Today I am going to break character and write about something worth your viewership from this side of the century line as the person I am penning about had his character broken in more times than Imelda Marcos' MaryJane's collection. Now apparently, it's the eighth most popular streaming series in the whole US of A. Who woulda thunk that a limited-series about the beleaguered and brilliant author Truman Capote would pick up this pace but Feud - Capote vs the Swans is harder to avert one's eyes from than a Escherian fever dream after all, And not to detract anything from the late Mr. Seymour-Hoffman but Tom Hollander's Capote not only devastates with its verisimilitude of the visage, vim and vigor of the writer himself, Hollander goes beyond, beyond the veil so deeply it's as if we can see the aforementioned actual soul. It must have been daunting a task to take on this feat of feats. To say Capote was complicated is almost too vulgar a summation, the man was a veritable matryoshka doll of emotions as it happened.
And I will even forgive having to fully suspend my disbelief when last week's episode suggested of all people, fellow scribe James Baldwin who let's just say was Capote's frenemy at best, was depicted as being a guardian angel, staging an impromptu intervention for Truman to straighten up and fly right, it may leave you thinking 'if only.' And I can try to forgive all the vitriol that he bestowed on the beloved belles he would boatswain for many a year. Capote did have a remit for that - that old chestnut called writer's block and it was high time he had to write about the things in which he knew and yes, he brought many a friend to their knees and subsequently many a foe, namely Gore Vidal who Truman truly stated " I'm always sad about Gore, very sad that he has to breathe everyday.
Andy Warhol wouldn't just have a lifelong obsession on anyone, now would he and though Capote rarely minced words he also never gilded the lily , a certain realism that barely exists our day in age, he was able to show himself even when he tried his college best to sequester it, he was enraging as he was endearing and Hollander has found his way to demonstrate this dynamic in a way that all of the forefathers of this role may have missed. Okay enough of that, time for you to have your breakfast of epiphanies yourself- Feud : Capote vs the Swans is currently streaming on Hulu,