Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

That was the official name of Bill Clinton’s 1993 policy on how to treat gay people in the US military. While technically outlawing discrimination, the ruling barred anyone in the forces from being openly gay, lesbian or bisexual. Why? Well, because ‘demonstrating a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts creates an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.’ Apparently.

That policy, supported by only 23% of American citizens at the time it was introduced, was only formerly scrapped in 2011. Just seven years ago.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” also happens to be the title of this week’s episode of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. And with good reason. The main focus of this fifth episode of ACS series 2 is ostensibly homosexuality in the military. Seem a little strange for a crime drama about the murder of a fashion designer? Well, perhaps. But as we’ve already seen, this is no ordinary crime drama.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace isn’t a police procedural, or even a full examination into the twisted mind of the man who shot Gianni Versace. It’s a show about very real issues. One that, thankfully, can deal with them seriously, sensitively and with the lightest of touches. In the wrong hands, an hour about the difficulties of coming out could seem heavy handed. Gladly, that’s not a problem here.

The focus this week is the juxtaposition between two very different men experiencing the same dilemma. But where we see how difficult Andrew Cunanan’s first victim Jeff Trails finds coming out while serving in the US Navy (and how the process effectively ruins his career), it’s a different story for Signori Versace. Despite his concerns, when he publicly outs himself to Advocate magazine during an interview in Milan, his bravery is celebrated and his career is buoyed.

It seems as though class, wealth, fame and the ability to make fabulous clothes affords you certain privileges when it comes to how people view you.

It’s good to see Édgar Ramírez, Ricky Martin and Penélope Cruz back this week after a couple of episodes away – if for no other reason than Versace’s outrageous collection of rainbow-coloured silk shirts. While it was only a fleeting scene, seeing Versace inviting his long-term partner Antonio onto the sofa to be interviewed alongside him arguably offered the episode’s most touching moment.

Over in Minneapolis, we see Andrew’s arrival and get the background as to just why Jeff and David were so weary of him. Both know his propensity to lie, cheat and steal yet neither know his willingness to pick up a hammer or gun in anger quite yet. The fact that we know what’s coming makes the tone all the more eerie and Cunanan’s behaviour somehow even more reprehensible.

Weirdly, this pre-murder spree Andrew is actually quite a bit more unsettling and jarring than the one we’ve grown used to these past four or so weeks. But, for the first time, we see his charming and charismatic side – the side that made Jeff take to him in the first time. Walking into his first gay bar in San Diego, sailor Jeff quickly changes his mind about being in there and turns to leave, until Andrew introduces himself and, in a weirdly sweet moment, sets about buying him a few drinks and befriending him.

As in episode 3 and episode 4, the main cast is great, but it’s a supporting actor that steals the show. In this fifth episode it’s Finn Wittrock as Jeff. We saw him briefly last week getting his skull caved in, but here we really see a torn and desperate young man. The near-attempted suicide scene is genuinely heartbreaking.

As touching, dramatic and worthy as this week’s instalment of American Crime Story was, unfortunately it did exercise its creative licence quite a lot. Trail’s departure from the Navy wasn’t the way the show outlines here and there’s no record of the vicious attack Trail stopped or the wince-inducing tattoo self-removal incident. We’ve no issue with a little story massaging for dramatic purposes, but this tale hardly seems to need it. The facts are outrageous enough.

We’re now more than halfway through this truly excellent series. We’re seeing Andrew’s personality and motives finally being fleshed out. But will next week’s instalment finally go into just what it is that made him so preoccupied with Gianni Versace…?

Well, as Bill once said – don’t ask, don’t tell.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 5 review – Dead Good

The runaway success of the maiden run of American Crime Story, The People Vs. O J Simpson, dealt with a multi-faceted crime that had everything a drama series could ever want: murder, deception, media sensationalism and a long-running court case, complete with a highly controversial verdict. It even had an extremely Hollywood live-action car chase ferchrissakes.

Such was the reception to series 1 that fans were hyped to find out which famous true crime would inspire its follow-up. And while there was little in the way of explicit criticism, plenty of murmurs before The Assassination of Gianni Versace began airing suggested that this ‘fan shoots fashion designer’ story wasn’t really enough to justify and hold its entire 450-minute running time. Thankfully, those murmurs have been proven quite wrong.

The main reason this story is more than capable of supporting a nine-part series is that Versace’s killer, Andrew Cunanan, has a story which is much deeper, darker and more grotesquely fascinating than many people realised, with most people, in fact, barely knowing who he was before this series. Another large factor is that each of his crimes is treated with time, patience and pretty much a full episode each. It’s as though each week is a separate play exploring one of the strings of the man’s diabolical murders, with Darren Criss’s Cunahan in the lead and one of his tragic victims in the supporting role.

We’re sure Signori Versace’s story will pick back up next week or the week after, but this first half of American Crime Story series 2 should really, by rights, be called ‘The Assassin of Gianni Versace’ instead, such is the emphasis so far on the gunman and his rampage.

