The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

DaisiesAndLilies wrote:That Build interview is golden. I think I watched it three times yesterday.

The Daily Beast wrote:
How Darren Criss Became Versace’s Killer (And Why He Keeps Playing Gay)

1/17/18

Step-touching his way through the halls of the fictional Dalton High School—the hair perfectly parted, the navy blazer impeccably tailored, and amplifying an a capella rendition of a Katy Perry song through the sheer wattage of his all-American smile—a then-22-year-old Darren Criss, fresh out of college and making his debut as Blaine Anderson on a 2010 episode of Glee, was the epitome of the teenage dream.

Now, he’s the 30-year-old stuff of nightmares.

Well, he isn’t, exactly, but the serial killer he plays on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story certainly is.

In many ways, Criss’ revelatory performance as Andrew Cunanan, the 27-year-old gay man who, after murdering five people including the famed fashion designer, became one of the most wanted serial killers in American history, is all the more unsettling because of its stark contrast to the genial crooner we were introduced to on Fox’s burned-fast-and-bright musical dramedy.

But then again, the surprise of a certain clean-cut progressiveness has been the hallmark of Criss’ still-young career.

“I think it’s really given me an alley-oop,” Criss says, referring to the initial shock a Glee fan might have to watching the actor as Cunanan, say, bind a rich john who hires him as an escort with duct tape and then gauge him with a hammer. “I’d like to think [audiences] would be interested and compelled anyway,” without this lingering image of Criss as Blaine, the consummate Nice Guy. “But I think it’s an extra nudge when you have that to juxtapose against.”

When we first met Darren Criss several years ago, he was wearing a thigh-length kimono and tending to his favorite blonde wig, remnants of sweat-sticky glitter smudging just about everything in sight—aided and abetted in its mission by the runoff from his sparkling go-go boots. We were in his dressing room backstage at the Belasco Theatre, high off the energy of his stage-scorching performance in as the titular transgender rocker in the 2015 musical revival Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

It was Criss’ first major gig after wrapping his run on Glee, and a thundering opening salvo in proving the breadth of his talents, let alone taste in projects.

Things are decidedly bleaker, or at the very least chillier, when we reunite two-and-a-half years later at a café in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York to talk Versace, inarguably the biggest and certainly darkest project of his career thus far. Still, Criss’ fashion choice is doing its part to dial up the fabulousness of the morning: a knee-length, forest green mohair overcoathe pets with pride when we compliment it. “One of the kids from Boy Band on Good Morning Americathis morning was like, ‘Yo bro, it looks like you skinned the Grinch!’” Criss laughs. “I’m like, that is indeed an apt observation.”

FULL ARTICLE | THE DAILY BEAST.COM

Darren Criss Army wrote:ACS Versace Premiere Schedule


We apologize if anything is missing or incorrect, but this is what we’ve got compiled for the #ACSVersace premiere schedule. 

(Sorry, still no info for UK/Australia. Check if iTunes/Amazon are available in places without an air date.)

Thanks @ricky_martin for much of the info! 

Business Insider wrote:
'American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace' transcends the murder show genre by diving deep into the lives of the victims, and 90s gay culture

January 17, 2018

The series does give us a glimpse of Versace’s life — both his relationship with his long-time partner, Antonio D’Amico, and with his sister, Donatella (Penelope Cruz) — but the series also looks way beyond that, and is so much better for taking the risk.

Of all the TV that's out there, and I know it's overwhelming, this is a show you should set aside some time to watch. 

[. . .]

Based on Maureen Orth’s book “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cuanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” the series goes beyond its subtitle and tells a story that only a bold, visionary storyteller like executive producer and co-creator Ryan Murphy could tell in such a compelling, thoughtful, and colorful (literally and figuratively) way.

[. . . ]

The biggest surprise is also the best part of “Versace”: its star, Darren Criss. In his creepy and careful performance, Criss proves that he's so much more than the performer I, and I'm sure many, assumed he was. Starting his film and television career on “Glee” as Blaine Anderson, a very mature high school student who belts Katy Perry songs at every moment possible, and venturing not much further from that in theater productions like "How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," Criss’ transformative performance is one of those rare roles where you won’t be able to imagine anyone else but him playing it.

Jeremy wrote:- The (long) opening scene is about Versace being killed but it's very soft, except maybe when Andrew runs into the toilets to puke
- The (also long) scene of Versace's boyfriend finding him in front of the house and Versace being brought to the emergency room is the bloodiest but it's difficult to "skip" it because the camera goes endlessly from a soft interesting moment to a bloody one
- When Versace is really dead, the police gives informations to the public and you see a few images of Versace's corpse

TV Series Finale wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story: Ratings (Season Two)

Episode 1 (1/17/18)    
18-49 Demo:   0.72
Viewers (mil):  2.222

TV by the Numbers wrote:
Wednesday cable ratings: ‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ leads, down a lot from ‘People v. O.J.’

January 18, 2018

The second installment of “American Crime Story” premiered to Wednesday’s top 18-49 rating among cable originals, but it was also down quite a bit from its predecessor.

“ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” drew a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographic, compared to a 2.0 for “The People v. O.J. Simpson.” The dropoff isn’t a huge surprise given how pervasive the Simpson case was in popular culture compared to the Versace murder. In total viewers, “Versace” (2.22 million) came pretty close to “The People v. O.J. Simpson” (2.48 million).

Newsweek wrote:
How to Watch 'Assassination of Gianni Versace' and What to Know For 'American Crime Story' Season 2

1/17/18

The second season of American Crime Story is finally here, with even more crime than the first. 

As with The People v. OJ Simpson, showrunner Ryan Murphy takes viewers through a high-profile crime from the 1990s with The Assassination of Gianni Versace. The first episode of the nine-episode series opens with the famed fashion designer's murder and icludes emotional breakdowns, a high-stakes police chase and Darren Criss in his underwear.

In other words, this premiere is not to be missed. Here's what you need to know to catch The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story tonight.

How to watch

American Crime Story Season 2, Episode 1, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue,” airs Wednesday, January 17, at 10 p.m. ET on FX. 

If you don't have a TV, you can catch the episode the following day on the network's streaming app, FXNow, using your cable provider's login.

If you don't have cable, it gets trickier, but there are options. Try a free seven-day trial of Sling TV, a service that allows you to stream live TV from your computer. (Just remember to cancel before you’re charged the $20-a-month subscription fee for the cheapest package.) Unfortunately, you can only do this once, so you might want to find a friend with cable for the next eight episodes.

What to Know

Cunanan is undoubtedly a breakout role for Criss. He worked with Murphy previously on the musical comedy Glee, and a creepy, unstable serial killer couldn't be more different from the cool, confident Blaine Anderson. (Unless we missed a lot more on Glee than we thought.)

