S02.E05: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

[Robert Lynch]

I for one never watched any of Ryan Murphy's American Horror Stories series, but I did like his Bette and Joan Feud segments and just recently became addicted to the Versace series. He does have an eye for talent and how the actors could portray emotion like no other. I always wondered what his next project will be. 

[dubbel zout]

11 hours ago, Robert Lynch said:

I always wondered what his next project will be. 

The next season of Feud will be Charles and Diana. That should be...interesting.

[Jazzhands]

Can’t wait!!!

[andromeda331]

Another really good episode. Poor Jeff. I love the way he spoke of service. My dad served in the army, my uncle in the navy, and that was how they always spoke.  He seems like such a nice and decent man. As others have said I love that we are learning so much about they victims.        

[aradia22]

This was another rough one for me. I think I'm going to put it on Daniel Minahan's direction because I got the same filler vibe from both episode 4 and 5. Finn was not giving a bad performance as Jeff but there was too much distance from his character and what dramatic moments were there were too over the top. Like cutting himself to try to remove the tattoo and the abandoned suicide attempt. It's a way of an internal struggle external for the sake a visual medium but... it just didn't work for me. I think this character needed more build up. I needed to see more of his military career. I needed to see more of his relationship with men who were not Andrew either before he went to the bar or after. 

The positives about the episode are that we did get a glimpse of a more charming Andrew when he first meets Finn at the bar and I think the episode did a good job of capturing how bad things still were for closeted men in the 90's, especially in particular areas like the military.

I don't know. I just feel gross and heavy now. It wasn't entertaining and engaging to watch. But it wasn't emotionally intense either. It wasn't exactly boring but... It feels like eating a meal where you're too full and yet unsatisfied. Episodes 4 and 5 felt too long but also like they didn't accomplish enough storytelling-wise.

[aradia22]

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As much as some folks wanted the innocent people that were killed to "fight back", I truly do not think that Jeff, David and Lee thought that Andrew would retaliate by killing them. They all had no idea that he would snap, because he couldn't get what he wanted from them.

I think maybe part of the problem for me is the difference between reality and the show. In the show, I do think you could predict those things because of the acting and direction. Darren Criss is acting too obviously weird and the camera takes moments to capture his blank stares and the ominous energy is too strong. It's not just all the things the viewer is aware of going into the show but the moment to moment choices being made.

[aradia22]

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This is interesting. If AC were youtubing today, would he be popular? Would he appear on reality TV shows and achieve the level of fame he craved? 

Interesting question. Based on the character as portrayed by Darren Criss, I can sort of see it. Youtube audiences tend to respond to "authenticity" but also a manufactured heightened reality that seems authentic. Certainly there are youtubers who have done all manner of shady things from scams to blackface to all the Jake Paul nonsense and still held on to their fanbases. And drug use is rumored among some but I'm not invested enough to dig for that info. In some ways that kind of artificial, always happy, catchphrase-heavy manufactured life would work well for the version of AC that DC portrays. You only have to be entertaining for a few minutes or at most, an hour. 

As far as reality shows, I feel like he's more of a British reality TV celeb. It takes us a while, but we drop people fairly easily here if they don't measure up (see all the failed reality TV shows) or they don't constantly make plays at relevance (I don't think Miley Cyrus and Bieber have produced anything that worthwhile but they at least bothered to make music and get jobs to put themselves in the public eye). AC apparently didn't have the skills for the latter. (I am somewhat amused at the repeated instances of Andrew being a mediocre singer.) But there's a sort of mean-spirited, haha just kidding reality TV celeb who makes a lot of barbed comments and probably doesn't have a great personal life but is amusing enough to keep getting on different pub quizzes and shows that reminds me of AC as portrayed by DC. In America, he'd be one of the friends on a housewives show who would get tossed aside pretty quickly, either by the housewife for trying to pull focus or because he attached himself to the wrong lesser newbie housewife.