Erin Maxwell
Crime and punishment has always been an important part of television, but usually in the form of courtroom dramas. But sometimes, crime and punishment can take place outside of a court of law. In this edition of UnBinged, we take a look at a trio of shows that look at delinquency in a whole new light, be it Northern Lights, moonlight, or spotlights from gala events. Crime of any nature – be it against friends, fiends, and foes – must be paid one way or another, and here are how a few folks handled it.
Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (Season 3, FX)
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But what of a flock of scorned women? A veritable gaggle of seething gals who were betrayed by one famous yet contemptuous writer looking for glory by sacrificing their good graces?
Based on the book Capote’s Women by Laurence Leamer and directed by Gus Van Sant, Max Winkler, and Jennifer Lynch, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans is set during the scribe’s heyday when he was coasting off the laurels of In Cold Blood, but the booze was slowly curdling his creativity. Instead of looking to headlines or inward for insight, Capote cast an eye toward the company he kept for inspiration. In this case, the women who made up the top tier of New York society and fed his social circle, AKA the Swans.
These dapper dames included Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, editor and socialite Babe Paley, fashion icon Slim Keith, and model and fashion designer C. Z. Guest. All live in a world of their own, carefully crafted to keep out the unwanted.
The crime here lies with Capote, who betrayed his flock when they took him under their wings, only to be culled by the barbed tongue and acidic wit they so admired. But for Capote, there was no crime. He merely fulfilled his job as a storyteller, and cannot fathom why everyone is in a tizzy. After all, what’s a little treason before lunch?
Whoever worked their magic in casting Swans deserves kudos galore. Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, and Calista Flockhart are superb as the ladies who lunch who pull rank when destroyed by Capote’s ink. While Watts and the late, great Treat Williams stand out as the Paleys, it is Tom Hollander’s Capote who is the gleaming star of the show, played to perfection with every high-pitched, Southern note.
Like its predecessor Bette and Joan, Feud offers audiences a chance to revel in the lurid details of idle gossip by classing it up into prestige television. The bickering prattle between the upper class makes for great fun, but the four-star performances gives the whole endeavor a respectable sheen. Come award time, these Swans will be fed. And well.
True Detective: Night Country (Max; Season 4)
Scientists from a remote science station on a frozen tundra of Ennis, Alaska, are found frozen in the ice, naked and mutilated. For all intent and purposes, it appears that the men did this to themselves. But small clues, such as the appearance of a single human tongue, seem to belie other forces at hand as small details arise connecting the crime to an old cold case of a murdered Indigenous woman named Annie.
Oscar-winner Jodie Foster and professional boxer-turner-actress Kali Reis lead the fourth outing of Max’s True Detective: Night Country, the gritty detective series known for its morose narrative, award-worthy acting, and gripping mystery. This time around, the story takes audiences to dark days of Alaska, where 24-hour gloom coupled with the all encompassing ice creates a foreboding feeling of dread that clings to the audience.
Det. Evangeline Navarro (Reis) and Det. Liz Danvers (Foster) were former partners who reunite when the TSALAL Arctic Research Station finds its crew embedded in ice. The how, the why, and the WTF of the situation drives the viewer to want to binge Night Country to get to the bottom of the icy conundrum. But, as Danvers likes to say, to get the answers, they need to ask the right questions: What was the crime? Was this a punishment? For what? And dear god, how?
In addition to Foster and Reis, the rest of the cast does a great job creating a small town vibe by projecting how much they can’t stand each other, using bickering to build a sense of history in an isolated burg where there is nothing to do but get on each other’s nerves. Finn Bennett and John Hawkes stand out as Hank and Peter Prior, a father-son lawman duo who have different ideas on how to maintain justice.
True Detective: Night Country occupies the gray area where crime and punishment intermingle to become sludge. Sporting serious John Carpenter’s The Thing vibes thanks to the constant snow and a few moments of deeply upsetting horror, this season of True Detective is setting out to capture the attention of the horror crowd. While previous seasons have leaned heavily into the creepy, Night Country builds a foundation firmly rooted in the dread. And it is very much welcome.
Echo (Disney+)
Another day, another new Disney+ show being used to expand new characters into the somewhat precarious Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The story of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) might have started as a Hawkeye spin-off, but the character is connected to several key MCU heroes, particularly Daredevil, one of Marvel’s few remaining heroes who still remains in high regard. But instead crafting an exceptional hero’s journey for the hearing-impaired adopted daughter of Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), the studio offers yet another redemption story, much like we’ve seen with Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Bucky Barnes, or Hawkeye after the Snap. So even though the character of Echo is wholly unique and stands out among the large catalog of Marvel cape wearers, the series tends to follow one tired trope after another with occasional moments of triumph.
After a quick recap of the Hawkeye series from 2021 in which Echo tried to kill one of the MCU’s best written villains, the fugitive is on the run. With a bounty on her head, she flees to her birth home of Tamaha, Oklahoma, where she reconnects with her family and her people of the Choctaw Nation.
But it is here where the series begins to falter. She might be reuniting with her family, but Maya actually never makes amends for her sins, or really relates to anyone. Instead, she treats most everyone she meets with the same indifference, be it a long lost cousin or a murderous henchmen. Casting Cox, who is deaf and Native American herself, was a step in the right direction in terms of staying true to the comic, but she never identifies or bonds with any character in any significant way, and because of that, never connects with the audience.
By the end of the series, Echo attempts to leave audiences with an important message about the power of family and community that comes off as slightly muddled due to underdeveloped characters. The end result is a series with a repetitive narrative and filled with superhero cliches in a redemption story we’ve seen time and time again.
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