Harpers Bazaar wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Is Really Andrew Cunanan's Show

Jan. 17, 2018

Here are seven talking points from the first episode, "The Man Who Would Be Vogue."

1) It’s early days, but this may be the most stunning opening to any show in 2018.

I saw the first seven minutes of this episode back in August, and was so genuinely bowled over that I didn’t know what to do with myself afterwards. From the music to the cinematography to the meticulously detailed set (which recreates the interior of Versace’s Miami Beach home), it’s a ravishing, enthralling sequence laced with so much dread, because you know exactly what Versace is walking towards when he strolls back to his house from the cafe. It’s even more impactful when you consider that Versace had been seriously ill shortly before he died (expect to see this explored in a future episode). Every morning he woke up probably felt like a gift.

2) The show pulls a bait-and-switch early on.

In the sense that Gianni Versace’s name is in the title, but this is really Andrew Cunanan's show. I suspect some viewers who tuned in expecting to see the detailed story of Versace may be disappointed, but Cunanan is such a mesmerizingly unique character—and Darren Criss is such a revelation in this role—that the focus on him and his mental state is understandable. It is striking, though, that we go a full sixteen minutes before Versace himself has any significant dialogue, or even any screen time outside of that opening sequence.

[. . . ]

4) Andrew Cunanan is not so much a chameleon as a shapeshifter.

There's a Talented Mr. Ripley quality to Cunanan, a social climber who will convincingly transform himself into whatever he needs to be to con whoever he's with. I say convincingly, but in fact the cracks are beginning to show—the couple he's living with exchange weary glances as Cunanan rambles about his date with Versace, and he casually tosses off the F-word to make himself appear more heterosexual.

Directly before and after the shooting of Versace, Criss has a series of standout, terrifying, semi-cathartic moments of pure release (screaming maniacally into the ocean looks extremely appealing, unsure what this says about me?) but the beat that really stuck comes right when Versace's death has been confirmed on the news. A woman standing near Cunanan, watching the same television, puts a hand over her mouth in shock—and Cunanan, mirroring other humans as he's learned to do, does the same. But while the woman is tearful, Cunanan is hiding what looks like a maniacal smile behind his hand. Full-body shudder.

Paste wrote:
American Crime Story's Season Opener Beautifully Mines the Tension of Knowing What's Coming (Episode 2.01)

January 17, 2018

Criss, Ramirez and Martin are remarkably good, though. The episode brims with strange tensions, between wealth and non-wealth, status and non-status, and between straight and gay cultures.

Screen Rant wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Review: A Fascinating Exploration of Identity

1/17/2018

. . . The Assassination of Gianni Versace is fascinating for just how different a product it is than its predecessor. Those differences do, in some ways, make it inferior to The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. But, at the same time, the manner in which the new season succeeds is evidence of how the series can, with the help of the right creative people, continue to disprove its doubters and perhaps take even bigger swings with subsequent seasons, tackling similarly provocative stories and dramatizing them without first having to reassure its potential viewing audience that it has things under control.

[. . . ]

Those individuals are brought to life through some terrific performances; in particular Darren Criss’ standout role as Cunanan and Penelope Cruz’ tremendous performance as Donatella Versace. Édgar Ramírez is also strong as Gianni, disappearing almost entirely into the role with the help of some thinning hair and makeup.

TV Fanatic wrote:
American Crime Story: Versace Season 1 Episode 1 Review: The Man Who Would Be Vogue

January 17, 2018

Played to absolute perfection by Glee alum Darren Criss, Andrew is the villain of this story -- no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Brinkwire wrote:
The Versace ‘American Crime Story’ is a chilling thriller

January 18, 2018

On July 15, 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace was just coming back to his Miami home after a morning walk when he was shot to death on the street by Andrew Cunanan, a petty thief, con man, and, it turned out, a serial killer — Versace was only his biggest-name victim. This is the subject of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the new miniseries that starts Wednesday night on FX. It’s another big-canvas, pop-culture epic overseen by producer-director-writer Ryan Murphy, and features an exceptional performance by one of the performers Murphy made into a star on Glee: Darren Criss, as a chilling Cunanan.

Yahoo wrote:
'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story' premiere recap: When doves die

January 17, 2018

The best part of Peak TV is how excellent television no longer has to appeal to everyone. Sure, we can discuss giant hits like The Walking Dead with total strangers, and Grandma won’t stop talking about Breaking Bad. But increasingly — and often thanks to producer Ryan Murphy — mass audiences are not what the best shows aim for. About 14 people watched last year’s best series (Twin Peaks), and just try bringing up Insecure at a dinner party. We’re not all watching the same great shows anymore, but man, what a time to be a fringe TV viewer.


This is to say that The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the stellar new entry of Murphy’s already perfect American Crime Story series, will be most appreciated by the chicest of bubbles. It’s gaudy, terrifying, campy, tragic, heartfelt, gorgeously filmed … and probably too specific in its milieu to excite a mainstream audience. But if the past 1.3 years taught us anything, it’s that bubbles may not always win elections, but damn is our art better. Definitely comment below if you disagree jk.

“The Man Who Would Be Vogue” was one of the most spellbinding and compelling (and timely!) episodes of television I’ve ever seen, and we should talk about it!

[. . .]

“The Man Who Would Be Vogue” was quite simply one of the best first episodes of a show I’ve seen in a while. Relying on sweeping visuals over dialogue, and allowing gaudiness to exist beside sincerity, it gripped me right away. While we know this is not a happy story and it doesn’t end particularly well, it does feel as important and timely as ever, much like its predecessor The People v. O.J. Simpson. It remains to be seen whether this season will catch on with viewers and critics like that one did, but either way, it’s hard not to be grateful for something this special.

TV Line wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story — Grade It!

January 17, 2018


Whether Darren Criss was shooting people in the face, puking in public bathrooms or casually rubbing his crotch while standing over a sleeping couple, he sure made Wednesday’s season premiere of American Crime Story feel like the darkest episode of Glee yet.

I’m half-joking, but considering this is Criss’ first series-regular TV role since Blaine Anderson warbled his final warble in 2015 (not to mention Criss’ professional reunion with Glee boss Ryan Murphy), I trust you’ll overlook my inability to disassociate — at least in this first week.

Truth be told, Criss’ take on Andrew Cunanan — the sexually manipulative serial killer who murked fashion icon Gianni Versace in 1997 — is impressive, thoughtful and downright chilling, a far cry from the singing bottle of hair gel in a sweater vest he brought to life on the Fox comedy. Let’s discuss:

The Muse wrote:
In The Assassination of Gianni Versace, a Star (Killer) Is Born

Darren Criss (Glee) plays Cunanan with an almost addicting charisma and clinginess, giddily worming his way into the lives of wealthy gay men often as an escort and live-in boyfriend.

