--- title: 'Feud: Capote vs. the Swans' Puts Substance Before Snark description: Beneath the messiness and cliché of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology is a psychologically rich portrait of an artist torn between work and life. canonical: https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-01-31T16:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:52:41.478Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Feud: Capote vs. the Swans' Puts Substance Before Snark og:description: Beneath the messiness of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology is a rich portrait of an artist torn between work and life. og:url: https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78ec6f16920b6fa8/698a44200116822f6d983d36/FEUD_301_CDFA_082323.new_.01.Sub_.11-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: FEUD_301_CDFA_082323.new.01.Sub.11 copy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Feud: Capote vs. the Swans' Puts Substance Before Snark twitter:description: Beneath the messiness of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology is a rich portrait of an artist torn between work and life. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78ec6f16920b6fa8/698a44200116822f6d983d36/FEUD_301_CDFA_082323.new_.01.Sub_.11-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Substance Edges Out Snark in Ryan Murphy's Messy, Fascinating _Feud: Capote vs. the Swans_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jan 31, 2024 4:00 PM UTC  Naomi Watts and Tom Hollander in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans Naomi Watts and Tom Hollander in Feud: Capote vs. the SwansCopyright 2024, FX. All rights reserved.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Jan 31, 2024 4:00 PM UTC What is it that makes relationships between queer men and glamorous women so intimate—and so volatile? Consider [Jennifer Coolidge](https://time.com/6269205/jennifer-coolidge-interview-time100/)’s tragic [_White Lotus_](https://time.com/6223583/the-white-lotus-season-2-review/) character, Tanya, who wandered off with a crew of fortune hunters that she breathlessly described as “high-end gays.” Or [Andy Cohen](https://time.com/5486895/andy-cohen-baby/) playing ringmaster to a universe of pugnacious [Real Housewives](https://time.com/5929741/real-housewives-beginners-guide/). Half a century ago, the Andy Cohen of the Upper East Side was [Truman Capote](https://time.com/3445150/truman-capote/), and the women whose world he insinuated himself into were A-list socialites. For two decades, the author of [_In Cold Blood_](https://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/30/all-time-100-best-nonfiction-books/slide/in-cold-blood-by-truman-capote/) and _Breakfast at Tiffany’s_ heard their confessions and dried their tears. Then, in 1975, he published a [story in _Esquire_](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a40376194/truman-capote-la-cote-basque/) that exposed their deepest humiliations. FX’s _Feud: Capote vs. the Swans_, the long-awaited second season of a [Ryan Murphy](https://time.com/5667752/ryan-murphy-netflix/) anthology that began with 2017’s [_Bette and Joan_](https://time.com/4748141/review-feud-finale/), traces the friendships and eventual schism. It’s a messy rendering that, at times, reverts to cliché. But beneath the distracting artifice is a psychologically rich, wonderfully acted portrait of an artist torn between his work and the life that fueled it. Tom Hollander (the lead villain in _Lotus_) is well cast as the diminutive Truman, in a story that spans from the mid-’50s through his prematuredeath in 1984, hopping between eras with confusing frequency. At ladies-who-lunch mecca La Cote Basque, he charms the adventurous C.Z. Guest ([Chloë Sevigny](https://time.com/6168758/chloe-sevigny-russian-doll-girl-from-plainville-interview/)), banters with brassy Slim Keith (Diane Lane, excellent), and taunts wild-eyed Ann Woodward ([Demi Moore](https://time.com/5864215/demi-moore-bathroom/)), whom he insists killed her husband. A standout episode, framed as footage for a [Maysles brothers](https://time.com/3735725/albert-maysles-dead-grey-gardens-documentary/) documentary, revisits Truman’s ultra-exclusive 1966 Black and White Ball, which marked the height of his influence.  