Tag: february 2018

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: “A Random Killing” recap

This week’s episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace whisked us away to the windy city of Chicago. An eerie flashback shows Cunanan at the site of Lee Miglin’s murder which takes place before Versace’s–and it was not pretty. Before focusing on Cunanan, the episode spent time on Lee and his wife Marilyn’s life together, which is not as it appears.

While Marilyn was all the hype on the Home Shopping Network, Lee was known for his accomplishments in real estate. Unbeknownst to his wife, Lee dabbled in other extracurricular activities–a.k.a. hiring young, male escorts. Cue, Andrew Cunanan.

The episode opens with Marilyn returning home from a trip to a freakishly quiet home. The feeling of impending doom was palpable as she enters the home and learns of her husband’s demise. What exactly went down?

The episode wastes no time intricately unfolding Cunanan’s involvement with Lee. Lee and Marilyn’s marriage was a sham and with her out of town, Lee takes the opportunity to invite over his young male escort–Cunanan. As we have witnessed Cunanan doing in previous episodes, he duct-taped Lee’s face for some brief moments of erotic asphyxiation. Yikes. This was an incredibly horrifying moment as we witnessed a sexual escapade turn into one hell of a brutal murder.

With Miglin’s murder behind him, Cunanan stole what he could. This includes the gold coin, which he later pawns in Miami along with Miglin’s car. This was an interesting trend through Cunanan’s murders–stealing the car of the individual whom he had just murdered. Unfortunately for him, the police began tracking his whereabouts via the car phone.

As the manhunt for him began, Cunanan headed to New York City to spend some time in the Versace store. It was only natural he began preparing for the murder he would commit mere months later.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace explained the episode’s title very poetically through Lee’s wife when she refused to acknowledge his involvement with male escorts. She believed it to be a random killing, and nothing more. The idea of a “random killing” persisted when Cunanan learned about the police tracking him and opted to steal another car.

In true Cunanan style, he selected a victim, murdered them in cold blood, and sped off with their car.

This episode was an interesting shift from the previous ones as they did not even focus on Versace. Instead, we were given more insight into the complicated, scary mind of Cunanan–and the events leading up to Versace’s murder.

The series has been doing a stellar job of going past the series title and honing in on who Cunanan was–and what drove his insanity.

This episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace was slightly more disturbing than the two that preceded it. This is merely due to the fact that as we learn more about Cunanan, the more frightened we feel.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: “A Random Killing” recap

Darren Criss and 9 More TV Stars Who Transformed Between Roles

dcriss-archive:

Actors need to show their range—and sometimes, that means a total role reversal between TV projects.

We’re talking stars like Darren Criss, who went from sweet Glee prep school crooner to diabolical serial killer in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. And he’s not alone!

From a hero to a villain, normal to crazy, and beloved to despised, we’ve rounded up 10 actors and actresses who have undergone drastic changes from one character to the next. Click through the gallery above to explore these (often jarring) changes.

Darren Criss: Glee (2009) to American Crime Story: Versace (2018)

From musicals to murder. From 2009 to 2015, Criss portrayed Blaine Anderson in Glee, a charismatic, gay high school student who joins the glee club. Now, Criss is serial killer Andrew Cunanan on Assassination of Gianni Versace, a (albeit creepy) role that has gained him critical acclaim.

Darren Criss and 9 More TV Stars Who Transformed Between Roles

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story: FX’s award-winning anthology returns

Following up 2016’s The People vs O.J. Simpson was always going to be a tall order. The series won award after award and pulled in big ratings for its depiction of the 1995 trial. So just when American Crime Story (the anthology series that kicked off with O.J.) seemed like it might pursue another big-picture legal drama, it instead went in an entirely different direction with a quiet, grim tale of American tragedy. The Assassination of Gianni Versace makes the second word in its title more important than the Versace name, which may disappoint those who are looking for more insight into the life of the famous designer. Instead, Assassination focuses on Versace’s murderer, Andrew Cunanan, played beautifully by Darren Criss. This is a thoughtful look at the psychological weight of being closeted and living in a nation that would rather pretend homosexuality doesn’t exist — and very different from the series that preceded it.