[. . . ]

But if there’s one thing this season of American Crime Story does depressingly well is award a specificity and humanity to Cunanan’s victims. Because while pop culture may be obsessed with murder, it’s not always concerned with portraying victims as real people with full lives that precede their deaths. . . . Our contemporary obsession with killers may continue in Assassination of Gianni Versace, but at least so do the lives of victims too.

Spoiler:

Jeremy wrote:I found Darren perfect and I personally don't try to have sympathy for Cunanan. I consider him as the vilain of the show and that's it. 

Donatella is indeed a bit special but I do believe she's trully sad for his brother. I'm surprised you think Ricky was a bit restrained, his character seemed devastated to me.

Spoiler:

Indiewire wrote:
Darren Criss on Not Whitewashing Half-Filipino Andrew Cunanan In ‘Versace’ — Turn It On Podcast

1/19/2018

Darren Criss calls it “serendipity” that he already was in Ryan Murphy’s orbit when the producer focused in on telling the tale of serial killer Andrew Cunanan for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” the latest edition of “American Crime Story.” Cunanan was half-Filipino, just as Criss is, which gave the actor a rare opportunity to play his ethnicity.

“I believe there are a lot of great half-Filipino actors out there that could have done this a lot of justice, [but] when Ryan talked about doing this three years ago, before we actually got the ball rolling last year, I would joke with him saying, ‘Hey man, I would love to do this, but if you don’t want me to do it with you, I defy you to find another guy who looks kind of like him, who’s in the same age range, who’s in your Rolodex of actors. Because if you don’t cast a half-Filipino guy, the Filipino community is going to cry bloody murder. So I don’t know what your other options are!’

“I would have never held that against him but I would jokingly think that. I’m glad it all came to fruition when it did.”

Executive producer Nina Jacobson said it was important that the actor playing Cunanan was half-Filipino, especially after having just produced the upcoming film “Crazy Rich Asians.”

“We did not want to whitewash a role,” she said. “Andrew was half-Filipino, and it was really important to not just get a guy and say that he was. We wanted to be authentic in terms of Andrew’s background. And the fact that Darren had kind of this striking resemblance physically, the chops of an actor and professionalism to take on a role of this disturbing hard role to play that he also could authentically play a half-Filipino character as opposed to the usual Hollywood thing.”

Criss said that he doesn’t think whitewashing comes out of any conscious malice, but admits that he may harbor “half-white privilege” in that view.

“What makes good casting work is when you have good actors. There are a lot of great Filipino actors that I think people just aren’t thinking outside of the box enough,” he said.

Criss pointed specifically to Jon Jon Briones, who plays Modesto Cunanan in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

“He’s a tried and true Broadway veteran, he’s been acting for years, he’s not just some newbie — maybe to the film and television world but certainly not as a craftsman of acting,” Criss said. “And Ryan asked me, ‘Who is this guy, I love him! Where’s he from, how come he doesn’t get roles?’ I said, ‘Ryan, he does but he’s a Filipino man who looks a certain way. You have to understand the roles he’s being offered.’ The Thai terrorist on ‘CSI.’ And he’s from the original cast of ‘Miss Saigon,’ he’s doing Miss Saigon right now. He’s the Engineer on Broadway. What it takes is a role like this, hopefully, where people go, ‘oh! This guy is really good!’ It sucks we have to wait around for roles that show you off within the corner you’re put in to be able to play in the larger room.”

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” may have Versace in the title, but it’s really the story of Andrew Cunanan, and the tale of how he became the killer of not just Versace but several other socialites across the country. It was a juicy role for Criss, and IndieWire’s Turn It On podcast recently met up with the actor to discuss the mystery of Cunanan, the sensitivity of the fact that so many people impacted by Cunanan may be watching, and how his ethnicity as a half-Filipino man made him the perfect fit for the role. Later in this episode, we also talked to American Crime Story producers Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson about the franchise. But first, we talked to Criss about how this role impacted him. Listen below!

Variety wrote:
Remote Controlled: ‘Versace’ Star Darren Criss on Playing Andrew Cunanan, Plus ‘The Four’ Experts

January 19, 2018

Welcome to “Remote Controlled,” a podcast from Variety featuring the best and brightest in television, both in front of and behind the camera.

In this week’s episode, Variety’s executive editor of TV Debra Birnbaum talks with Darren Criss, who stars in the new installment of FX’s “American Crime Story” franchise, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

Criss says that he’d been discussing playing serial killer Andrew Cunanan with series creator Ryan Murphy for several years. “My reaction was, I’d be thrilled to do this,” he says. “I thought it was something he forgot about and was just spitballing. But he stuck to his word, and I’m so glad he finally decided to do this.”

But he knew the part would always be his, he admits. “I almost defy you, Ryan, to find someone else in your camp who somehow looks like this guy, is actually half-Filipino, is in the same age range,” he says. “Good luck!”

Criss wasn’t intimidated, though, by the thought of playing a serial killer. “People always think that’s some sort of departure, and while I understand that curiosity, I can’t help but feel that same curiosity would be present if I had started with something like this, and this is what you knew me for,” he says. “People forget that actors are actors, and we depart for a living.”

And he says he found ways to relate to Cunanan, and hopes other people will, too. “We all have more in common not only with each other, but the worst person you can think of than we like to admit,” he says. “The differences are small in number but huge in content.”

Criss did his own research and talked to people who knew him. “The show explores the best parts of him and the worst parts of him,” he says. “It’s really a healthy mix of a lot of unhealthy things.”

The more he learned, the more he sympathized with Cunanan. “My heart just broke constantly for this guy,” he said. “The wasted potential is the most heartbreaking tragedy of all of it.”

Entertainment Weekly wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: Darren Criss compares Andrew Cunanan to an Instagrammer

January 17, 2018

There are a ton of great performances in FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story but perhaps the most revelatory is Darren Criss as serial killer Andrew Cunanan.

[. .  . ]

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Were you at all nervous stepping into this? It’s the biggest and most complicated role you’ve tackled.

DARREN CRISS: There were no nerves whatsoever. This was the most exciting, I-can’t-wait-to-do-this experience I’ve ever had. This is an opportunity I’ve been waiting and working my entire life for… This is a role of a lifetime. I’m dripping with gratitude and overwhelmed. I’m so fully aware that this is not something that comes around often. So that’s what it felt like every day. There’s not nervousness or trepidation or fear. I sort of always loved things that look to other people like they’re hard to take on. I’m not saying anything is easy.

