<em>Feud: Bette and Joan</em> Deconstructs a Rivalry for Tragedy, Not Comedy
Ryan Murphy’s new FX series compellingly shows the sexist forces that pitted two titans against each other.
In title and in trailer, FX’s Feud: Bette and Joan promises the same unseemly thrill that unites The Real Housewives, Mean Girls, and whatever the latest headline is about Taylor Swift. It lures viewers craving slaps and screams and madcap montages featuring the word “bitch.” Wrote the Scriptshadow blogger in 2009 when reviewing the text that would later inspire Ryan Murphy’s new anthology series, “Can somebody say, ‘Cat Fight?’ Rrrreow.”
But in re-enacting the famous squabbles between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford around the 1962 production of , the show also
