S03.E01: Exiles

[atomic]

Quote

After the death of her boss, White House staffer Linda Tripp is moved to the Pentagon, where she meets Monica Lewinsky; Paula Jones decides to sue the President for sexual harassment.

 

Edited September 7, 2021 by atomic

[Spartan Girl]

That opening was so intense. Beanie may not look exactly like Monica, but she’s doing great with the acting.

“Do not listen to my calls, it’s rude!” Oh, the irony…

Linda is vile. Just vile. Throughout all her scenes, I just kept thinking, “You deserve everything SNL will do to you.”

[peridot]

I was still a kid when all of this happened, so it's interesting to see how this sets up.  I'm assuming Victor killed himself because he was caught up in something illegal?

The way Linda self-promoted during her interview was so embarrassing.  I can't believe she had the nerve to wait almost two years later to write a book.  She's a slimy person.  That ambush in the beginning was terrible.

I felt bad for Paula, she seemed way over her head.  Her husband seemed like an ass.  He couldn't even hold her hand while she talked about what happened to her.  I can't believe her husband tried to leverage his wife's harassment to get a part in Designing Women.  Didn't they realize that undermines their whole apology request?  I hated that her husband and her new lawyers pressured her into suing.

[SailorGirl]

28 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

That opening was so intense. Beanie may not look exactly like Monica, but she’s doing great with the acting.

“Do not listen to my calls, it’s rude!” Oh, the irony…

Linda is vile. Just vile. Throughout all her scenes, I just kept thinking, “You deserve everything SNL will do to you.”

She really was just a horrible, hateful, jealous person. I remember when all this was happening and she was just repulsive from day one. It was so obvious she was manipulating herself into everything to get her 15 minutes of fame. 

I have to agree Beanie is taking me out of a bit because she is so much shorter and is carrying a bit more weight than the "portly pepperpot," as Monica was called at one point during all of this, but she is capturing her giggly, girlish,naivete quite well. I can suspend the physical differences and think Beanie is going to do a good job.

Did I mention how absolutely awful Linda Tripp was?? I don't see Paulson at all here, just Tripp, which means she is nailing this. 

I'm so glad Monica Lewinsky has finally been able to come into her own with a sense of humor and grace. Her tweets often win the Internet. What she was put through was absolutely horrible. I never understood why she was the one getting all of the vitriol and everyone else was let off the hook because of who they were. She was the perfect scapegoat and worse yet, was unapologetic about not only her feelings about him but that she enjoyed the sex. How DARE she! Fuckin' patriarchy. . . .

She's done some great interviews for Vanity Fair, a Ted talk, and she was involved in the production of this show. I've been a fan of hers for a long while, and even if this show isn't the best, its another way for her to continue taking back her life. After how many years? #TeamMonica

Edited September 8, 2021 by SailorGirl

[Blakeston]

I found this very depressing and unpleasant to watch.

Linda Tripp was an awful person? I didn't need to watch this to know that. Ann Coulter is an awful person? Already knew that too.

It just lacked the energy that the previous ACS premieres had.

[bmoore4026]

Wow.  They really skimped on the lighting budget this season, huh?  Pretty bold for a TV show to keep people literally in the dark as well as figuratively.  Is it to keep us from seeing the cast not looking like their real world counterparts?  I mean, I did not know that lady in the ladies room with Linda (say that three times fast) was Hillary Clinton.  I guess I'm just stupid.

Knowing next to nothing about Linda Tripp, other than she was obnoxious, I see that she was basically Frank Grimes from The Simpsons, feeling entitled to bigger and better things because of her "years as a civil servant".  Maybe I'm looking into things too much but is this show implying she's going to do the things she going to do to get back at The White House?

The moment Monica appeared in the flashback, I was like "Oh, hear comes this poor thing".  My mom, however, was more ambivalent, saying Monica wasn't some sweet, innocent thing.  And she was right.  When that phone call happened at the end, I knew my mom was right.  I do feel a bit bad for her getting caught on Linda's hook, though.

The one person I do feel sorry for is Paula Jones.  She's sexually harassed, her husband is a creep and manipulative, and she gets mocked at CPAC.  I wanted to hug her so bad.

[SailorGirl]

11 minutes ago, bmoore4026 said:

Wow.  They really skimped on the lighting budget this season, huh?  Pretty bold for a TV show to keep people literally in the dark as well as figuratively.  Is it to keep us from seeing the cast not looking like their real world counterparts?  I mean, I did not know that lady in the ladies room with Linda (say that three times fast) was Hillary Clinton.  I guess I'm just stupid.