There’s so many things about this that are great. Not only is it a great role but it’s a fantastic story with a lot of fantastic weight that I really think sheds light on a lot of things that haven’t been able to be exposed.

So no, I wasn’t nervous at all. I think people have this fixation with dark things — they think they’re scary or hard. Maybe I’m just a dark person. I just find that all dark, scary, conventionally negative things come from pretty relatable places: fear, embarrassment, ambition, and disappointment.

You’re thinking about the emotions that bare them. It doesn’t come home to me. It doesn’t make me afraid of Andrew. It doesn’t make me love him or hate him any less. I get disappointed by him. My heart breaks for him, mainly because of all the good things we get to see about him.

On a professional level, it’s the excitement of being with people that I love working with within a story I think is really important and really matters. On a personal, role level, it’s so nice to be in something that has so many layers and has an opportunity to challenge audiences senses of empathy. Being able to be a part of that is like being able to go to do the most invigorating work one can do.

How did you get inside the character of Andrew? He’s so complicated and mysterious. What was the preparation?

. .  . The only thing you can really do is not so much preparation but being available to all emotions at all times which I think is probably the most important thing. At any point, he’s ready to fire off in any direction. You can’t really prepare for that. . .

What was the biggest challenge of this?

. . . We all remember what it is to want to be liked or stand out or use whatever wiles you have to assert yourself or not assert yourself. All these things that are extremely relatable that I really do relate to him and we have more similarities than that. Obviously, the things that make us different are big but I think they’re few in number.

Ryan Murphy launched your career in so many ways. What was it like working with him this time? He was adamant you play this role.

This was the first time I got to work with Ryan in a real sense as far as us getting in the kitchen and getting our hands dirty and really working on the material. By the time I got to Glee, he wasn’t really directing and he didn’t direct me on American Horror Story [Criss guest-starred on AHS: Hotel]. I never worked directly with him. We’ve been friends obviously as my boss and seen him at events and parties and stuff and he’s always been a great supporter of me. But we never had really made something like this together. It was cool for me to see.

Ryan is a very prolific guy and he’s created this whole brand around himself and that’s the guy I knew and would have rosé with. But seeing him actually at the helm, creating this world, doing what he does best is really cool. It’s really inspiring. It was really a thrill to work with someone in that capacity. Actors are only as good as the moments they get and he’s given me quite an extraordinary moment.

It could easily have veered into camp or gone over the top. But you all keep it very human and grounded.

If that’s what came out, great because I would like to think all of us were shooting for that. You always want something to be as grounded as possible. My interest from day one was showing the humanity of Andrew and that’s something everyone has been interested in from day one. If you just have a cut and dry good guy/bad guy, that’s not interesting. We can’t just vilify Andrew and then what’s the point of following this person if we’re not going to mess with her our sense of relatability to a conventional “villain.” We have to humanize him — that’s the only route to get to know him on a larger level.

I’m really excited to see a lot of the Ricky [Martin], Edgar, and Penelope [Cruz] stuff because I was not there for any of that. It was like shooting two completely different shows. I have no idea how it’s going to play out. I can’t wait to see the parallels.

What do you want people to take away from this?

I really want people to question their sense of empathy and really try and figure out at one point this could have been their own selves. It’s not about Andrew specifically and more people like Andrew: people who idolize excess and how they obsess over the things they don’t have and it ultimately destroys them and the dangers of that. Andrew is somebody that curated his image very well, like with doctoral accuracy, surgical accuracy. He really wants to make sure he was viewed a certain way by certain people. It’s not too dissimilar with how many of us filter our own lives now. I’m talking in extremes here but it can be related to the social media world with how we literally filter our lives and we’re obsessed that people perceive us in a certain way. . .

I think people will relate to that anguish and what it feels like to want to have your image of yourself be as fantastic and larger than life as possible, even if it is false. . . I think he was the pre-Instagram filter Instagrammer. He filtered his own life. The thing people said about him was that he was a storyteller. He wanted people to think a certain way of him. That to me is less devious and more misguided and heartbreaking. I don’t get mad at Andrew — my heart breaks for him. The enormous potential that someone so creative and charismatic put his energies in a totally misguided place: that’s the stuff that really interests me.

W Magazine wrote:
Darren Criss Still Sings and Dances in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, But to the Deranged Ballad of a Serial Killer

January 18, 2018

Within seconds of meeting Darren Criss, you can tell that his mother raised him right. He has a firm handshake, repeats everyone’s name, and looks them right in the eye. He has the casual affability of a Cub Scout troop leader or someone sitting next to you in the back row of a SoulCycle class. He hands out compliments like full-sized candy bars. In a room full of people, waiting to take his picture and ask him questions, he seems most excited to talk to a fifth grader about the minutia of Harry Potter mythology.

This wouldn’t be so odd except that all of these people are waiting to ask him questions about playing a serial killer. Criss’s latest role is Andrew Cunanan, an openly-gay escort turned spree murderer whose last crime before he killed himself is the titular one in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which premiered on Wednesday night . . .

But maybe Darren, the precocious star next door, and Andrew, the precocious killer next door, aren’t so far apart after all. “Of the many things that break my heart about Andrew is that after this all came out, and friends and loved ones of his found out about it, they were mortified. They couldn't believe it,” Criss says. “Andrew was a very bright, affable, lovable guy. He had so much promise, and you wonder a little, then, how does a kid with all this go down such a destructive path.”

[. . .]

His unique genes might have been part of the reason why Ryan Murphy, the executive producer of the series, thought of Criss for the part. Murphy first gave Criss his big break when he was cast as Blaine Anderson on Glee. It would appear there's a trendlet of former song-and-dance teen stars graduating to serial killer roles, with Zac Efron signed up to play Ted Bundy and Disney Channel star Ross Lynch on screen as Jeffrey Dahmer.

“I really am allergic to the notion that playing somebody who did terrible things somehow elevates a career, or validates someone's ability, or qualifies somebody as a serious actor, although I think it does,” Criss says of this serial killer mini-boom. “I spend the same amount of time and due diligence to fictional characters in a lighter world, like Glee, that I do a real person in a much darker world for Andrew Cunanan. I'm still putting the same amount of tokens in the machine, and I do the work, I read the script, and I am very much in tune with the common denominators between myself and that person.”

Still, Criss says that inhabiting the role didn’t affect him too much, and that months of playing grisly murder scenes didn’t come home with him—at least not to a dangerous degree. “I had a dream, it was really hyper-violent, and I had offed several people, I don't even know who they were, it was abstract,” he recalls. “But the dream was not about the violence or the homicide, so much as it was being on the run, on the lam. It was more tied to what was going on when we were shooting the show. And I woke up next to my girlfriend, and seeing her and being terrified, not because in my head I had killed anybody in my dream, but because I was like, ‘Oh my god, she's gonna find out.’”

