There are now a couple of clips from the first season of the Ryan Murphy series that mines acrimony at its most infamous — Feud.
If you thought Scream Queens was going to be the campier supplement to Ryan Murphy’s already-campy American Horror Story, Feud, at least by its premise, really promises to outcamp anything he — and for that matter, potentially all of television — has ever done. (But to be honest, it’s hard to refrain — and I fear I haven’t in the past — from deeming each new Murphy project some superlative of Murphy-dom, forgetting you said “this really sounds like peak Murphy!” the last time he announced he’d be releasing something equally ridiculous and intriguing.) With the anthology series’ first season titled, simply, Feud: Bette and Joan, it immediately promises hours of two iconic Hollywood actresses with iconic levels of disdain for one another exercising said disdain. You try not to call that peak-something.
The promotional clips — released by FX — show Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis and Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford on the reportedly toxic set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. Per the official description, the series also “explores how the two endured ageism, sexism, and misogyny while struggling to hang on to their careers.”
The first season of American Crime Story (which Murphy himself did not write), it should be noted, was far more serious and socially astute than many expected from a premise that initially sounded like it might questionably give into TV’s more salacious/violent desires. So perhaps Feud will follow suit and use its premise as something of a projection for societal perceptions; or perhaps it’ll just be delightful camp, gilded in the official description’s Serious Social Commentary words for promotional relevancy’s sake. Either way, here’s Susan Sarandon kicking Jessica Lange, aka Bette Davis kicking Joan Crawford:
And here’s Catherine Zeta Jones as Olivia de Havilland, relishing the line, “that was a feud of biblical proportions”:
Feud debuts on FX on March 5.