“In its messy and obliterating swirl, The Assassination of Gianni Versace does something ambitious and rattling. It frames a gay disaster as an intrinsically American one, binding personal values with national ones, tethering one sense of self-worth to another.” Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

Metacritic score: 74 out of 100

Where to watch: New episodes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace air Wednesdays at 10 pm Eastern on FX. Previous episodes are available on FX’s streaming service and on demand. (The People vs. O.J. Simpsons is available on Netflix.)

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story: FX’s award-winning anthology returns

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Review: A Random Killing (Season 2 Episode 3)

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Season 2 Episode 3, “A Random Killing,” is not as flashy as previous episodes, but it is a necessary episode and a brutal one.

There are no oddly disturbing upbeat songs to go with arresting images on this episode and the whole thing feels cold and subdued.

But that’s not a bad thing.

“A Random Killing” begins with Marilyn Miglin, a Home Shopping Network star, as she phones her husband who didn’t pick her up from the airport like he was supposed to.

Gone are the bright colors and sunshine of Miami Beach. There is a sense of dread as Marilyn pulls up to her Chicago Gold Coast home. Her husband, Lee, doesn’t answer as she calls out to him. She sees a pint of melted ice cream on the kitchen bench and knows something is terribly wrong.

Only The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story make a pint of ice cream look so ominous.

Lee’s tortured body is found in the garage.

The time changes have been distracting on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, however, this episode is almost linear. It begins with the discovery of Lee’s body and then goes back to the week leading up to the murder before showing us about a week after it.

Gianni Versace is missing from this episode, but Andrew does visit the Versace store in New York, perhaps to show us that Versace is very much on Andrew’s mind even two months prior to the assassination.

“A Random Killing” mostly takes place in Chicago. Although the Miglin family claim there is no connection between Lee Miglin and Cunanan or Duke Miglin, the couple’s son, Lee certainly fits in Andrew’s MO.

Lee’s an older, closeted male with a ton of money, not unlike the john we saw on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Season 2 Episode 2 “Manhunt.”

Marilyn Miglin is a fascinating character and Judith Light owns the episode with her fantastic performance. Marilyn knows that she doesn’t have a conventional marriage, but that doesn’t mean Lee doesn’t matter to her.

The end of the episode is heart-breaking as Marilyn’s brave façade crumbles.

We’ve seen all sorts of Andrews on the past two episodes, but on “A Random Killing,” we truly see him as a cold and calculated killer. He even brags to Miglin that he has already murdered two people.

Cunanan is a chameleon and therefore, we have seen him pretend to be all sorts of people. But “A Random Killing” shows him as someone who enjoys killing and who is not affected by it.

The way Cunanan kills Miglin is particularly vicious. At one point, he considers shooting him but decides to draw it out a little more. He binds his face with masking tape, just like he did in Miami on “American Crime Story Season 2 Episode 2, “Manhunt.”

But Andrew doesn’t let Miglin survive. Instead, he attacks him and then says that he is going to put women’s underwear on him and surround him with pornographic magazines.

He asks him, what’s Lee more afraid of death or being disgraced?

Marilyn is adamant with the police that Lee didn’t know his killer although evidence would suggest otherwise. I like that when Marilyn rattles off a list of things stolen from the house, she mentions a gold coin which she says will be immediately traced back to Lee.

It’s funny because we know that Cunanan pawns off the gold coin but because the FBI didn’t distribute any flyers of Cunanan, the pawn shop owner didn’t identify Cunanan until after Versace was murdered.

Another fumble for the authorities is when it’s leaked that Cunanan is being tracked by the phone in Lee’s stolen car.

Of course, Cunanan hears that information and throws the phone out the window—but he also needs a new car.

And so here comes the title of the episode, “A Random Killing.”

Andrew is about to carjack a woman and then sees a man in a truck drive away. Why does Andrew want this truck instead? We don’t know. Andrew could have easily taken the keys to the truck and could have spared William Reese’s life.

As Reese starts to tell Cunanan that he had a wife and child, Andrew shoots him point blank.

It’s a cold-blooded act and hits hard.

Overall, “A Random Killing” is an upsetting episode with touching and powerful performances and heart-wrenching murders. We’re starting to see Andrew Cunanan as a true predator and it’s only going to go downhill from here.