[. . . ]

“I was less shocked and scared and disturbed by Andrew, and more just utterly heartbroken,” Criss says, looking deep into your eyes like he’s about to ask you out to a school dance. “The thing is so sad to me, and it's such a loss of promise and potential. He could have been a creator, and he decided to be a destroyer. It's just the worse crime of all.”

Refinery 29 wrote:
American Crime Story: Versace Proves This Is The Year We Need To Make Darren Criss Happen

January 18, 2018

On Wednesday night, Darren Criss debuted one of his most high-profile roles yet as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. It’s also his most intense role to date — an unhinged serial killer — that’s expertly delivered by someone who, up until now, has kept things pretty lighthearted. For many people, however, this might be the first time you’re seeing the 30-year-old actor. His role in ACS is garnering much more press than any of his other work to date, and to those finally getting on board: welcome! The Darren Criss fan club has been waiting for you.

[. . . ]


Watching Criss become a fan favorite on Glee for almost five seasons felt like a triumph for geeks everywhere, and the support of these day-one fans is something Criss told Refinery29 in an interview (brag) that he’d never take for granted.

Clearly, Criss has been doing well these past few years. He has a band with his brother called Computer Games. He had roles in American Horror Story, Supergirl, and the Transformers: Robots In Disguise animated TV show, but none of his work has managed to spark widespread interest the way ACS has. He just landed a profile in The New York Times, glowing write-ups in places like The Daily Beast and Newsweek, and appearances on Jimmy Kimmel and Good Morning America.

When I see stuff like this, as opposed to the knee-jerk I-knew-him-first reaction, I’m positively elated. Yes! Finally! Criss is great, and after watching just the first episode of ACS, I can tell he’s going to surprise even long-time fans with just how talented and emotional his work can be. Until then, here are some flyers for the fan club. We meet every week. Bring snacks.

Into More wrote:
Finn Wittrock On Playing Andrew Cunanan's First Victim in "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"

18 Jan. 2018

We had a good time,” Wittrock said of working with Criss. “There are some projects where you really take the relationship off screen and this one was more us talking as co-conspirators figuring it out together. He is a very generous person on set and a remarkable versatile actor and really jumps in and out of the character very fluidly.

Consequences of Sound wrote:
Assassination of Gianni Versace Proves Two Things: Darren Criss Is a Star, and Ryan Murphy Can Pick ‘Em

January 18, 2018

But now hear this: It can never be said that Ryan Murphy’s loyalty to actors, and theirs to him, has not paid dividends. Jessica Lange won Emmys. Sarah Paulson’s now a household name, which is as it should be. It’s kept the underrated Evan Peters employed, made sure Denis O’Hare continues to kill it, and helped to remind the world that Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett are queens — and all those gifted people made sure that even Murphy’s messiest, most chaotic creations remained eminently watchable, if not entirely sensible or (sometimes) particularly good.

Now it’s going to make a star of Darren Criss, and Darren Criss in turn makes The Assassination of Gianni Versace a piece of can’t-miss television. His isn’t the only great performance in the second go-round of American Crime Story, but it’s the best and also the most surprising. It’s well past time to call it like it is: Ryan Murphy’s single greatest strength as an artist is his work with actors. He can spot them, nurture great performances from them, earn and retain their loyalty, and identify precisely when to throw them into the role most likely to show them at their best. He did it with Lange. He did it with Paulson. And now, he’s doing it with Blaine the Warbler from Glee.

Like most of Murphy’s recent work, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is every inch an ensemble piece, but only the second season of American Horror Story rivals this outing for the sheer, magnetic pull of one character and performance. Criss’ work as spree killer Andrew Cunanan is so good that it’s perhaps fairest to talk about literally everything else first.

It is, in short, a good show, but it centers on a great performance. . . We watch as he checks off, like items on a grocery list, the personas he rattles off in this unsettling little speech from an early episode in the series:

“I’m a banker. I’m a stockbroker. I’m a shareholder, I’m a paperback writer, I’m a cop. I’m a naval officer. Sometimes I’m a spy! I build movie sets in Mexico and skyscrapers in Chicago, I sell propane in Minneapolis. I import pineapples from the Philippines. You know, I’m the person least likely to be forgotten.”

Then the screen cuts to black, and he adds one more to that laundry list: “I’m Andrew Cunanan.”

It’s one of the most chilling, upsetting line-readings in recent memory. Three words uttered in darkness, somehow hugely loaded. They’re truthful and ring with that truthfulness; they’re laced with something that sounds like pride and defiance, but they also hint at something more like despair and defensiveness. That’s in three words. And if that sounds impressive, just wait until you see the terrifying way he eats a ham sandwich.

Criss has always been watchable. In his first appearance on Glee, he played a teenage dream who literally sang “Teenage Dream”, and while it’s not a performance you’d call particularly nuanced, it’s evident immediately that this is a performer with vats of charisma at his disposal. What’s so thrilling about his American Crime Story performance is how much more there is going on and how he wields that charisma like a knife. You get the sense that Criss knows exactly when he wants the audience to believe Cunanan and when he doesn’t — when the lies should be convincing and when they shouldn’t. Sometimes, all that charm emanates from him like body heat, something natural and unconscious, but at others it’s obviously tactical, weaponized, hollow. Cunanan has control at some points and not at others, but Criss knows exactly what he’s doing.

When Murphy first cast the largely unknown Criss in Glee, did he know he’d be making him a series regular? Probably not. He certainly didn’t know he’d be putting him at the center of one of 2018’s most exciting television shows and would have had no way of predicting that the result would be a performance that’s sure to be among the best of this or any other year. But what’s almost certain is that Murphy did what he seems to always do: he found an actor he thinks is good, so he made sure to give that actor work. The work was good, so he got more work. And now, this.

There are many reasons to tune into American Crime Story over the next several months — great acting, good writing, terrific production design, and editing as taut as the best horror movie among them — but the lynchpin is Criss’ performance. It’s one more piece of evidence that sometimes loyalty pays off, not in dollars or trophies, but in remarkable art. Ryan Murphy believes in Darren Criss. Darren Criss did not disappoint him. Television is all the better for it.