Knowing next to nothing about Linda Tripp, other than she was obnoxious, I see that she was basically Frank Grimes from The Simpsons, feeling entitled to bigger and better things because of her "years as a civil servant".  Maybe I'm looking into things too much but is this show implying she's going to do the things she going to do to get back at The White House?

The moment Monica appeared in the flashback, I was like "Oh, hear comes this poor thing".  My mom, however, was more ambivalent, saying Monica wasn't some sweet, innocent thing.  And she was right.  When that phone call happened at the end, I knew my mom was right.  I do feel a bit bad for her getting caught on Linda's hook, though.

The one person I do feel sorry for is Paula Jones.  She's sexually harassed, her husband is a creep and manipulative, and she gets mocked at CPAC.  I wanted to hug her so bad.

But comparatively, Monica was innocent. She was 22 and she naively believed that what she and Clinton had was real, regardless of his office. She has been honest about it. And she made the cardinal sin of being a woman who enjoyed sex and didn't apologize for it. She legitimately thought they were in love. And I do believe from her perspective and lack of life experience at that time, that she really believed he was in love with her. Based on what she's said, I believe he had feelings for her but there was no way he was ever going to give everything up for her. 

So in that respect, yes she was naive. 

You may want to check out the documentary Monica in Black and White -- its from 2017, I think, and its essentially an Ask Me Anything. Its a roller coaster for her, but she does it. Its on Youtube in four parts. It will give you a lot of insight in her side of things. She doesn't make excuses for her behavior and she does own up to her parts in it. But it is also clear that she never stood a chance. You may also want to watch her Barbara Walters interview. 

Here's the link to the first part of the "Black and White" documentary. The rest will show up in the queue as you watch them. 
 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by SailorGirl

[chick binewski]

I was expecting it but the portrayal of Tripp is really taking me out of the show. I don't understand some of her actions but the bitter, boastful pest doesn't seem accurate either. The Willey interactions in particular seem to be created from whole cloth - Willey's husband had killed himself on or around the day Tripp ran into her and the team job interview seemed far-fetched.

I do believe Tripp had an attachment to Foster or some ideal of the WH that moved her to do some pretty questionable things, but I just cant see her as a complete villain.

[choclatechip45]

I was too young to remember the events. I thought it was okay. I really like Beanie as Monica probably because I don't remember the news stories from the time. 

[gesundheit]

I know we only had a few seconds of him but to me, Clive Owen is by far the most miscast so far. Just seems like Clive Owen in makeup.

[absnow54]

7 hours ago, gesundheit said:

I know we only had a few seconds of him but to me, Clive Owen is by far the most miscast so far. Just seems like Clive Owen in makeup.

The makeup made him look more like the animatronic version of Clinton in the Disney Hall of Presidents too.

[Empress1]

9 hours ago, SailorGirl said:

She's done some great interviews for Vanity Fair, a Ted talk, and she was involved in the production of this show.

She’s also done anti-bullying work in schools. My friend is a teacher and her school worked with Monica, and my friend said Monica was lovely. (She taught middle school so she said the students kind of knew OF her but didn’t know the gory details.)

[SailorGirl]

5 minutes ago, qtpye said:

One of the problems might be that Clinton’s behavior ( though terrible) does not seem all that shocking anymore after Metoo and the murders of the previous seasons will always be horrifying.

You hit the nail on the head! Okay, so he had an affair in the White House. Not the first, not going to be the last. Its not like she was a spy manipulating him, or trying to get a cushy job in the White House, or anything like that. She was just having fun. The HORROR. If he wasn't going to fling with her, there would have been (and were) several someone else's.

The lying about it under oath? Yeah, not so good. But men lie about affairs. They just do. Its not like he was lying about back-door channels to Russia or trying to get foreign countries to interfere in elections, or other actual traitorous behavior worthy of impeachment. It was JUST SEX. 

For me, I have always been able to separate Clinton the man and Clinton the president. Cheaters gonna cheat -- regardless of whether its the president, Hugh Grant, or some rando nobody. It happens. And being really truthful here, my feeling is that someone who feels like they "need" to get laid is going to be focusing more on that than their actual job until they get their physical needs sated. If he was getting laid, he was able to check that box and then focus on presidential matters. Maybe I've just been around way too many cheating horn dogs, but that's how I look at it. 