What did you think of this episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating: ★★★★☆

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Review: A Random Killing (Season 2 Episode 3)

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Punch Drunk TV Ep. 84: Sorry, Aziz Ansari

Hey Clinkers, Aaron here – I am out of town this week so welcome to an episode Jack and I recorded on a Monday. We never record on Mondays. It was weird.

In this episode, we cover the pending return of “Magnum P.I.,” The CW’s new “feminist” angle for “Charmed” and the awful new version of WGN America. Also, Aaron had an Aziz Ansari conundrum he really needed to work out … just listen, you’ll see.

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/392681109/stream?client_id=N2eHz8D7GtXSl6fTtcGHdSJiS74xqOUI?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio

Episode 201 – Japanese Souffle Pancakes

This week, we talked about trivia, the Grammys, the State of the Union, Nic’s Super Bowl preview, soccer corner, Waco, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Drag Race All-Stars, HTGAWM, Agents of SHIELD, and Jade Bird.

*ACS discussion from 50:38 – 53:37

‘American Crime Story’ Versace Ep. 3 Explores The Secret Gay Lives Of Cunanan’s Victims

Episode three starts in May of 1997, a perfume salesperson on a home shopping network anxiously calls her husband from the airport. Crime aficionados will have recognized that her last name is shared with one of Cunanan’s victims. She comes home to find melted ice cream on the kitchen table and an otherwise empty and undisturbed house. A neighbor investigates while the police are called.

A scream.

“I knew it.”

One week earlier in Chicago. Marilyn Miglin is giving some form of motivational speech and notes that “so often we are told that the American dream is dead,” while espousing some boot-strap rhetoric about hard work and success. She describes Lee as “the perfect husband.”

Murphy, once again without subtlety, is making a statement on gay life before the current social movement we find ourselves in: when good, kind people had to keep their sexualities hidden and sublimate their desires into shallow successes. But what gets pushed down doesn’t stay buried forever, and Miglin’s eventual death at the hands of a gay hustler named Andrew Cunanan is the veritable return of the repressed.

The love Mr. and Mrs. Miglin share isn’t entirely fake, though, as love between many men on the down low and their partners often isn’t.

Mrs. Miglin is heading out of town, giving Lee a chance for an apparently rare sexual rendezvous. He prays to God before the encounter: “I try. I try!”

Cunanan’s viciousness appears when Miglin attempts to explain his achievements, with Andrew refusing to play along with Lee’s charade of kindness and modesty.

“I’m in control now,” says Andrew as he tapes Miglin’s face and ties him up with electrical cord. Miglin can barely breathe. Andrew breaks his nose with a ferocious punch. “Here I am, this is me,” he says.

Cunanan is threatening to humiliate Lee by killing him and leaving his body surrounded by gay porn, so the whole world discovers his secret.

“You know disgrace isn’t that bad once you settle into it,” says Andrew, clearly taking out his frustrations about his own life on his victim. Cunanan’s venom seems to come from a long history of being forced to hate himself for being gay, and his desire to expose Miglin could be seen as a perverted reversal of his own internalized homophobia.

Marilyn is in some kind of dissociative state. She tells police to hunt for Lee’s killer, but that she’s uninterested in learning about his motives. Disavowal.

Police trace the car Cunanan was driving to a different stolen vehicle, connected to a totally different murder. Andrew visits a Versace store in New York City while detectives scramble.

Marilyn is falling apart, admitting to a detective that she loved Lee: “We had a fairy tale life. We didn’t even fight. He didn’t raise a finger. It was a robbery. And a random killing.”

Aware that he’s being tracked, Andrew steals a red truck after killing the owner.

On the home shopping network, Marilyn eulogizes Lee. A combination of sincerity and denial taints her goodbye.

Gwyneth Horder-Payton’s excellent direction on episode 3 captures both the sadness and brutality of Cunanan and his victims. Her poignant use of silence and empty space helps underscore the themes of Murphy’s show, which has abandoned the campy neons and excesses of the Versace palace for at least this one episode. Cunanan’s malice is being used as a tool to explore LGBTQ identity and shame, and his victim’s lives (their secret tragedies, their forbidden lusts) are made more meaningful through this lens.

‘American Crime Story’ Versace Ep. 3 Explores The Secret Gay Lives Of Cunanan’s Victims