[. . . ]

Essential Episode: “Manhunt”, the second episode, may be Criss’s best, but honestly, they’re all pretty essential

Decider wrote:
‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’ Paints A Devastating Portrait of 1990s Homophobia

Jan. 18, 2018

But beyond those first minutes, Versace fades into the background to make room for, as cosmically unfair as this may seem, his killer, Andrew Cunanan. It may not turn out to be a popular decision — I’ll be shocked if The Assassination of Gianni Versace is even a fraction of the hit that People v. O.J. was — but creatively, it’s hard to quibble, because here’s the thing: the show that we get, the show about Andrew Cunanan and his murder victims and the systems that kept them hidden away, either in the shadows or behind gilded gates, that show is a bit of brilliance.

[. . . ]

As successful as the series is at following Cunanan, played by Darren Criss as a frighteningly unknowable cipher whose desperation to feel important (rich, famous, beautiful, loved) leads him inexorably to murder, it’s even better as a depiction of the role homophobia and the closet played in both the murders and their subsequent investigations. . .  The low-key but persistent homophobia of the time period is insidious and pervasive.

The David Madson killing is the one we know least about, and as a result the one that Murphy and Smith take the most liberties with. But where you might expect “Ryan Murphy takes liberties” to lead to something gaudy and over-the-top, the show instead imagines a devastating series of events that lays bare the show’s clearest theme: 1990s American attitudes about LGBT people kept these murders quiet, kept these victims trapped, kept their salvation out of reach.

In Darren Criss, Ryan Murphy has found one of his most deeply committed and terrifying muses. He disappears into a character who himself disappears into whomever he’s trying to be. He’s not a Catch Me If You Can-style chameleon. Andrew’s is a sneaker and more darkly relatable kind of malleability. He’s whatever version of himself he wants to be. He can come from wealth, he can be building sets for the upcoming Titanic movie, he can work in the financial sectors of the entertainment industry, he can have met Gianni Versace one night at a San Francisco club. Criss does this all with a frightening amount of charm in a performance that’s as deeply committed as anyone on a Ryan Murphy show to date.

[. . . ]

. . . There’s real gravity to this story and a frustrated, heartbroken scream into a hostile void that cuts far deeper than mere rubbernecking. It’s not fun, but it’s not to be missed.

Previously TV wrote:
The Assassination Of Gianni Versace Begins At The End

January 17, 2018

Darren Criss does a wonderful job of showing us Cunanan's wheels turning as he refocuses his fury at Gianni not immediately inviting him into the charmed circle based on his beauty and wit, and tries to find another in. . .

[. . .]

Cunanan flees into a parking garage, to a red pickup. He jumps in, clutches the wheel, rubs his temples, and emits a very odd -- and flawlessly observed by Criss -- laugh/yell that seems celebratory, but is punctuated by ricti of terror. As he's deep-breathing himself under control, sirens take us into commercial.

[. . . ]

When a woman in front of him covers her mouth in horror, he studies her response with that Starman curious head-cock again, then imitates it, but under his hand, he's smiling. This really is a fantastic, simultaneously chilling and slappable performance by Darren Criss.

Hidden Remote wrote:
American Crime Story: Darren Criss was the perfect choice for Cunanan

Ryan Murphy is continuing his TV domination. Most recently, he’s brought to life American Crime Story Season 2. After the beloved and hotly-debated The People Vs OJ Simpson, he’s taking on the assassination of Gianni Versace. In the show’s season premiere, one thing stood out and that was the performance of Darren Criss.

Murphy has become well-known for casting the right actor for the role. The same trend has followed into The Assassination of Gianni Versace. Well, the castings of Donatella and Gianni Versace were great, casting Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan was genius.

Mostly known for his role on Glee, Criss is Blaine to a lot of people. Here, we truly get to see his range as an actor. What stood out the most was how creepy Criss was throughout the entire episode. The way he carried himself, the way he talked and acted made me incredibly uncomfortable and unsure of him.

[ . . .]

What made my jaw drop most of all was the emotion Criss put behind his performance. The moments after the assassination, he was filled with rage, happiness, sadness and an entire mix of emotions. Criss played them to a tee. Even when he was faking emotions, he played that to perfection.

Criss never makes you feel bad for Cunanan, though. He is a killer and he doesn’t shy away from that aspect. I never felt sorry for him but saw him for who he was. That’s probably what the show intended, though. Seeing it more throughout this season is going to be a treat.

Criss’ performance and the casting of Darren Criss is already making a great season.

Den of Geek! wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Episode 1 Review: The Man Who Would Be Vogue

January 17, 2018

If we’re talking performances, this is Darren Criss’s show and everyone else is just happy to be invited. That’s not to say the others aren’t good – Edgar Ramirez’s Gianni Versace is solid and charming, Penelope Cruz is completely transformed, and I have a feeling the best is yet to come from Ricky Martin – but rather that the script gives him so much to dig into, and he’s the perfect actor to do it. He easily mimics Cunanan’s real life chameleon physicality, and most people are already in disagreement over his sexual orientation.

4 stars/5

Slate wrote:
The Deracination of Andrew Cunanan

Jan. 19, 2018

You finally need two hands to count all the current TV shows with Asian American protagonists. Fresh Off the Boat (ABC) and Master of None (Netflix) arrived with fanfare for breaking ground (though a third season of Aziz Ansari’s romantic comedy was uncertain even before the star’s current scandal), while Quantico (ABC) and Into the Badlands (AMC) keep chugging along, and the comedy Brown Nation (Netflix) and children’s melodrama Andi Mack (Disney Channel) have yet to become blips on the mainstream pop cultural radar. So it’s a bit strange, and off-putting, that the latest series with an Asian lead—one of the most anticipated shows of the year, it so happens—isn’t being described as such.

. . . American Crime Story’s first season, The People v. O.J. Simpson, tackled issues of both race and gender skillfully; there’s no reason why we should accept any less from its second.

. . . A few character details here and there suggest Andrew’s racial self-hatred and the prevalence of anti-Asian racism within the gay community, but the relative sparseness of these implications is all the more noteworthy in contrast with the richly developed portrait of the decade’s homophobia.

Credit where it’s due, even if the bar for praise here is laughably low because Hollywood’s institutional aversion toward Asian stories and characters remains so entrenched: In casting Glee’s Criss (who played Blaine Anderson), Ryan Murphy hired a half-Filipino (if white-passing) actor to play the half-Filipino role of Andrew Cunanan.  Criss is excellent, and in later episodes, the Philippines-born Broadway performer Jon Jon Briones is electrifying as Andrew’s father, the sociopathic Modesto, who teaches his favorite child all the wrong lessons about the American dream.

[. .  . ]

Ben de Guzman, a policy advocate in D.C., saw Cunanan on the news and thought, There but for the grace of God go I. “As a young, gay Filipino American man who was around his age when he was in the news,” de Guzman recalls via email, “I was forced to look at how the same forces of homophobia and racism that informed my life must have affected him too.”