[txhorns79]

10 hours ago, chick binewski said:

I was expecting it but the portrayal of Tripp is really taking me out of the show. I don't understand some of her actions but the bitter, boastful pest doesn't seem accurate either. The Willey interactions in particular seem to be created from whole cloth - Willey's husband had killed himself on or around the day Tripp ran into her and the team job interview seemed far-fetched.

I think I had read that Tripp was very bitter about being transferred out of the White House.  Though I agree that the idea of she and Willey presenting themselves as a package deal at a job interview probably was mostly made up so they could later have Tripp feel betrayed by Willey.

 

[Guest]

Please remember to limit your comments to this episode only.

Thank you.

[iMonrey]

First of all, is Sarah Paulson under exclusive contract with Ryan Murphy? Or is it the other way around? I like Sarah Paulson as much as the next person but she is in Every. Single. Thing that Ryan Murphy ever does. 

I found this premier to be rather disjointed and difficult to follow. It seems to assume foreknowledge of the story, and although I was alive and well at the time it all happened I don't know that I paid much attention to it or knew of the players involved beyond Monica Lewinsky herself and the president. Trying to figure out who is who and what their role is wasn't easy and jumping around in time didn't help matters either. Plus, at one point someone was looking at a newspaper with a headline that read "Clinton wins second term" yet the scene had been captioned as taking place in 1998, two years after the election. WTF. 

I'll keep watching but so far it's not really grabbing me. Feels too much like (another) vanity project for Sarah Paulson, and I wasn't expecting the series to revolve around her character. 

[txhorns79]

31 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Plus, at one point someone was looking at a newspaper with a headline that read "Clinton wins second term" yet the scene had been captioned as taking place in 1998, two years after the election. WTF. 

I think it was just meant as a souvenir Monica kept from her time in DC.  It wasn't meant to establish the current date.

[TheGreenKnight]

Sort of boring. I haven't seen the previous two seasons to tell if it's always like this. Paulson as Tripp was just so repulsive and gross. The actress for Jones hit the mark, too.

Edited September 8, 2021 by TheGreenKnight

[absnow54]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I found this premier to be rather disjointed and difficult to follow. It seems to assume foreknowledge of the story, and although I was alive and well at the time it all happened I don't know that I paid much attention to it or knew of the players involved beyond Monica Lewinsky herself and the president. Trying to figure out who is who and what their role is wasn't easy and jumping around in time didn't help matters either. Plus, at one point someone was looking at a newspaper with a headline that read "Clinton wins second term" yet the scene had been captioned as taking place in 1998, two years after the election. WTF. 

Yeah, I kind of wish they had kept it chronological instead of jumping all over the place. We started in January 1998 (with a headline from 1996...) then jumped back to 1993 and eventually made it to 1996. I would have focused the first episode on Monica and saved Linda Tripp's origin story episode for when she became relevant to the timeline. I don't think non-linear storytelling works well with stories where the entire audience already knows the major highlights. I spent most of the episode reading the Wikipedia page instead. 

[Empress1]

I was watching like "Monica, stop telling your business!" I just saw a meme that said "Stop telling people your business. Some people talk to you so they can talk about you" and that was running through my mind when Monica was all "I'm involved with someone unavailable" to this woman she had JUST MET. 

19 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

I mean, I did not know that lady in the ladies room with Linda (say that three times fast) was Hillary Clinton.  I guess I'm just stupid.

I didn't get it either, until Linda said it. I was like "Oh, Edie Falco" but she didn't register as Hillary to me either.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Empress1

[Toonces464]

I love Sarah Paulson but I can already tell this one isn't going to pull me in the way the previous two did. I followed the OJ case and the Versace case. I didn't follow all this Lewinsky stuff at all because frankly I didn't care. I'm disappointed this is what they chose to do after two such compelling stories.

[BoogieBurns]

I couldn't follow the timeline at all. I was too young to know what was happening other than the years he was elected and reelected. 

Edie looked like Edie Falco, not Hillary circa 1996. But even if they were going for Hillary, it looked like current day HRC. She was far less polished in the 90s.

I could REALLY use some clues as to what characters are on screen. I didn't know who killed themself until the news report said his name, I still didn't know who he was in the grand scheme. 

I followed the OJ miniseries better and I think I was 6 when the verdict was announced. They shouldn't assume their audience knows all these folks. 

