Dream.

While, at least in the first episode, the show lacks the “star power” of The People vs. O.J. Simpson, it features a star-making turn by Darren Criss that sets him up to overshadow the likes of his more well-established co-stars. Criss, who is best known for his five-season run on Glee, is creepily mesmerizing as Cunanan. He’s charming, smart, spoiled, volatile, and has a gaping void where a self should be. Criss is so good at encompassing all of these aspects in just one episode that you simply can’t wait to see what he will do in the remaining 8 episodes. This might be off-putting to some but the killer is the star here and every time Criss is on screen, you’re fully aware of this fact. I don’t want to discredit anyone else’s work here. Edgar Ramirez, Penelope Cruz (Donatella Versace) and Ricky Martin (as Versace’s boyfriend, Antonio D’Amico) do fine jobs in the first episode but we don’t get the meat of their roles in this first outing. However, I do believe that Criss’ performance is so good that it upends The Assassination of Gianni Versace. On The People vs. O.J. Simpson, I’d argue that Cuba Gooding Jr’s portrayal of O.J. made him play second fiddle to the more vibrant personalities of his co-stars. That is something that won’t happen with Criss, who is making a statement here that he’s a long way away from the “aw, shucks” appeal that made him so likable on Glee.

Since this is Ryan Murphy, he’s not content with just depicting the murder and the manhunt. There is a deeper message here and I think a few will be explored as the series moves forward. The People vs. O.J. Simpson had race relations as its backdrop and The Assassination of Gianni Versace has the public’s sense of growing homophobia that seemed to permeate in the 90s. There is a scene where detectives are questioning Versace’s boyfriend as if he were his pimp rather than his lover and when detectives call Versace his “partner” it’s as if they’re awkwardly uncomfortable with calling him what he was: his boyfriend. They even suggest that their unconventional sex life and relationship is what could’ve led to the murder. Judging from what I do know about Andrew Cunanan based on public knowledge, the ultimate confusion about who he was based on his sexuality and the reactions to it, are likely to play a big role in the subtext of the story.

I have a feeling that the slower and more deliberate pace may alienate some viewers but from what I’ve seen so far the series is so deliberately solemn in its approach that it’s hard not to be captivated by it. Murphy has created a mood and style that is instantly arresting and in Darren Criss, he has a performer that will consistently keep us glued to our TV’s week after week. In the usual “scenes from upcoming episodes” montage that played after the end of the first episode, we see that the series never threatens to steer away from Criss as he paints a portrait of Cunanan that will make us feel uncomfortably enthralled by his trajectory as the show tries to justify who he was through the allure and mystery that seemed to be his calling card.


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About Gaius Bolling 3795 Articles
At the age of five, I knew I wanted to write movies and about them. I've set out to make those dreams come true. As an alumni of the Los Angeles Film Academy, I participated in their Screenwriting program, while building up my expertise in film criticism. I write reviews that relate to the average moviegoer by educating my readers and keeping it fun. My job is to let you know the good, the bad, and the ugly in the world of cinema, so you can have your best moviegoing experience. You can find more of my writing on Instagram @g_reelz.