TV Talk: FX debuts dull ‘Feud;’ WQED-TV covers Carnegie International

Usually, FX is eager to get TV critics’ opinions on its shows in advance of a premiere, so its marketing team can splash positive notices all over ads in Hollywood trade magazines, burnishing the network’s deserved brand of quality, critically applauded, award-winning entertainment.

Most of the time these embargoes, the time at which the network allows reviews to be posted, lift well before the premiere date. FX’s recent fifth season of “Fargo” could be reviewed up to 12 days before its premiere. FX’s upcoming “Shogun” remake has an embargo lift 20 days before the show premieres.

So it was curious to discover the second installment of executive producer Ryan Murphy’s “Feud,” this time called “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” (10 tonight, FX; streaming the next day on Hulu), could only be reviewed the day of its two-episode premiere. What is FX afraid of?

After watching the entire eight-episode series, I have my guesses.

This iteration of “Feud” seems ready-made for a party of one, Ryan Murphy, more than the general FX audience.

Maybe FX worries some critics could cry, “Steroetypical!” about Tom Hollander’s performance as queer writer Capote. But watch any video of the real Capote on YouTube, and it’s clear Hollander’s performance isn’t that exaggerated.

Maybe it’s Gus Van Sant’s direction, which leaves little to the imagination when Capote engages in a sauna tryst with a handsy, supposedly straight, married-to-a-woman banker (Russell Tovey). Sometimes Van Sant’s Grand Guignol flourishes, particularly when Capote hallucinates while filming “Murder by Death,” played like a “Saturday Night Live” sketch you could imagine Kristen Wiig starring in, but that’s just a passing moment.

Most likely what FX execs see as the fatal flaw will be the same thing that will lead viewers to tune out: It’s the bloated length of this limited series, a frequent problem with Murphy’s shows. The swans are more interesting than Capote, a one-note, pitiful drunk, but after the third episode, this “Feud” becomes less interesting, repetitive (Capote’s drunk, he’s sober, he’s drunk again!) and downright dull.

“Capote vs. the Swans” features a stacked cast of women playing Capote’s swans: Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloe Sevigny, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Calista Flockhart, who was recruited by “Brothers & Sisters” showrunner Jon Robin Baitz, who serves the same role as the writer on this series as he did on Flockhart’s 2006-11 ABC drama.

Though “Capote vs. the Swans” jumps around in time to spell out backstory and relationships, the basic gist is this: After the success of his 1965 best-seller “In Cold Blood,” a frequently soused Capote is desperate for a new hit and, having already blown a sizeable advance from his publisher on alcohol, settles on writing what he knows: the sordid details of the lives of the ladies who lunch with him in Manhattan and for whom he’s served as a confidant when their powerful husbands cheat on them.

Capote’s thinly veiled revelations that top CBS exec Bill Paley (the late Treat Williams) cheats on his wife Babe (Watts) unsettle the women, who vow revenge, freezing Capote out of their high society ranks. But the women shouldn’t be surprised as this betrayal comes after Capote accused another woman, Ann Woodward (Moore), of murdering her husband, which drives her to an act of violence.

Slim Keith (Lane) and Lee Radziwill (Flockhart, doing duck face again) are the most aggrieved, while C.Z. Guest (Sevigny, refreshingly playing against type), is the most willing to forgive.

The home of Joanne Carson (Molly Ringwald), Johnny Carson’s ex-wife, serves as Capote’s West Coast nest. In the early going, Joanne is most upset when Capote’s banker boyfriend assaults Capote, ruining Thanksgiving dinner. That sort of drama and chaos entertains, but such set pieces largely evaporate by the fourth episode, leaving viewers to trudge through four more hours without much entertainment value.

The first iteration of this anthology, 2017’s “Feud: Bette vs. Joan” starring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange (who cameos in this season), proved compelling for longer. There’s just not enough story to keep this second “Feud” frothy and fun.

‘Carnegie International’

This week, WQED-TV debuts a new local program, “Beyond the Canvas — The Carnegie International” (8 p.m. Thursday,WQED-TV), produced and narrated by Beth Dolinar.

The station did not make the full program available for review, but a five-minute clip shows the film will explore the history of the exhibition, which began bringing artists and their works to the city in 1896, and focuses on the work of three artists — Njaimeh Njie, Tishan Hsu and James “YaYa” Hough.

The segment on Hough focuses on his creation of a mural in the Hill District and explores his background as a convicted murderer turned artist.

Channel surfing

Per Nielsen, Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” was the most-watched original streaming series of 2023 while “Suits,” streaming on Netflix and Peacock, was the No. 1 streaming series overall. … A&E Networks acquired a 50% stake in Rachael Ray’s Free Food Studios and ordered 278 new episodes of programming that will feature Ray and other talent.