[Milburn Stone]

23 hours ago, peridot said:

I felt bad for Paula, she seemed way over her head. I hated that...her new lawyers pressured her into suing.

I didn't think they did. They laid out the dangers ahead for her quite clearly. They needed her to be really sure she wanted to do this. The statute of limitations (which only gave her a day to decide) was not something they made up, it was a fact she needed to know. I thought they handled things responsibly.

The central character in the show so far is Linda Tripp, and I'd be fine if it stayed that way. Sarah Paulson is awesome.

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Milburn Stone

[Utpe]

I don't really care for Cobie Smulders playing Ann Coulter.  I can't help but to burst out laughing whenever she's on-screen.  Perhaps it has something to do with watching Cobie on "How I Met Your Mother" for nine years.

Too bad Betty Gilpin had to bow out from the show due to scheduling conflicts.

[Miss Slay]

I'm probably in the minority but I loved it. 

I thought it was really done and set up the players well. I do wish it was more from Monica's perspective in the first episode. I predict another Emmy for Sarah Paulson. She def the best villian of the year.

[Glade]

I just found this really slow, hushed, dimly-lit.  I was a child when this happened, and didn't know all the details and almost nothing about Linda Tripp except her name, so I was expecting this episode to be about Monica.  But I'm also a little tripped up about the lack of resemblance; Sarah Paulson wore 4 inch heels/platforms to match LT's height, but the actress playing Monica definitely didn't go to those lengths.  I hope this all picks up the pace and pays off in the end, I'm just not feeling it yet.

[EtheltoTillie]

The actress playing Paula Jones looks exactly like her. 

[SailorGirl]

Fact-checking the premiere episode. Apparently the meeting where Tripp pitched herself and Kathleen Willey as a team did happen. 

https://www.vulture.com/article/impeachment-episode-1-exiles-fact-check.html

MOD -- should we start/do we need an "in the media" thread? 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by SailorGirl

[absnow54]

10 hours ago, BoogieBurns said:

Edie looked like Edie Falco, not Hillary circa 1996. But even if they were going for Hillary, it looked like current day HRC. She was far less polished in the 90s.

This was my major gripe. Edie Falco looked like Senator Hillary Clinton in that scene, not macarena leading First Lady Hillary Clinton.

[MaggieG]

I'm interested in this only because Monica is a producer and it'll be nice to see things from her perspective. 

When Linda talks, I hear Sarah Paulson but when you look at her, you see Linda.  

[meep.meep]

I'd grade the first two series of this as A+ and A-, this wouldn't get more than a C.  Poulson is chewing the scenery and they actually have lots of lighting in the West Wing and the Pentagon.

[iMonrey]

I'm old enough to remember when Nixon was being impeached, so clearly I wasn't too young to remember the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. But I can tell you that if I ever heard the Name Kathleen Willey before, I certainly do not remember it. 

[benteen]

I found this to be a weak premiere episode.  There's some interesting stuff in there but this show and this topic is not as interesting or compelling as the show is trying to make it.  I think one of the reasons is that Clinton was never going to resign and there was never any chance he was going to be removed from office after his impeachment.  Watergate would be a far more compelling and interesting event to do an American Crime Story about.  That actually led to the resignation of a president and a couple of people going to jail.  

I'm not sure what Linda Tripp's angle was or what we are supposed to gleam out of her story.  Just another low-level bureaucrat in the machine of government.  This show is going to do her no favors.

[Milburn Stone]

3 hours ago, benteen said:

I found this to be a weak premiere episode.  There's some interesting stuff in there but this show and this topic is not as interesting or compelling as the show is trying to make it.  I think one of the reasons is that Clinton was never going to resign and there was never any chance he was going to be removed from office after his impeachment.  Watergate would be a far more compelling and interesting event to do an American Crime Story about.  That actually led to the resignation of a president and a couple of people going to jail.  

I do find the show compelling so far, and I'll attempt to explain why. I was in my forties when it happened, a lifelong Democrat, and I remember feeling like, "Why are all these bad people trying to bring down my President?" I mean, I believed he lied when he said "I did not have sex with that woman," but he still seemed (to me) like all he was guilty of was consensual sex. The show, I can tell already, is going to give me a new perspective on that.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Milburn Stone

[chick binewski]

3 hours ago, benteen said:

I found this to be a weak premiere episode.  There's some interesting stuff in there but this show and this topic is not as interesting or compelling as the show is trying to make it.  I think one of the reasons is that Clinton was never going to resign and there was never any chance he was going to be removed from office after his impeachment.  Watergate would be a far more compelling and interesting event to do an American Crime Story about.  That actually led to the resignation of a president and a couple of people going to jail.  

