Entertainment Weekly - February 24 - March 3, 2017

84 EW.COM FEBRUARY 24/MARCH 3, 2017

TV

EDITED BY CAITLIN BRODY@cbroday

Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis, Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford

OVER THE YEARS, SUPERPRODUCER RYAN MURPHY

has demonstrated huge imagination and heart for femi-

nist concerns, in shows fromPopular toGlee,American

Horror Story toThe People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime

Story. He’s also entertained us with the dubious spectacle

of broadly drawn ladies being outrageously witchy to each

other—sometimes in the service of making points about

misogyny, sometimes because pitched bitchiness clearly

amuses him.Feud: Bette and Joan, the inaugural season of

his new anthology series devoted to notorious rivalries,

tackles these themes and tendencies head-on, and asks us

to do the same. Chronicling the enmity between movie

legends Joan Crawford and Bette Davis that blew up

during the making of their one film together,

it’s a showcase for two brilliant actresses,

Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, and a slick

scolding of Hollywood’s treatment of women.

Fe u d begins in 1960 and finds Sarandon’s

Davis, 54, and Lange’s Crawford, 57, languish-

ing at career ebbs and struggling for quality

parts. Davis, depicted as the purer artist

of the two, has retreated to Broadway.

Crawford, widowed and broke, is a hot mess

of vanity, bitterness, and frequent drunken-

ness. Needing income and hungering for

renewed recognition, Crawford persuades

director Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina) to

develop a low-budget project with an

inspired, kinda-meta casting hook:What

Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, a neo-gothic

thriller about aged, washed-up showbiz

sisters. Blanche, an invalid, would be played

by Crawford, while Baby Jane, her demented,

DATE

Debuts March 5

TIME

10 p.m.

NETWORK

FX

REVIEW BY

Jeff Jensen@EWDocJensen

Feud: Bette and Joan

CAITLINBRODY@cbroday

KURT ISWARIENKO/FX (2)