Inquirer wrote:
Jon Jon Briones, Ricky Martin and Édgar Ramírez on ‘Versace’ roles (part 2)

January 21, 2018

On working with Darren, Édgar remarked, “Darren is great. I have never worked with him before. He has such a strong energy—he is a singer, musician, composer and a very fine actor. It’s interesting because we hardly encounter each other, but we share the same space many times. So we became closer personally on set. I’m very happy to be doing this with him. I know his work before from ‘Glee.’

Electrifying, dynamic - newsday

astonishing performance - freep

superb work - cleveland 

But this show is ultimately the loot in a strong-arm robbery by Darren Criss as the murderous Cunanan. Criss,… brings a terrifying intensity to his role as the preening, dissembling Cunanan. - reason

gripping - entertainment weekly

an Emmy-worthy performance - post-gazette

most committed and impressive performance of his career - variety

exquisite performance …Emmy-worthy performance - sfchronicle

riveting, chilling performance - tvline

turns in a career-making performance - eonline

chilly, chameleonic work as Cunanan is the best of his career - avclub

special mention must be made of Criss, who beautifully captures Cunanan’s ability to tell the biggest lies anyone has ever heard and literally charm the pants off anyone he sets his sights on - nypost

most mesmerizing as the undeniably charming, and disturbed, serial killer - yahoo

He’s creepy, he’s precise, and he’s absolutely impossible to take your eyes off of. As spree-killer Andrew Cunanan, he is giving a provocative performance that will have people talking and showering him with awards. Go ahead, just carve the Emmy for him now. It’s going to be hard for any other male actor to come close to what Criss is bringing this year. - decider

game changer - brinkwire

people … no doubt will be astonished by the intensity of the actor’s performance here - mySanAntonio

marveling at the talents of Darren Criss - esquire

chillingly good, horror movie villain;  - bostonglobe


screeners on twitter

His acting alone makes this addicting; 

Blew my mind; 

Jaw will drop; 

Criss as the sociopathic killer is truly disturbing;  

fantastic & deserves all the nominations; 

some of his finest work;

amazing, totally nails it;

screaming about @DarrenCriss’s next-level performance;

He is going to win an Emmy for sure;

incredible;

Tremendous, and this will redefine his career, and it deserves to;

career-changing performance

scares the shit out of me;

one of the best TV performances I’ve ever seen;

grade A crazy and wonderful as Cunanan;

it is with a heavy heart that I must announce that I am now a Darren Criss stan;

goddamn revelation;

AMAZING;

award-winning/top-of-list performances;

can safely say Darren Criss will get an Emmy nomination. He is unbelievable in this;

Criss just continues to astound;

He’s sooo good in this.

Cult of Whatever wrote:
An impressive premiere sets the scene for a very different crime

January 19, 2018

I didn’t like Glee so I wasn’t that aware of Darren Criss until he started popping up in some predictable places: as a dead hipster in American Horror Story: Hotel, and some unpredictable places: as the Music Meister in the Supergirl/Flash musical crossover. None of these roles prepared me for his magnetic performance as Andrew Cunanan. Clearly the most eye-catching part of this premiere, at least until Penelope Cruz turns up, Criss, along with Murphy, and head writer Tom Robbin Smith, have crafted a captivating sociopath who, if he wasn’t a real person, I would have called a larger than life imitation of Tom Ripley.

8/10

Go Fug Yourself wrote:
American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace

Jan. 19, 2018

2. Overall, I thought the pilot was very good. I didn’t read any reviews prior to watching it, but I saw a lot of tweets indicating that several TV critics thought it was very different than The People vs. OJ, and people who want what they got from OJ might be taken aback. Personally, I didn’t expect them to be particularly similar, but that is perhaps because I knew I wouldn’t have the same personal connection regardless. I think it was very well-acted — Darren Criss is great; it’s too soon to tell how Penelope Cruz is, as Donatella, but (a) even mediocre Penelope Cruz is probably gonna be pretty good, and (b) Donatella is a tough role to shoulder thanks to SNL.

The Film Experience wrote:
"ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace", Episode 1

January 19, 2018

Then we see Andrew Cunanan played by a never-better Darren Criss who will inevitably and deservedly going to be showered with awards on the fall.

[.  . . ]

This will be an exploration of Andrew Cunanan, who Darren Criss embodies with overbearing charisma, ambition, wide-eyed naiveté, and the right amount of flickering darkness to make us raise an eyebrow. We see that all throughout his life he has looked from the outside longing to belong, and that his magnetic personality and natural ability to lie through his teeth have carried him through.

[ . . . ]


Whereas The People vs. OJ explored issues of racism and misogyny that reverberated in the present more than ever, Gianni Versace seems to be wanting to tackle both the homophobia and the celebration of gay culture that allowed these murders to happen. The majority of the players were gay themselves, and their relationship with that identity deeply influenced the case, either emotionally (with Ricky Martin’s character), strategically (all of Cunanan’s victims followed a very specific pattern), or legally (the Miami PD relationship with the local gay community was complicated, to say the least)

We’ll see exactly what statement the show frames around the murder as it develops, but the pilot doesn’t shy away from letting us know that identity politics will play a huge role in this; and that, yes, they are also still relevant.

GQ wrote:


In The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Darren Criss Finally Found His Killer Performance

1/22/2018

As Andrew Cunanan, the darkly charismatic and deeply disturbed man who killed Gianni Versace, Darren Criss is the unquestionable star of the show.

At first, you might not know what to make of Criss's performance as the notorious murderer. He spends much of the show's premiere evading capture after having killed one of the most prominent figures in the fashion world and largely getting away with it. As the show stretches back into Cunanan's history, the overwhelming completeness of Criss's transformation becomes remarkable. He shifts from sinister gunman to a darkly enchanting boy genius, a guy who belts the lyrics to Laura Branigan's "Gloria" as he arrives in Miami to kill Versace, wining and dining victims and cohorts alike with a chilling talent for cycling through whatever emotion or approach will get him what he wants.

It's a huge shift for the energetic and irrepressibly pleasant actor who became an overnight teen idol for playing Blaine Anderson on Glee—a role that put him in the orbit of Ryan Murphy, who years later, would reach out to Criss with the role that will doubtless cause many Blaine fans great distress.

[. . .]

. . . Cunanan, a young man warped by the circumstances of his upbringing and his own unique pathology, coupled with a culture of homophobia that kept him from ever finding the level of acceptance that he sought. . .



. . . If there's a running thread, it's how homophobia didn't just afflict Cunanan and help spur his crimes, it also shielded him and kept him from capture. Cunanan's story is one of shared cultural shame, chronicling how attitudes widely held twenty years ago—attitudes that are, frankly, still present—let a killer evade justice.