I'm not sure what Linda Tripp's angle was or what we are supposed to gleam out of her story.  Just another low-level bureaucrat in the machine of government.  This show is going to do her no favors.

In case you're interested, the Slow Burn podcast is imo a great retelling and addresses many of the reasons this story is so compelling and not just in a Current Affair kind of way.

Tripp passed away last year.

Re Designing Women: allegedly one of the goals (or hopes?) of the Bloodworth-Thomason productions of DW and Evening Shade was to provide a well-rounded, smart portrayal of southerners to the rest of America and by extension making the Clintons more attractive to voters.

I have no idea if this is true, but there was a lot of 'that's just the way in Arkansas' when questions were raised about Clinton. Even some lifetime Democrats thought Clinton would be destroyed by revelations of...something before he was elected. Deserved or not there was a lot of smoke around Bill & Hillary but they also had influential friends. 

[helenamonster]

So excited for the return of Wigs: The Anthology Series.

Also count me as somebody too young to remember when all this happened, so I'm definitely fuzzy on the less prominent personalities. The episode was definitely all over the place, but a lot had to get established. While Monica was the lynchpin that launched the whole thing into the stratosphere, there were a lot of other elements at play. I'm happy for her that she gets to tell her story in this way. She seems really cool and completely accepting of this part of her life. If I am ever even a fraction of at peace with myself and my choices as she is with hers, I'll be happy.

Beanie may not be a ringer for Monica but she's definitely got the right energy. Young, endearingly naive, and pretty in a less obvious way.

Annaleigh Ashford is also already doing great work as Paula Jones. Of all the characters we've "met" so far, I think that's the toughest needle to thread and she's knocking it out of the park.

The rest of the cast, I'm itching to play musical chairs with. Put Margot Martindale as Linda, Sarah Paulson as Hillary, and Edie Falco...as a Carmela clip from an episode of The Sopranos that somebody will eventually be watching to clue us in that it's 1999. I love her dearly but that might be the most bizarre casting choice of them all.

[stonehaven]

I found this hard to watch. For me, I will always equate Linda Tripp with John Goodman's impression on SNL. That may not be fair but it's that to me.

I'm interested because I know most of the players but the casting does seem a bit off....George Stephanopolis(sp?) had only a few moments of screen time but I want to see more. I also enjoyed the brief clip of Jeopardy and that Tripp watched Jag.

Beyond that, I'll watch the rest as I bought the series on Prime but I bought the previous two series as well. 

Both of those seasons were good but this just seems to be a rehash of gossip with stylish sets.....

[lovinbob]

18 hours ago, stonehaven said:

I found this hard to watch. For me, I will always equate Linda Tripp with John Goodman's impression on SNL. That may not be fair but it's that to me.

...

I'm interested because I know most of the players but the casting does seem a bit off....George Stephanopolis(sp?) 

This actor wasn't nearly as cute as Stephanopoulos was at the time I wish they had gone with another actor from the Ryan Murphy stable -- Darren Criss.

Regarding the Goodman portrayal--I watched this awful old interview of Tripp recently. It was from after she had lost weight and had plastic surgery. She kept saying something to the effect of how she didn't blame people for being critical of her looks, because when she saw herself on TV she thought she was ugly too. So she had the surgery to soften her image. It was so bizarre. As much as I might disagree with her behavior, physically she was hardly a monster. The internalized misogyny broke my heart. 

20 hours ago, helenamonster said:

So excited for the return of Wigs: The Anthology Series.

...

The rest of the cast, I'm itching to play musical chairs with. Put Margot Martindale as Linda, Sarah Paulson as Hillary, and Edie Falco...as a Carmela clip from an episode of The Sopranos that somebody will eventually be watching to clue us in that it's 1999. I love her dearly but that might be the most bizarre casting choice of them all.

Normally I HATE wigs. They never look right. However, the wigs they're using for Paulson/Tripp are SPOT ON. So good! They didn't do as good a job with her nose, IMO, but the "fat suit" doesn't bother me at all. Paulson is nailing Linda Tripp's hunched, matronly gait. 

However, I agree that Martindale could have done well as Tripp and Paulson as Hillary. So far Falco is the most ill-cast IMO.

