Broadcast TV Impeachment: American Crime Story - FX (1 Viewer)

[Ken H]

I saw that scene and thought it had to be real in that truth-is-stranger-than-fiction kind of way.

This show has pulled me in but I wish they didn't waste time on referencing modern-day people like Brett Kavanaugh, George Conway, or that hideous ghoul Ann Coulter (the actor playing her absolutely nails the voice). I assume they were actually involved but if Kavanaugh hadn't gotten on the Supreme Court, there's no chance that they would have bothered to mention his name in this episode so the references come off as awkward to me.

I find it interesting that both you & I are enjoying the series, but we reacted differently to the name dropping. I thought it was done well, little footnotes that connect to the here and now. Maybe it would help younger viewers to relate better?

 

[Ken H]

Maybe I need to watch the scene again....

I'm watching playoff baseball today, but I'll go back and transcribe some of the dialog.

You know what they say, you see what you want to see, you hear what you want to hear. Maybe because I know how it turns out, that everyone admitted everything in the end, that's what I heard? We shall see.

.......it’s just a weird outlook I have on it that I think stems from a pet-peeve of mine in life.....

The vagaries of language are employed just for that reason; to give people wiggle room.

 

[Tommy R]

I find it interesting that both you & I are enjoying the series, but we reacted differently to the name dropping. I thought it was done well, little footnotes that connect to the here and now. Maybe it would help younger viewers to relate better?

When this is done in fiction it would be called “fan-service” or even be accused of being a “retcon”. What do we call it when it really happened in real life? Lol!

 

[TravisR]

I find it interesting that both you & I are enjoying the series, but we reacted differently to the name dropping. I thought it was done well, little footnotes that connect to the here and now. Maybe it would help younger viewers to relate better?

I think it's also done to give the audience an easy way to decide who the good and bad guys are by using their feelings on current politics. That being said, I don't think it's necessary because the less well-known people's motivations seem like they'd be pretty clear to me.

 

[Ken H]

I think it's also done to give the audience an easy way to decide who the good and bad guys are by using their feelings on current politics.

Not much has changed over the years.

 

[TravisR]

Not much has changed over the years.

As they say on The Wire, "The game's the same, it's just got more fierce."

 

[SamT]

I love it when they reference modern-day people. I think it's great. You see where people come from, how they change and it's fascinating.

They are finally back on track with this season. Season 2 was bad. Went way down the deranged fascination path.

 

[TravisR]

I love it when they reference modern-day people. I think it's great. You see where people come from, how they change and it's fascinating.

But the thing is, none of them have changed. That they're even being depicted during this time is based on who they are now. Like I said, they're doing it to make it easy for the audience to know who is good or bad based on their current views.

 

[SamT]

3x06 Man Handled

Best part:

Spoiler

Shut the f**k up,
you mother***ing c***sucker.

 

[Ken H]

Maybe I need to watch the scene again, but it seemed to me that she didn’t actually say any of this in the conversation with Tripp.

Tripp asked Monica if she was still planning to lie on her affidavit, and Monica said I already signed it.

Monica says if the shoe was on the other foot, I would keep your secret.

Tripp says Vernon Jordan got you a big job, didn't he, and Monica says yes.

Monica says all I need is to say you won't tell them about me, please.

Perhaps not as literal as you would like, but it was enough for the Office of Independent Counsel to get Clinton impeached.

 

[Ken H]

Episode 6 - Man Handled

Tripp gets Monica to meet her at a shopping mall, where she is picked up by the FBI, for the Office of Independent Counsel's investigation into crimes committed in the Paula Jones lawsuit.

After federal prosecutor Michael Emmick tells her she can face up to 28 years in prison, Monica loses it. When confronted with the recording of what she said to Tripp, Monica screams at Tripp, who's in another room in the suite, Linda what did you do?

When Monica was first picked up, Emmick was taking a calm, measured approach to speaking with her, but he was also being very direct, basically telling her she had to cooperate or go to jail. When Ken Starr hears that Monica is not immediately going along, he has the other primary federal prosecutor Jackie Bennett Jr., go to the room, who immediately started ordering her around, yelling at her, swearing at her, and generally being quite the asshole. The old "good cop, bad cop" routine. She naturally didn't respond well. Monica kept asking about calling her mother, and she was allowed to but the call was heard by everyone in the room, so all she did was tell her mother she was fine, and hung up.

After more threats to cooperate or go to jail, for reasons unknown, in spite of the fact the OIC needed to keep everything under wraps until Clinton testified the next day, they decided to let Monica leave the suite to make a phone call to her mother. She goes back to the mall to make the call, and to both of their surprises, she runs into Tripp, who's hands are full with shopping bags from the mall. If looks could kill......