This fourth episode, again, is stolen by the actors playing Cunahan’s victims. We’re sure Edgar Ramirez will have his chance later in the series, but last week we had the Miglins adding real pathos and emotion to events. And this week it’s his second victim, David Madson, who propels the episode – and the man playing him, newcomer Cody Fern, does truly a sterling job bringing him alive (albeit all too briefly).

Only slightly out of the closet, Madson is a young guy, an up-and-coming Minneapolis architect (what is it about that profession? Cunanan’s third victim Lee Miglin was also an architect…). He and Cunanan are former lovers and take to the road – to Cunanan’s mind – like Bonnie and Clyde, after Andrew smashes in the head of their mutual friend Jeff Trail. But, in reality, he basically kidnaps David and forces him to flee with him.

As with last week, there’s a further exploration into the idea of how shame and embarrassment work for gay people, this time via flashbacks to David’s childhood relationship with his father and how he came out to him – his main concern throughout their bizarre post-hammer time road trip being that his parents would be shamed by their homosexual son and his connection to a brutal ‘gay crime’.

While these fascinating and touching dives into the victims’ lives are welcome and provide excellent drama, they are a real juxtaposition with our spree killer Andrew Cunanan. He’s been at the crux of everything so far and will, presumably, continue to be. And yet still we know almost nothing about him and his true motives – although that is almost certain to change soon, we’re sure.

We’ve seen all of the victims come and go now, so the ‘what?’ and ‘who?’ parts of this season’s American Crime Story are out of the way. We’re really just left with the ‘why?’ – and with just over half the run left, we’re hopeful we’ll find out some of those answers…

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 4 review – Dead Good

“What terrifies you more?” Andrew Cunanan asks a ‘friend’ of his midway through this week’s American Crime Story. “Death or being disgraced?” Disgrace? Disgrace isn’t so bad. You get used to it…”

And Cunahan should know. Everything he does is disgraceful. In fact, just moments after asking Chicago property tycoon Lee Miglin that question, he drops a block of concrete on his head and stabs the bound and gagged man repeatedly with a screwdriver.

This whole second series of ACS is all about disgrace and shame. The first run of the crime anthology – The People Vs. O J Simpson – was all about echoing current concerns over race using a famous murder from modern history. And this follow-up also reflects topical issues, this time the societal and psychological difficulties faced by many LGBT people – an issue close to the heart of the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy.

In episode 3 we see two very different gay men, both dipped in disgrace and shame, but for very different reasons. Lee Miglin is a successful Chicago businessman and closeted homosexual who’s spent his entire adult life suppressing his sexuality, wracked by shame and in fear of having his secret exposed and being publicly ‘disgraced’. His secret was to emerge, but only after the 72-year-old became Andrew Cunanan’s third victim.

Cunanan himself is less concerned with covering up his homosexuality. And even less concerned with covering up his murders. The real shame and disgrace here are reserved for him. And rightly so. He is, after all, a pathological liar who tortures and kills people he knows, has been in relationships with and even greatly admires.

But is it admiration…? Miglin was planning on building the world’s tallest structure. Gianni Versace was the world’s most famous fashion designer. Cunanan was drawn to – and killed – both. Perhaps his motivation was more unbridled and untamed jealousy more than adulation.

We saw both his third and fourth victim this week. Miglin’s murder, with its elements of sexual sadism, was hideous and dangerously close to being gratuitous. But there was something somehow even more shocking in the dead-eyed way Cunanan later rather unnecessarily puts a bullet through the head of a man begging for his life, just so he could steal his truck. Darren Criss has a chillingly bored look on his face as he coldy dispatches the man. It’s so cold in fact that the brief scene leaves you with chills.

This instalment of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, ‘A Random Killing’, is the first not to feature the eponymous Italian. And while that may seem a little odd for a show about him, it’s really not an issue. There are 9 episodes in total, so there’s still plenty of time to dive back into Versace’s pool and swim around. And no doubt we’ll all be back in some nice tight Speedos again next week.

In fact, it’s almost quite nice to get away from the searing heat of Miami Beach and spend the fifty minutes up in chilly Chicago. While, of course, this episode still heavily features the crazed spree killer that dominates the series, it’s really about the marriage of Lee Miglin and his loving but ultimately rejected wife, Marilyn. While their union may technically be a sham, the fact is never acknowledged formally and the thin veneer of deniability is played with such poised delicacy by Mike Farrell and Judith Light here that it’s genuinely touching and often quite heartbreaking. Their love isn’t a romantic one, but it’s strong enough and respectful enough to almost have made it all worthwhile. Almost.

When Lee’s body is discovered bound, gagged and surrounded by gay porno magazines, an unfazed Marilyn demands the police treat and report the case as a break-in gone wrong. A ‘random killing’. She doesn’t want Lee’s shame revealed. And she doesn’t want her sham revealed, either. Light’s performance here is fantastically subtle. But Farrell steals the show as the sweet and tragic figure of Miglin.

It’s just a bit of a shame we won’t be seeing either of them again.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 3 review – Dead Good