That scene with Ann Coulter--was one of those other guys supposed to be Brett Kavanaugh?  

[chick binewski]

4 hours ago, lovinbob said:

This actor wasn't nearly as cute as Stephanopoulos was at the time I wish they had gone with another actor from the Ryan Murphy stable -- Darren Criss.

Regarding the Goodman portrayal--I watched this awful old interview of Tripp recently. It was from after she had lost weight and had plastic surgery. She kept saying something to the effect of how she didn't blame people for being critical of her looks, because when she saw herself on TV she thought she was ugly too. So she had the surgery to soften her image. It was so bizarre. As much as I might disagree with her behavior, physically she was hardly a monster. The internalized misogyny broke my heart. 

Normally I HATE wigs. They never look right. However, the wigs they're using for Paulson/Tripp are SPOT ON. So good! They didn't do as good a job with her nose, IMO, but the "fat suit" doesn't bother me at all. Paulson is nailing Linda Tripp's hunched, matronly gait. 

However, I agree that Martindale could have done well as Tripp and Paulson as Hillary. So far Falco is the most ill-cast IMO.

That scene with Ann Coulter--was one of those other guys supposed to be Brett Kavanaugh?  

There's a blind item that Criss was fired from ACS and they're trying to keep the reason under wraps.

The only reason why I lean into this rumor is Stephanopoulos once ordered a drink from me and the way he did so...maybe it's similar to what people say about Clinton - and I don't mean that anything happened in a flirtatious or sexual way - but George was so ON and engaged and personable and this actor was...not. I know it's not George's show but he was a pretty strong force back then (see The War Room) so I'd expect the actor to be more memorable.

I don't know who the men with Coulter were supposed to be. It seemed like they were her "crew" but I don't think she had much of anything going on back then and how she had a friend in George Conway.

[juliet73]

So far, I'm enjoying this.  I thought it was going to be more about Monica. I'm assuming this first episode was concentrated on Linda Tripp to establish that she was a horrible person in case someone wasn't familiar with the story.  

I agree with other posters in that Edie Falco shouldn't have been cast as Hillary.  I also think Betty Gilpin would have been a better Ann Coulter, but Colbie Smulders is fine.  The actress playing Paula Jones is excellent.  Sarah Paulsen is good as Linda Tripp, but I'm tired of seeing her in every Ryan Murphy show.  I'm on the fence about the actress playing Monica. I can't tell if she is being portrayed as too naive and innocent or if that's just Beanie.  I also think she's a lot shorter and heavier than Monica so that's bothering me too.  It's strange that the casting/makeup is so meticulous for certain characters ...Linda Tripp, Paula Jones, etc but other characters, not so much (Hillary Clinton, Monica Lewinsky).  The same thing happened in The People vs OJ Simpson.  Marcia Clark, Johnny Cochran, etc were spot on, but Cuba Gooding Jr as OJ was odd.  He was so much smaller than OJ that he was never believable.  

I've enjoyed the previous ACS so I'll definitely continue watching this one, even though it wasn't necessarily a crime, more like a scandal.  

Edited September 12, 2021 by juliet73

[Joimiaroxeu]

I still don't understand why Linda Tripp isn't more vilified. I'm afraid this show might have the unintended consequence of making her more sympathetic because of how batshit she seems.

Ew, Linda stuck her hand in the cafeteria bowl of M&Ms.

Good casting on the woman playing Paula Jones. It's hard to imagine how naive Paula and her husband were.

Linda was quite the name-dropper, huh? Amazing how full of herself she was and how willing she was to use anyone she could as a stepping stone.

Linda apparently was too much of a Karen for the WH, hah hah. Imagine thinking you're swimming with the sharks but the apex predators don't even want to be bothered with you.

Monica and Linda bonded over diet food. Okay.

I don't understand Monica being temporarily exiled to the Pentagon. Was there really a plan to let her go back to the WH? If someone already knew she was a problem why would they allow her to do that?

Wait a minute, that was Edie Falco as Hillary? 🤯🤯🤯

And nothing against British actors per se but I get annoyed seeing them play American historical icons. Abraham Lincoln, MLK, Harriet Tubman, and now Bill Clinton. Why can't they get American actors for these roles?

Edited September 12, 2021 by Joimiaroxeu
thanks a lot, spellcheck

[chick binewski]

On 9/8/2021 at 10:57 PM, Milburn Stone said:

I didn't think they did. They laid out the dangers ahead for her quite clearly. They needed her to be really sure she wanted to do this. The statute of limitations (which only gave her a day to decide) was not something they made up, it was a fact she needed to know. I thought they handled things responsibly.

