southdavid Season One Review.Ryan Murphy returns to our screens with another anthology series, this one focusing on famous true life historical feuds. This first season looks at the hostility that existed between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis before, during and after the filming of their seminal Oscar winning classic "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane". Murphy's muse, Jessica Lange, is perfectly cast as Joan Crawford. Lange, like Crawford, had won Oscar's earlier in her career only to struggle for better roles later in life but fortunately for Lange, Televisions current golden age has offered a career renaissance that just wasn't available in the seventies. It's a role filled with sadness and desperation, having spent her youth fighting to get to Hollywood, she's not willing to accept her marginalisation and is desperate for "Baby Jane" to be the hit that keeps her relevant. But it's a rounded portrayal, the series shows her as being as petty and devious as her co-star and never asks you to pick between them. Susan Sarandon is also perfectly cast as Bette Davies, the more legitimate actress of the two, witty and outspoken. The cast is rounded off by Alfred Molina, as "Baby Jane" director Robert Aldrich, Catharine Zeta-Jones as Olivia De Haviland and Stanley Tucci as Jack Warner. The performances are universally excellent and it's a testament to Murphy's drawing power that he can put together a cast like this. The plot is best described as loose biography. It attempts to capture the spirit of the feud if not the exact events that took place. They rightly choose the most entertaining version of the mythos that they can provide and the series is never less than hugely watchable. I felt that the series could have benefitted from slightly more of their careers before "Baby Jane" at the expense of slightly less after it as that occasionally started to repeat the story beats - but this is a minor quibble with an excellent compelling series that I thoroughly enjoyed. (Despite my enjoyment of this series, I can't help but feel that the controversial proposed second series - about the rift between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, prior to her death, is not going to go down anything like as well on this side of the Atlantic, but I'm prepared to wait and see).

chancedelhomme OK so a jealous Crawford, goaded by Hedda Hopper campaigned against Davis for the Best Actress Oscar win that year (my personal favorite was Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird Of Youth, whose Alexandra Del Lago character triumphed in the end). Katharine Hepburn & Lee Remick were also great in their nominated roles, as was the ultimate winner Anne Bancroft (who, if Crawford & Hopper hadn't intervened, would have split the vote with her fellow Broadway New Yorker Page, thus garnering Bette her 3rd Oscar...which she should have won in 1950 for All About Eve!). Baby Jane wouldn't really be a crowning achievement part considering Bancroft's heroic Annie Sullivan persona...WHAT I DON'T GET IS: why weren't Davis, Robert Aldrich and/or Jack Warner tipped off about Crawford's campaign against Davis??? Wouldn't at least one of the Academy members she and Hopper manipulated have a different opinion altogether (whether they were pro-Davis or not?) and get the word out that Davis was being sabotaged??? I know Bette's circle of friends was very small (so why didn't Crawford's alleged popularity among her endless supply of loyal colleagues snag her a nom in the first place? Plus, scene for scene, Bette was the lead and Joan on the fringe of being a supporting player!). Why was Davis (alongside Aldrich & Warner, I'm sure) so blindsided that fateful Oscar night? I wouldn't have trusted Crawford or Hopper whatsoever once the nominations were announced! Plus, the two diva's engaged in a brutal verbal battle over the awards on the set of Baby Jane long before production was completed! I know Bette got her revenge in the end by replacing Joan with her one true BFF Olivia de Havilland in Sweet Charlotte 2yrs later, and embarked on a much better successful post-JANE hagsploitation era in The Nanny and Dead Ringer, plus her critically acclaimed final film in 1987 entitled The Whales of August! I knew about the Academy sabotage before watching that truly excellent episode of FEUD...I'm just wondering why with all the stars Crawford aligned herself with, that Bette & Co. were never aware of her backstage dealings until the big moment? Was she that sure she was going to win? That sort of bitchery would never go unnoticed in today's awards ceremonies! Crawford's Mildred Pierce Oscar should have been stripped from her mantle, and she should have been booted from the Academy for life! Her career totally fizzled after JANE, and she was left with TROG as her final crowning achievement! Bitch!

JETTCO48 I saw the trailer for this and thought..."Hmmm...looks interesting?" but then forgot it was on. Later, I discovered that it was on Catch Up TV. I sat down to watch, just the first episode .... and stayed for the entire 8 episodes! This is an absolutely gripping and absorbing series. Susan Sarandon & Jessica Lange give outstanding performances and totally become Bette and Joan. I can't find enough superlatives for their work here. Alfred Molina is also superb as Robert Aldrich and wins (and keeps) your sympathy throughout. Stanley Tucci makes you really glad that you didn't work for Jack Warner. The highest praise must go to ALL concerned with the production of this outstanding series. If you loved "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", then I suggest you sit down, right now and catch up with what happened to Bette & Joan too. Enjoy!

M. Donovan As someone who worked with actors all his life I'm enormously grateful to Ryan Murphy for putting together with such seriousness and such care this series about a subject that is very rarely if ever touched. And when it is, it tends to be a caricature, a satire, an exaggeration of an exaggeration. Here the drama was tangible and the work of Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, superlative. They managed to transport us from the times of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, as women and actresses, to our times, without betraying it. The characters were one hundred per cent present and the actresses playing them were one hundred per cent present. If acting is an art, and it is, that mysterious fusion between actor and character is the manifestation of it. - Many young actors I'm working with at the moment, some of which had never heard of Steve McQueen, let alone Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, saw "Feud" and compelled and inspire them to want to know more. In the last few weeks I've had them come to me with stories of "All About Eve", "Humoresque", "The Little Foxes", William Wyler, George Cukor... So "Feud" has become a tool, an agent provocateur, a gateway to history, the history of their own profession. It's not wishful thinking on my part. I see it in the young one's faces. Discovering passionately, and their horizons broaden automatically. It's a joy to see. As I close this comment a heartfelt hurrah to Alfred Molina and Stanley Tucci for their fearless, remarkable performances and to everyone involved, thank you very much.