Tom Hollander in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans Pari Dukovic—FX At the heart of the series is the author’s relationship with Babe Paley (an enchantingly brittle Naomi Watts), which writer and executive producer Jon Robin Baitz, adapting Laurence Leamer’s gossipy book _Capote’s Women_, interprets as a tragic romance. Platonic sparks fly when they meet on a private jet in 1955\. Truman worships Babe’s beauty and poise; she feels safe, loved, yet vividly alive when they’re together. Years later, he coaches her to use her powerful husband Bill’s (the late Treat Williams) serial infidelity to her advantage. “Figure out what it is you want,” he drawls after one egregious incident. Then he gives her a Valium to swallow with her Scotch and lets her snuggle up beside him. “The only person who could ever hurt me is you,” Babe tells Truman. And he does. The infamous _Esquire_ story earns him the wrath of the image-obsessed women he calls his swans. Led by Slim, they drop him overnight. Babe, whose marital woes Truman aired in lurid, barely veiled detail, follows the crowd but misses him terribly. After the breakup, each becomes the other’s one who got away. Truman’s betrayal, and the show’s fascination with that choice, situates _Capote vs. the Swans_ within a canon of Murphy series about real queer men who range from difficult to diabolical. In [_Dahmer—Monster_](https://time.com/6218411/jeffrey-dahmer-netflix-controvesy/) and[_The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story_](https://time.com/5092574/gianni-versace-andrew-cunanan/), the serial killers (and many of their victims) are men who sleep with men. [_Halston_](https://time.com/6047154/halston-review-netflix/)’s fashion designer antihero forsakes art and love for money and fame, terrorizing the people who care about him the most.  Naomi Watts in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans Pari Dukovic—FX Capote could easily have come off as similarly monstrous. Like Halston, his origin story involves a pitiful mother; [Jessica Lange](https://time.com/5695854/jessica-lange-highway-61-interview/) is pure camp as Truman’s withholding mom, a social climber who failed to penetrate the very same Manhattan circles that would welcome her son. The scenes where she appears, often in spectral form, are Murphyverse boilerplate. But, to his credit, Baitz also attributes to his protagonist motives more complicated than revenge on the kind of women who rejected his striving mom. Along with being a social gadfly, Truman was an ambitious writer. He pitched _Answered Prayers_, the unfinished novel that the _Esquire_ story excerpted, as a gimlet-eyed peek into the secret world of high society. Yet as he grew closer to his subjects, he struggled to write it, missing deadline after deadline. His descent into alcoholism, captured by Hollander and director Gus Van Sant with a starkness that recalls Van Sant’s Kurt Cobain film _Last Days_, plays a crucial role. So do his romantic woes; Truman alienates a loving partner (Joe Mantello) by doting on an abusive lover (Russell Tovey). He may have been the swans’ confidant, but they were not his. As one [James Baldwin](https://time.com/5859214/james-baldwin-racism/) (Chris Chalk, doing his best with an impossible role) notes, in an insightful, if heavy-handed, episode in which the iconic writer gives Truman a pep talk, gays did not at the time have the same supportive community to fall back on as other minorities. Whispered slurs confirm that the swans never fully accepted him; after _Esquire_, Babe calls him a “homosexual court jester singing for his supper.” Capote took the title of _Answered Prayers_ from a line attributed to Saint Teresa of Avila: “There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.” He was, presumably, referring to the dreams of wealth and privilege that the swans used their beauty and wiles to achieve. But _Feud_ suggests that Babe and the rest had always been just as treacherous to their gay best friend as he was, that one time, to them. The outcome of Capote’s own answered prayers? A ruined career. A life cut short. And a bottomless reservoir of tears. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/"},"headline":"Substance Edges Out Snark in Ryan Murphy's Messy, Fascinating Feud: Capote vs. the Swans","datePublished":"2024-01-31T16:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:52:41.478Z","description":"Beneath the messiness and cliché of Ryan Murphy's FX anthology is a psychologically rich portrait of an artist torn between work and life.","url":"https://time.com/6588110/feud-capote-vs-swans-review/","keywords":["Television","review","Magazine","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78ec6f16920b6fa8/698a44200116822f6d983d36/FEUD_301_CDFA_082323.new_.01.Sub_.11-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78ec6f16920b6fa8/698a44200116822f6d983d36/FEUD_301_CDFA_082323.new_.01.Sub_.11-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FEUD_301_CDFA_082323.new.01.Sub.11 copy","caption":"FX’s FEUD: Capote Vs. 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