The title of ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ is enough incentive to watch it!

Let’s be honest here. How many of us actually know who Andrew Cunanan is? Not many, I’d assume. Now how about this man called Versace, ring any bells? Forgets the instrument that goes ding-a-ling when you shake it, the aforementioned name deserves banging of drums. People my age should be well aware of the fact that this iconic fashion designer got assassinated a couple of decades back.

But how was he killed, why was he killed, and more pertinently, at least considering the relevance of our current discussion, who was the killer? Which brings us back to this man named Cunanan, who, as fate would have it, is the assassin of Giovanni Maria Gianni Versace, or Versace as we all probably know him as. And much to our morbid delight, it is all serialised in a new show currently doing the rounds.

American Crime Story is a true crime anthology series, where each season is presented as a self-contained mini-series. They managed to hit the ball straight out of the park with People versus OJ Simpson, their first foray into the murky world of real life crimes, and their second season, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, is not bad either.

The year is 1997 and Cunanan (Darren Criss), a 27-year-old man with homoerotic proclivities, shoots and murders everyone’s favourite designer Versace (Édgar Ramírez) in front of his South Beach mansion. This takes place at the end of a killing spree that has secured Cunanan’s place on the FBI’s Most Wanted list at the time, after committing four other murders around the country.

The show kicks off with the aforesaid incident and proceeds to unravel in a reverse chronological order. Making its way backwards, the quadruple deaths that Cunanan was responsible for are covered in great detail in individual episodes. The reverse gear comes to a halt at his uniquely disturbed childhood, with his father shown to be playing a major role in developing his quirky personality.

Versace’s boyfriend, Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), and his sister, Donatella (Penélope Cruz), also play supporting characters during the show, but the writers leave no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the identity of their lead performer.

Cunanan as a character is a treasure trove of so many different emotive shades, and Criss has a field day nailing down the nuances of each and every one of it. From being deceptively charming to eccentrically volatile, the range of emotions that Criss manages to display during this nine-episode mini-series, to show how he embarked on this monstrous path, is just truly remarkable.

The support cast is also wholly in their element, with Ramirez, Martin and Cruz demonstrating why the show would be shoe-in to be nominated for the ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series’ category for the Screen Actors Guild Award next year.

The production design and the accompanying camera work is an eye candy and a half. The best part about the period detailing in The Assassination of Gianni Versace is the fact that we rarely get to watch history being recreated from the 80s and the 90s. Nowadays, there are plenty of shows showing late 19^th century till mid-20^th century.

Fantastic writing is another feather in the cap for the series. Considering how a clear motive was never completely found for the real life murder of Versace, the creative license which was afforded to the writers was taken full advantage of in order to create a compelling character study of the assassin weaved within an intriguing narrative; not to forget, some truly memorable dialogues thrown in the mix, for good measure.

Cunanan might not have been a household name, a potential distinction that our lead character craved and actually led him to commit the high-profile slaughter. But with The Assassination of Gianni Versace having him as the lead character, he is once again, at least for a short while, the talk of the town.

The primary incentive to watch The Assasination of Gianni Versace is inserted in the title itself. Personally, the designer was too iconic a name and his murder was too historic an event for me to give this show a watch. But the significance of the act aside, the show in itself is a riveting piece of drama and that alone should help make it to the top of everyone’s ‘to-binge’ list.

Best Performances of 2018… So Far

Cody Fern, ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ (FX)

Initially, it seemed like Cody Fern‘s delicate, devastating performance as David Madson, the second of Andrew Cunanan’s murder victims, was going to be relegated to a mere tragedy of proximity. David was unfortunate enough to cross paths with this burgeoning killer at exactly the wrong time, catching his eye, earning his sinister intention, and ultimately reaping the violence that Andrew held inside him. Ryan Murphy and Tom Rob Smith’s production was far smarter than that, showing David in the crosshairs not of one madman but of a dehumanizing, unsympathetic society that left people like David exposed and uncared for. Into that elevated narrative, then, stepped Cody Fern, an Australian actor and genuine find, who played David not just with the doomed air of future victim but with the waxing and waning of someone trapped between choices he never wanted to have to make. As the season went on, we got to see more of how Fern played David’s faith in people — his parents, his friends, his neighbors — and how that faith would be broken and questioned. The way Fern plays David, wholesomely kind and talented, you can see why Andrew would have thought that attaining him would solve all his problems. But Fern also never let those haunted doubts behind David’s eyes go away. The ones that, in his final days, wondered if the shame of a son touched by sin wouldn’t be worse than the grief of a son lost forever. — Joe Reid

Darren Criss, ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ (FX)

It would have been easy for The Assassination of Gianni Versace to lean into the pulpy tone that defined Versace’s murder in 1997. Instead Darren Criss brought us a performance that was more complicated, nuanced, and sympathetic than any coverage of Andrew Cunanan has ever been. Criss’ Cunanan was unmistakably the villain of his own story, but through his shifting glances, fake smiles, and constant lilting lies, he captured the hero Cunanan saw in the mirror. More than once Criss forced audeinces to ask if this killer — who murdered five innocent men in cold blood — was actually a victim of his upbringing, societal homophobia, and his own disturbed mind. And yet the Versace season of American Crime Story was never afraid to pull back, showing us the monster Andrew Cunanan was beneath his perfect smile. Criss’ portrayal of a young man so enchanted by notoriety and enraged by jealousy that he would kill to obtain it is one of the most haunting roles ever brought to screen. — Kayla Cobb

Best Performances of 2018… So Far

Best TV Shows of 2018… So Far

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’