Monica's mother says she's taking a train to Washington from NYC and not to do anything until she gets there. Which is over 4 hours later. The wait begins. Monica's mother also calls her ex, Monica's father. He contacts his lawyer, William Ginsburg, who tells him to have his wife call as soon as she arrives at the suite where Monica is, and he will talk to the feds, and promises to "fix this" While waiting in the suite, Emmick asks if Monica wants to watch TV, and they do. While flipping channels, a news story says Clinton will testify in the Paula Jones case the next day, and the look on her face says she realizes what's at stake.

Tripp goes home, and realizing what she has done, looks like she wants to disappear,

Still waiting, Monica asks if she can get out of the hotel suite for a little while, and Emmick says yes, and they go to the mall. Monica says she has to go to the bathroom, and goes to into Macy's, where she makes phone calls to try and get a hold of Clinton, to no avail.

Paula Jones's lawyers go to Tripp's home and are asking her questions about anything they can use while questioning Clinton tomorrow. Tripp is describing how she feels about Clinton, remembering how Reagan (always wore a suit in the Oval Office) and Bush (wrote letters of condolence to every family who lost a son in the Gulf wars) were in the White House, contrasting it to Clinton, who "got the first vulnerable girl he saw in a hallway to suck his dick". She also told them there was a book, Leaves of Grass, and a hat pin, that Clinton gave Monica.

Monica's mother finally arrives, and tries to get her to accept the offer of immunity in exchange for her testimony and being wired while she called Clinton, his White House secretary Betty Currie, and Vernon Jordan who got her the Revlon job in NYC.

Monica understands what will happen to Clinton if she does the deal, and tells her mother no can do. Monica's mother knows her daughter is serious, and they tell the OIC prosecutors. Monica's mother wants to call her ex, and the prosecutors say no, no one outside of this room can know about what is happening. Monica's mother says too late, he already knows. So they call her father, and he puts Ginsburg on the phone with Monica and demands a formal agreement before Monica does anything, which Emmick says can't be done at this time of the night (after 11pm EST now) after calling Emmick a motherfucking cocksucker and lying sack of shit a few times, he tells Monica to take her mother and leave. And they do, much to the chagrin of Emmick and company.

When they get home, Monica still very unhinged, and says we can just drive to Canada, which her mother says, no, we would be stopped at the border, it's the government. Monica wants to take a shower and goes into the bathroom, and takes a couple of bottles of prescription pills, and a pair of scissors out of a drawer. Her mother goes to the door and cracks it slightly adjar, and hears Monica sobbing uncontrollably.

 

[TravisR]

Tripp goes home, and realizing what she has done, looks like she wants to disappear,

I assume there will be a scene in the last episode or two where she watches John Goodman play her on Saturday Night Live. The only justice in the situation between Tripp and Lewinsky is that Tripp also basically wrecked her own life because she wanted to pretend that she was important when she wasn't in the least. Unfortunately, I'm sure she dealt with that by going into martyr mode and acting like she was the victim when she caused her own problems.

 

[Tommy R]

This was an amazing tension filled episode. The deeper this goes the more I wonder about exactly how true-to-life all this is. As I was not previously familiar with all these nitty-gritty details the series is depicting, it makes me wonder; assuming all this happened close enough in real life, what WOULD have happened if Monica successfully got a hold of Betty while sneaking in those private phone calls in the mall. If Clinton HAD gotten word about the FBI’s extreme interest in Monica would he have perjured himself that next day? Seems like a potential turning point that could have changed a lot all because of a missed phone call. Then again, it may very well have been artist liberty on the show’s part.

 

[Ken H]

This was an amazing tension filled episode. The deeper this goes the more I wonder about exactly how true-to-life all this is........

Seems like a potential turning point that could have changed a lot all because of a missed phone call. Then again, it may very well have been artist liberty on the show’s part.

It's all pretty accurate.

As the expression goes, you can't make this stuff up.

 

[SamT]

3x07 The Assassination of Monica Lewinsky

Loved it. Until now Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp were the main roles of the story. In this they are barely in it. So appropriate, they are no longer the stars of their own story, things have gotten out of hand and they can no longer control it.

 

[TravisR]

I assume there will be a scene in the last episode or two where she watches John Goodman play her on Saturday Night Live.

Earlier than expected.

 

[TravisR]

I liked that they held on to Edie Falco so long. Hopefully, she has a decent size part in the next two episodes as well.

 

[JohnMor]

I liked that they held on to Edie Falco so long. Hopefully, she has a decent size part in the next two episodes as well.

She was excellent.

 

[ScottH]

I liked that they held on to Edie Falco so long. Hopefully, she has a decent size part in the next two episodes as well.

Yeah, I kept Wondering why they cast Edie Falco in that role if she's not even gonna speak.

 

[SamT]

Great episode but I feel like she is miscast.