jonjonbriones: To my UK friends! This episode of @americancrimestoryfx #TheAssassinationOfGianniVersace is tonight! With the amazing @darrencriss Exquisitely directed by @mattbomer and written by the excellent Brit Tom Rob Smith. Hope you’re enjoying the whole series! The cast is just insane!
@edgarramirez25 @penelopecruzoficial @ricky_martin @judithlight @codyfern @edouardholdener #JoannaAdler @mrrpmurphy
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story – BBC2, 9pm
Tom Rob Smith’s re-imagining of the life story of Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) has now reversed back into his childhood.
This penultimate episode draws parallels with Death of a Salesman and even Apocalypse Now in its bid to find a rationale for Cunanan’s life of violence. It doesn’t quite succeed, as it’s hard to imagine what childhood humiliations might excuse the killer’s actions. It’s best viewed as an essay on the darker side of the American Dream.
So, while Versace’s desire to become a fashion designer is encouraged by his mother, Cunanan’s father Modesto (Jon Jon Briones) is a violent liar, a Filipino immigrant to the US who — for a while at least — manages to con his way to wealth.
Jon Jon Briones’ tweets | 17 April 2018
American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace
9pm, BBC Two
As this astonishing series nears its end, it gets even more brain scrambling. It’s the penultimate episode, and the backwards-running structure stretches back to its furthest points, to offer two parallel, contrasting portraits of childhood, in two different timeframes. In 1957, we glimpse the young Gianni Versace, aged 10 or so, and encouraged by his dressmaker mother to follow his heart and learn about and designing clothes, despite the taunts of other kids and disapproval of his teachers. Flipping forward to 1980 comes a fuller and more unsettling picture of Andrew Cunanan around the same age – singled out for special treatment and pressurised to succeed by his father, Modesto, a stockbroker with big dreams, and given to making big exaggerations about himself. As Cunanan becomes a young man, however, the house of cards Modesto has built begins to collapse. Darren Criss’s performance as Cunanan is extraordinary again, while the casting of the child actor playing young Cunanan (Edouard Holdener) is spooky.
American Crime Story: The Assassination of Versace recap: Season 2, Episode 8, “Creator/Destroyer”, Aired March. 14, 2018.
In this episode, we finally meet the man Andrew has spoken about so highly through the season – his father. His father made up this unrealistic world for Andrew, only to break his heart years later. We also finally find out why he consistently lies to people and has this strong desperation for people to love him.
Here are the 2 best moments of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Versace 2×08:
Passion for fashion
We’ve definitely not had enough of Versace throughout season 2 and episode 8 didn’t provide us with much more; however, we did get a short glimpse of Gianni as a young boy, finding his passion for fashion. Gianni’s mother was a successful seamstress, which definitely explains how he got in to that career, but the children at school didn’t seem to understand his passion’s. We see Gianni sketching a dress in the back of his class, in which his teacher notices and calls him out as a ‘pervert’, whilst another classmate calls him a ‘pansy’. Later on, Gianni goes back to tell his mother what had happened and she comforts him by telling the story of how she used to want to become a doctor, however, was prevented from doing so by her father because she was a woman. So, Franca became a dressmaker and opened up her very own shop.
“You must do what you love, Gianni.”
Daddy imposter
Andrew has said so much about his father throughout the season so far – true or not, we’ve always been unsure. However, one thing we are sure about is that his father did work for Merrill Lynch, although Andrew had milked the story just a little. His father talked his way in to a highly coveted job, due to his work ethic and track record. Andrew is soon treated to all sorts of fancy gifts such as a master bedroom and a car, because of how much his father was spending… Basically being treated like royalty by his parents, leaving his siblings neglected. Medesto (Andrew’s father) believes Andrew to be special and encourages him to feel special so success will follow – he consistently puts so much pressure on Andrew to be the best he can be – leaving Andrew to believe his dream is a big house with children and a fancy car, when asked what his one wish would be during an interview to attend the prestigious Bishop’s school. After being asked the question once more, he told them that his one wish would be to be special. Medesto drilled it in to Andrew’s head that being smart is enough and that if he wants to get anywhere, he needs to fit in – which most definitely explains why he is so determined to get the approval of everybody around him.
Years later, we find out that Medesto no longer works for Merrill Lynch, due to cheating good people out of their money by trading non-existent stocks. When he realises that the police are on to him, Medesto escapes the country, leaving Andrew and the rest of his family behind. Andrew refuses to believe his father left them with nothing and will soon enough be back with all the money he ‘supposedly’ has. He travels to Manila in search of his father and reality soon hits him, when he see’s for himself how much of a liar and a theif Medesto is – everything he put in to Andrew’s head was a lie. He calls Andrew ‘weak’ and a ‘sissy’ causing Andrew to draw a knife.
When Andrew returns to the United States, he realises his whole world is shattered and instead of becoming a better person than his father, he begins to pick up on his traits and believes that lying is better than facing the truth.
The 2 Best Moments From ‘American Crime Story: The Assassination of Versace’ 2×08
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