From singing high schoolers to horror stories throughout history, Ryan Murphy has made a career out of humanizing society’s outcasts. But nothing he has created has ever been as heart-breaking, nuanced, or painful as the Versace season of American Crime Story. Rather than building to the climax of Andrew Cunanan’s (Darren Criss) murder spree, American Crime Story starts with Versace’s (Édgar Ramírez) murder. What follows is a complicated reflection on how the prejudice the LGBT community faced in the ’90s, a toxic celebrity environment, a genius designer’s complicated legacy, and one man’s disturbed mind all resulted in one of the most preventable murders in American history. American Crime Story transformed its pulpy premise into an emotional love letter to Cunanan’s victims all while pointing a judgmental finger at the bigotry that led to these five victims’ needless deaths. — Kayla Cobb

Best TV Shows of 2018… So Far

The 7 Current TV Shows That Best Express the Deadly Sins

Every TV show is a story about something going wrong. Since TV shows are invented by writers, and since writers are known for loving idea, it’s hardly surprising that the best usually have some unstated central theme in mind. It may be as simple as “Show life in the West Wing” or a complicated as “What’s identity?” Not that these ideas are planted from the beginning. But eventually a show finds a theme, or it finds its way out of relevance.

Each of the TV shows below are extended meditations on a particular human frailty. The Seven Deadly Sins seemed a fitting categorization. When it comes to lessons on virtue, you could do worse than the shows below. And that’s the point.

Envy
TV Show: American Crime Story

The version of American Crime Story I’m referring to is this spring’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which deals with the 1997 slaying of the designer (Edgar Ramirez) by spree murderer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). But to split apples and call the halves equal, we could be speaking of any edition of Ryan Murphy’s new anthology series.

The travails of The People v. O. J. Simpson were as much about envy, and its hold on the mind of the accused, as Versace is. In the first series, the longing was submerged below the mask of fame. Here jealousy is palpable, floating like an oil slick on a bowl of ocean water. The story of one man’s madness is straightforward in a way that’s new for Murphy. That doesn’t make it any less compelling. When a teacher asks little Andrew his wish, “just one wish, what would it be?” “To be special,” Cunanan replies, and everything erupts from that moment of compressed desire, and all the coveting that comes with it.

The 7 Current TV Shows That Best Express the Deadly Sins

The 24 best TV shows of 2018 so far

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

The second installment of American Crime Story after 2016’s The People vs. O. J. Simpson was less immediately arresting. But its depiction of ’90s America is just as impressive, tracing the circuitous route of serial killer Andrew Cunanan backward from his most famous victim through a gay scene struggling not to be forced back in the closet. Darren Criss’s work as Cunanan is masterful.

How to watch it: American Crime Story is available for digital purchase, or on FX’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be on Netflix.

The 24 best TV shows of 2018 so far

Channelling good entertainment

2. THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY (SoHo)

The latest American Crime Story adaptation is a misnomer, as it follows (mostly in reverse chronological order) the life of Versace’s murderer, Andrew Cunanan. But as played in a tour de force and award-worthy performance by Darren Criss, Cunanan’s and Versace’s (Edgar Ramirez) interwoven stories are riveting and revealing, a study of the lives and struggles of gay men in the 1990s. At times difficult to watch, the portrait of the spree killer is gilded and fascinating, gorgeous and off-putting from beginning to end.

Channelling good entertainment

The Best TV Shows of 2018 (So Far)

3. THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY

The first season of American Crime Story set an impossibly high bar for later editions of Ryan Murphy’s latest anthology series. While The Assassination of Gianni Versace seemed like the perfect follow up to The People v. O.J. Simpson, the former never quite lived up the hype of the latter. That is essentially a shame—and perhaps its misleading title is to blame. While the 1997 murder of the Italian fashion designer does kick off the season, it’s hardly its focus; instead, serial killer Andrew Cunanan is the leading player as the show follows him on his three-month murder spree across the United States. Darren Criss delivers a phenomenally unhinged performance as Cunanan, bringing humanity to the sociopathic character who left behind little explanation of his motives. —Tyler Coates

The Best TV Shows of 2018 (So Far)

The Top 25 Performances of 2018 (So Far)

06. DARREN CRISS

The Show: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
The Showrunner: Tom Rob Smith

The Performance: Leave it to Ryan Murphy to spot that Glee’s teenage dream could also be The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s 27-year-old nightmare. There has perhaps never been a better match of performer and real-life subject matter than Darren Criss and serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Like Cunanan, Criss is a Filipino American with an inherently magnetic charisma. Whether sauntering into a house party in a red leather jumpsuit or coldly committing a brutal murder, Criss is as a hypnotic, heartbreaking, and, above all, terrifying anchor for the series. —Caroline Siede

Also Great: Penelope Cruz, Cody Fern, Finn Wittrock, Judith Light

The Top 25 Performances of 2018 (So Far)

‘The Great British Baking Show’ Will Help You Through The 2018 Garbage Fire

To borrow a conceit from Community, we’re living in the darkest timeline. Pick a day and chances are there will be another dystopian-sounding news story. From unsettling meetings with North Korea to reports of children being forcibly removed from their families by our government, 2018 has proven to be a horror show… And the best television of the year has captured that. So far this year’s best shows have been about a serial killer (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story), a dictatorship that imprisons and rapes women (The Handmaid’s Tale), and deeply warped race relations (Atlanta and Dear White People). 2018 has been great for television, and horrible for everyone’s mental health.

‘The Great British Baking Show’ Will Help You Through The 2018 Garbage Fire

The year’s best TV so far includes ‘Atlanta,’ more

7. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX) OK, fine, we can all agree — not as good as “O.J.” But there were many pleasures here, almost all in the craftsmanship. The performances were uniformly good, while lead Darren Criss turned in a superb one — and possibly an Emmy-winning one, too.

The year’s best TV so far includes ‘Atlanta,’ more