9. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018)
Certified Fresh at 86%
The second season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series not only focused on the life of the famous fashion designer, but also followed his killer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), and showed what life was like for a gay man in 1990s America.
Tag: review
The Best And Worst Shows To Watch With Dear Ole Dad For Father’s Day
Every kid has a special relationship with their pops and a cherished memory that only the two of you share together. Some of these moments involve hunkering down on the sofa to binge watch your favorite show and laughing, crying, or even cringing together.
To celebrate Father’s Day this year and all the father figures in your life, we’ve rounded up the best shows the two of you can enjoy together. Oh, and we’ve also included shows that you should absolutely never watch with Dad. Seriously, that stuff will scar you — speaking from experience. So heed our warning, and stick to the safe, family-friendly, and clean programs to watch with dear ole Dad this Father’s Day.
20. WORST: ‘American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace’
Three words: Darren Criss’s butt. That’s really all the reasoning you need. In addition to his character’s homicidal tendencies and sexual scenes, you should have no desire to watch this series alongside Dad. We have nothing against Ryan Murphy, his rolodex of actors, and his incredible storytelling, but no one needs to watch all that sitting next to daddy-o.
Where to Watch: FX
The Best And Worst Shows To Watch With Dear Ole Dad For Father’s Day
The Best TV Shows of 2018 (So Far)
12. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace
Network: FX
Cast: Édgar Ramírez, Darren Criss, Ricky Martin, Penélope CruzSeason one of American Crime Story was true event television; The People v O.J. Simpson opened up the floodgates on “Trial of the Century” anniversary specials and thinkpieces while providing a flashy, over-the-top recreation of this real-life drama. With season two, there wasn’t a current conversation that the series dived into, but Gianni Versace’s assassination is treated with the same stylish sheen that was given to O.J.’s time-stopping trial. The series isn’t perfect, and at times almost completely loses the plot, but it got better as the season moved on, and did a beautiful job of framing this disturbing, violent crime into a wholly American one. —khal
Best TV Show Set in Miami: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story | Best of Miami® 2018: Your Key to the City
Not all of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is set in Miami. The dramatization of fashion designer and South Beach fixture Versace’s death at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan focuses primarily on Cunanan, tracing his cross-country murder spree and fall from grace in the summer of 1997. But the story, as told by executive producer Ryan Murphy and series writer Tom Rob Smith, begins and ends in Miami, which is by far the show’s most memorable location. Alternating between the lush, warm hues of Miami Beach and the blinding strobe and neon lights of the city’s gay clubs, The Assassination of Gianni Versace captures both the city’s timeless qualities and the hallmarks of an era long past. With Miami’s beauty providing a rich thematic contrast to the inner rot of Andrew Cunanan — a star-making performance by Glee actor Darren Criss — it’s a striking backdrop for an unforgettable television experience, as well as a tragic reminder of a harrowing moment in Miami’s history.
Rank and File: Ryan Murphy’s Most Valuable Players
Over dozens of seasons of television, from Nip/Tuck to Glee to American Stories both Horror and Crime, super-producer Ryan Murphy has created his own cottage industry of ambitious, theatrical, cards-on-the-table melodramas featuring some of the best actors and actresses in TV.
This week, Allison and Clint go it alone to count down 15 of Murphy’s greatest collaborators, from established character actresses to lantern-jawed hunks, to Oscar winners of all persuasions. | 12 June 2018
Darren Criss at #4
Rank and File: Ryan Murphy’s Most Valuable Players
Over dozens of seasons of television, from Nip/Tuck to Glee to American Stories both Horror and Crime, super-producer Ryan Murphy has created his own cottage industry of ambitious, theatrical, cards-on-the-table melodramas featuring some of the best actors and actresses in TV.
This week, Allison and Clint go it alone to count down 15 of Murphy’s greatest collaborators, from established character actresses to lantern-jawed hunks, to Oscar winners of all persuasions. | 12 June 2018
Finn Wittrock at #10
Gay Self-Loathing Hasn’t Gone Away. It Just Looks Nothing Like ‘Boys In The Band.’
[…] In fact, one of my favorite pieces of recent queer pop culture distinctly lacked the positivity we yearn for. Earlier this year, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” opened and closed with gay spree killer Andrew Cunanan murdering the titular gay designer. A Ryan Murphy endeavor through and through, the FX show was coated in darkness, a far cry from any of the upbeat portrayals we’ve demanded in the years since LGBTQ characters were routinely punished or villainized. And yet there was a catharsis to the series that “The Boys in the Band” lacks. “Versace” offered a painful and detailed reminder of what self-loathing can do to a person, and to a community. It showed more than vodka tumblers and confetti scraps strewn across a sassy man’s expensive living room.
“Versace” has a poetry that “Boys” does not, largely because it never reduces Cunanan or anyone who orbits him to a caricature. In juxtaposing Cunanan and Versace’s disparate work ethics and quests for fame, Murphy created a textured dynamic. Behind every performative gesture lurked a deeper tragedy indicting the malevolent strictures that turned Cunanan into a ladder-climbing con artist incapable of loving himself or others.
Gay Self-Loathing Hasn’t Gone Away. It Just Looks Nothing Like ‘Boys In The Band.’
Experts pick the best television shows to binge as winter hits across Australia
AMERICAN CRIME STORY: THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE (Foxtel)
Edgar Ramirez plays murdered fashion icon Gianni Versace in this opulent drama from Ryan Murphy (The People v OJ Simpson). Penelope Cruz is sister Donatella and Ricky Martin boyfriend Antonio D’Amico but the showstopper is Glee’s Darren Criss as serial killer Andrew Cunanan.
Experts pick the best television shows to binge as winter hits across Australia
The 20 Best TV Shows of 2018 (So Far)
T1. The Americans / Atlanta / The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
Network: FXOne is a period espionage drama that transposes kin and country until the two become indistinguishable. One is a surrealist horror-comedy about the black experience in America. One is a potent, political, possibly even dangerous reconsideration of what it means to be called “faggot,” and then what it means to become one. That the year’s finest drama, comedy, and limited series to date aired on the same network is enough to suggest FX’s place as the medium’s most fruitful venue for creative expression, besting competitors AMC, HBO and Netflix, to say nothing of the Big Three broadcasters. But in The Americans’ instant-classic final season, in Atlanta’s fairy tale provocations, in The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s bracing quest to queer convention, FX’s brilliant year also reaffirms the importance of leadership, from writers’ rooms to boardrooms and all the places in between: Since the days of The Shield, CEO John Landgraf has quietly emerged as one of the most influential figures in American pop culture, and his network’s unmatched artistic achievements in the first half of 2018 will be remembered as his pièce de résistance. —Matt Brennan
The 16 best TV shows of 2018 (so far)
Kristen’s No. 1: The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
KRISTEN: Honestly, is NoHo Hank TV’s most likable Chechen mobster ever? I hope he and Barry stay friends in season 2. Well, Darren, we’re at my No. 1 show of the year (so far), and it will likely not come as a surprise to you: FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Though named for the famous designer, Versace used his murder to tell the stories of Andrew Cunanan’s earlier victims, and to examine the societal prejudices and neglect that rendered the gay community so vulnerable during Cunanan’s crime spree. Also no surprise: The cast and the performances were remarkable, and if Darren Criss (who played Cunanan) and Judith Light (as the wife of one of his victims, Lee Miglin), do not win big come Emmy season, it will be (ahem) a crime.
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