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Impeachment: American Crime Story

ImpeachmentThe third season of TV Megaproducer Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story anthology series on FX, premiered within two years of two real-life presidential impeachments.

The 1990s events surrounding Bill Clinton’s impeachment are covered in the show. Murphy’s usual collaborators Sarah Paulson, Judith Light and distracting stunt casting (Edie falco as Hillary Clinton, Cobie Mulders as the pitch-perfect Ann Coulter) make up the majority of Murphy’s cast. As producer, Monica Lewinsky is the real Monica Lewinsky.

Paulson plays Linda Tripp as a complicated character, both pitiable and unsympathetic. She is bitter, lonely, and plagued with paranoia, delusions, and grandeur. But Tripp, who struggles to connect with her own children, forms a seemingly genuine maternal bond with Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein)—ultimately betraying her friend not out of malice but from a sense of motherly duty.

Clive Owen does a remarkable Southern drawl on Bill Clinton, which might bring back memories of an earlier president who is facing impeachment in 2021. Clinton laments that he is being hounded by lawsuits and investigation. “They want to take advantage of the legal system to overturn an electoral election!”

Murphy, despite being a strong Hillary supporter was not a partisan. However, his take on Clinton’s impeachment is bipartisan.