 

On 9/11/2021 at 11:40 AM, DanaK said:

I have to disagree somewhat about Paula's new lawyers. The show has them being sent to Paula by Ann Coulter or other right wing types and for real they were conservative types, so they weren't exactly impartial from the get-go

I do think it's very unfortunate that whatever the veracity of their accusations against Clinton, Jones, Willey and Juanita Broaddrick allowed themselves to be used 25 years later by Trump to try to rattle Hillary Clinton before a debate

I think the show is playing fast & loose with details bc I believe Coulter got involved well after the Washington lawyers already took Jones' case. Possible real-life spoilers:

Spoiler

Coulter was the one who leaked Jones' comments about Clinton's anatomy. Coulter was hell-bent on taking Clinton down and to this day has zero problem with the fact she got involved and continues to bad-mouth Jones as trash. 

16 hours ago, juliet73 said:

I agree with other posters in that Edie Falco shouldn't have been cast as Hillary.  I also think Betty Gilpin would have been a better Ann Coulter, but Colbie Smulders is fine.  The actress playing Paula Jones is excellent.  Sarah Paulsen is good as Linda Tripp, but I'm tired of seeing her in every Ryan Murphy show.  I'm on the fence about the actress playing Monica. I can't tell if she is being portrayed as too naive and innocent or if that's just Beanie.  I also think she's a lot shorter and heavier than Monica so that's bothering me too.  It's strange that the casting/makeup is so meticulous for certain characters ...Linda Tripp, Paula Jones, etc but other characters, not so much (Hillary Clinton, Monica Lewinsky).  The same thing happened in The People vs OJ Simpson.  Marcia Clark, Johnny Cochran, etc were spot on, but Cuba Gooding Jr as OJ was odd.  He was so much smaller than OJ that he was never believable.  

I've enjoyed the previous ACS so I'll definitely continue watching this one, even though it wasn't necessarily a crime, more like a scandal.  

I think Edie might do a great job - I just hate that she's 2000-era Hillary, not headband Hillary.

I know all the women involved were ridiculed for their appearance so I hope this doesn't sound like lookism but I don't think Beanie is a great fit - Monica was a bit more together and a bit more savvy than Beanie is playing her. And heavens forfend the showrunners cast an actress who looks closer to Tripp.

(And yeah, I still think Cuba was an awful choice as O.J.)

2 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

I still don't understand why Linda Tripp isn't more villified. I'm afraid this show might have the unintended consequence of making her more sympathetic because of how batshit she seems.

Ew, Linda stuck her hand in the cafeteria bowl of M&Ms.

Good casting on the woman playing Paula Jones. It's hard to imagine how naive Paula and her husband were.

Linda was quite the name-dropper, huh? Amazing how full of herself she was and how willing she was to use anyone she could as a stepping stone.

Linda apparently was too much of a Karen for the WH, hah hah. Imagine thinking you're swimming with the sharks but the apex predators don't even want to be bothered with you.

Monica and Linda bonded over diet food. Okay.

I don't understand Monica being temporarily exiled to the Pentagon. Was there really a plan to let her go back to the WH? If someone already knew she was a problem why would they allow her to do that?

I think Tripp has always been completely vilified and in my opinion somewhat undeservedly. I hope if I was in her position I would have merely pulled a 'girl, you in danger' with Monica and I don't quite understand how one can continue to tape someone whilst pretending to be their confidante, but Monica was itching to talk about this and had even disclosed the relationship to an ex. Lewinsky was pretty oblivious to the situation she was in and as Tripp so aptly phrased it, "Monica thought she was the girlfriend." Lewinsky was going to lie under oath. While I can excuse her age for some of her behavior to this day she does not admit that she believes any of Clinton's accusers. 

Lewinsky was removed from the WH to allay suspicion of any impropriety (too late) and although I'm sure they told her she'd return that was not going to happen. 

Edited September 12, 2021 by chick binewski

[Ailianna]

I noticed several people mentioning that this doesn't seem like a "crime", but I understand the show is about the women, not the president and not even really the scandal. What if the " crime" here is really the societal misogyny and the victim blaming? What if it's the crime of not seeing women as persons in their own right,  and all the myriad people, attitudes, and narrowness that allows it to flourish?