[Criss states,] "Homophobia exists on much subtler, more institutional levels. So in this case, the failure to investigate the community that it did not understand is less about personal, rampant homophobia, a gay-bashing FBI. It's more of a systematic and institutionalized fear of not knowing how to breach this subculture, and how that adds up to the largest failed manhunt in FBI history.  That's the tagline of [Orth's] book, but you go. 'Wait, that's a huge fuckin' superlative.' Like, how is that not a way bigger deal? It's not, because it was a story that was fighting an uphill battle in mainstream interest."

Criss also sees homophobia as an internal driving force in Cunanan's story, referring to "his hatred of that which made him different" as an aspect of his character that goes lockstep with '90s mainstream culture's indifference to and ignorance of the gay community.

[. . . ]

. . . To him [Criss], an important aspect of Cunanan is the tragedy of his turn toward destruction. Andrew Cunanan, as Criss envisions him, was a man whose desires and ambitions were all things anyone would want, and anyone can relate to having denied: To rise above your station, to love someone, to be remembered. To feel cheated by a world that conspires against you, drowning those aspirations with an impossibly stacked deck—a mentally ill mother, and a delusional, criminal father, a false sense of entitlement given by those negligent parents.

"These are all things that are unfortunate. People have risen above that," Criss says. "There are resilient people who are not bound by those things, and Andrew was not one of them. . ."



[. . .  ]

Finding a new identity for yourself is really important. Just like anybody finding their identity in life is huge, but in the gay community, it's a much harder climb, it's historically a difficult one to make it through, and if you have made it through, it's a very celebrated thing that connects the gay community, and gives it a strong presence, a strong voice." He pauses. "Having said that—Andrew finding himself in a place where alternate identities are understood and supported can become a problem. He's living in San Diego, already a dichotomous town of wealth and disparity. You have military, you have a booming gay culture, and it's a lot of people suppressing and compartmentalizing their identities and supporting that."

It's an idea that Versace explores in its fifth episode,"Don't Ask, Don't Tell," one of the show's best hours, focusing on the life of Jeffrey Trail, Cunanan's first victim, and one that brings his turn towards murder into sharp focus through Trail's parallel struggles of being a naval officer in the era of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and Cunanan's attempts to relate to him in his own exploitative, manipulative way.

"You're exploring another side, another version of Andrew that wants to exist so badly, [in a community] that won't accept him," Criss says, "Two different versions of that but the same plight. Jeffrey was somebody that made it through. Andrew couldn't, and had to destroy him."

Extremely charming. Extremely dangerous. Take a look inside the troubled life of Andrew Cunanan with the cast and crew.

Daily Mail wrote:
January 20, 2018

The nine-part series, which launched in the US last week and will be broadcast on BBC2 possibly within the next three weeks, has won plaudits from critics who laud it as ‘thrilling, deliciously campy television’.

Spoiler:

TV Guide wrote:
The Roush Review

. . . (Glee's Darren Criss in an electrifying and layered breakthrough performance) . . . "

Awards Daily wrote:
Will Emmy Luxuriate in the Riches of ‘Versace?’

January 17, 2018

The Television Academy generally responds well to Ryan Murphy. . . Naturally, anything bearing his name merits serious attention during awards season. Something akin to a TV-version of Steven Spielberg. That brings us to The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

But with the Television Academy and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, I’m forecasting at least 12 Emmy nominations. It won’t top O.J. Simpson, but that’s partially because it doesn’t have that mind blowing, star-filled cast of world-class actors. Don’t cry for Versace, though. It’ll do just fine.

Greatest Emmy Chances

Honestly, I’ll be stunned if Versace isn’t nominated broadly. It’s a delicate, intense portrayal of a man without an identity. . .

Darren Criss emerges as the real revelation here. His performance as Cunanan is one of those performances frequently called “brave,” a term that makes me cringe every time I hear it. It means that an actor who is not openly gay plays a gay character in intense, frequently erotic, situations. Still, his performance is “brave” in that Cunanan opens himself to Murphy’s challenges. He’s exposed both physically and emotionally. He digs deeply into the material and emerges with a shocking portrayal of an exceedingly damaged individual. He’s never been this good. Ever. He immediately shoots to the top of the Best Actor in a Limited Series list. He may even win.


[. . . ]

Guaranteed Nominations

Limited Series
Darren Criss – Lead Actor
Penelope Cruz – Supporting Actress
Direction
Writing
Casting
Cinematography
Costumes
Hairstyling
Makeup
Editing
Sound Mixing
Music


Possible Nominations

Edgar Ramirez – Supporting Actor
Jon Jon Briones – Supporting Actor
Finn Wittrock – Supporting Actor
Judith Light – Supporting Actress
Production Design

Boston Globe wrote:
Darren Criss revives a monster in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’

January 22, 2018

I can’t say Criss humanizes Cunanan, even as he removes layer after layer of Cunanan’s armor as the script moves back to his formative years. And that’s a good thing; we get to see what may have contributed to his devolution, and the way he is a creature of homophobia as well as an exploiter of it, but we are never asked to see him sympathetically. . .

Criss delivers an energetic, committed, and thoroughly macabre turn that holds the nine-episode series together. In “Glee,” he was dreamy; in “Versace,” he’s the stuff of nightmares.

Seat 42f wrote:
TV Review : THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY

January 22, 2018

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY feels very Ryan Murphy. What I mean by that is, like other Murphy properties, there are strong, colorful characters, sometimes understated, at its center, the direction and design are artsy while remaining relatively grounded, and the pacing is slow but purposeful. There’s a certain tone and style that has become a Murphy hallmark, and even with most of his familiar band of recurring actors absent from this outing, his fingerprints are noticeable on the work.

As usual in a Murphy show, the casting is spot-on. He brings back Glee’s Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, who appears to be the lead character in the first episode. Criss is a talented man, and this role stretches him. Cunanan is a habitual liar, acting his way through life, and it’s hard to gauge his sincerity, even in the moments where he is alone. Criss balances this while still showing us why people would fall for Cunanan’s falsehoods and charm. It’s a complex and difficult performance, and Criss nails it.

The frequent back-and-forth time jumps aren’t my favorite way to tell a story, but are the right choice for THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. There’s really no other way to depict both the lead up and the aftermath without it feeling like two separate shows. By splitting it in this manner, it helps with overall cohesion.

Spoiler TV wrote:
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - The Man Who Would Be Vogue - Review

January 22, 2018

Criss’s portrayal of Cunanan is so creepy and a major departure from his Glee days. Did he give anyone else nightmares or was I the only one?

[. . . ]

Overall the series looks promising and the performances have been pretty spectacular (especially from Criss). . .