[jschoolgirl]

The man sitting closest to Coulter was Matt Drudge (Billy Eichner; I looked him up while watching, and his picture matched the character). Based on the cast list, the other man must be George Conway (George Salazar), whom Coulter was dating at the time. 

I've been in West Wing offices, and they are not anywhere near as spacious and well appointed as what is being shown. It's more like being on a ship in tight quarters. And, yes, the lighting is absurdly dim. 

[hoodooznoodooz]

On 9/9/2021 at 2:17 PM, BingeyKohan said:

[Paula’s husband] suggested he could be a love interest for Delta Burke since she wasn't even on the show for the final seasons! 

Bill Clinton and Steve seem to both have a “type.”

[hoodooznoodooz]

Paula Jones’s husband was Ghost Elvis in “Mystery Train”!!!!

I was obsessed with Jim Jarmusch films.

[kassa]

I'm enjoying it. I know a lot of folk are tired of Paulson, but damn, every time she does Tripp's lumbering walk I just laugh. 

Tripp embodied every horrible person who rises to a position of a reasonable amount of power because of the person she's connected to, loses that person, and sees their entire career implode because their behavior alienated every other person who don't raise a finger to help out. They're flabbergasted because they thought they were exercising power of their own, only to find they never had any.

Yes, the Paula Jones actress is stealing the entire production. So accurate, and so surprisingly sympathetic considering what has transpired in the decades since. 

 

 

[BrindaWalsh]

I am just a few years younger than Monica Lewinsky and find myself more sympathetic to her now than I was back then..  She was 22 at the time - her frontal cortex hadn't even finished developing at the time.  That lovely part of the brain that is involved with "motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social and sexual behavior."   But I also now find myself more interested in all of the different players around the impeachment of Bill Clinton than I was back then.  I love Washington politics in TV drama so I enjoyed this episode, even if I didn't fully remember much, or know about some of it from the outset.  

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I still don't understand why Linda Tripp isn't more vilified. I'm afraid this show might have the unintended consequence of making her more sympathetic because of how batshit she seems.

 

That's interesting, I walked away from this show thinking how incredibly unlikeable she was.  Self-important, rude, judgmental, condescending.  Lonely and angry - clearly.  But that's not enough to make her sympathetic.  Although it is interesting, in the press her daughter has said that the show is more sympathetic to her than life ever was - I read that before watching the show itself, and wondered if we were watching the same thing.  

I like the actress portraying Monica.  She does a good job of capturing both the "I'm a professional" attitude that it must require to have an internship at the white house or with the Pentagon, but show the vulnerability of the fact that this was still very much a young girl making some very stupid decisions and being influenced by some very powerful people all along the way.  What our society did to her is shameful.  Monica has long said that she saw a side of our government that she never knew existed before then when it came to influence and pressure and safety, and I'm interested to see the show expand on that and hope that they do.   

 

[MamaMax]

On 9/9/2021 at 5:12 AM, GussieK said:

The actress playing Paula Jones looks exactly like her. 

the prosthetic nose is a little much for me. Its distracting.

 

Am I alone in feeling that there was an undercurrent that Paula was lying/exaggerating because the husband was so mad?  I got that feeling right away and was rather surprised.

 

On 9/9/2021 at 5:14 PM, Milburn Stone said:

I do find the show compelling so far, and I'll attempt to explain why. I was in my forties when it happened, a lifelong Democrat, and I remember feeling like, "Why are all these bad people trying to bring down my President?" I mean, I believed he lied when he said "I did not have sex with that woman," but he still seemed (to me) like all he was guilty of was consensual sex. The show, I can tell already, is going to give me a new perspective on that.

 

Yes, the Slow Burn podcast definitely did that for me as well.  Very different perspective with hindsight and more details.

 

Not sure why there's so much sentiment that Edie Falco is miscast when she's only said like 2 words.  I understand some people find the wardrobe choice a bit of an anachronism, but I recognized her immediately as Hillary, before I even realized it was Falco. 

[Milburn Stone]

9 minutes ago, MamaMax said:

Not sure why there's so much sentiment that Edie Falco is miscast when she's only said like 2 words.  I understand some people find the wardrobe choice a bit of an anachronism, but I recognized her immediately as Hillary, before I even realized it was Falco. 

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the show tried out various looks on her that were more period-appropriate, and none of them said "Hillary" to a 2021 eye like the one they ended up with. Caricature-like recognizability is more important in a show like this than scrupulous accuracy.