Review: 'Feud: Capote vs. The Swans' Gorgeous, but Too Heavy to Take Flight

After seven years, the second season of Ryan Murphy's "Feud," subtitled "Capote vs. The Swans," lands. In many ways, it's worth the wait; in others, it suffers from its own weight. The eight episodes of "Swans" comprise a gracefully made, gorgeous production that, like the titular bird, has to tread water furiously in order to stay afloat.

Truman Capote was, of course, a queer duck himself – not in being openly gay, necessarily, but in the way he cozied up to society women like Babe Paley, Slim Keith, C.Z. Guest, and Lee Radziwell, among others, and then used his insider knowledge to write a "novel" that was basically a tell-all. The book was called "Answered Prayers," and it was never finished; several chapters from "Answered Prayers" were run by Esquire magazine, and the one that got Capote in trouble with his high-born friends hit the news stands in 1975.

In the show, which is based on the book "Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era," by Laurence Leamer, Barbara "Babe" Paley (Naomi Watts) and her husband, William Paley (Treat Williams) – at the time the head of CBS and the founder for whom the Paley Center for Media is named – go through a hideously traumatic episode when one of Paley's flings (Happy Rockefeller, the wife of Nelson Rockefeller) takes spectacular revenge upon him. It's only one of a number of irresistibly juicy stories that Capote is privy to... and it's only one of a number of personal crises for which he served as confidante, cheerleader, and emotional EMT.

The show isn't overly concerned with why Capote wrote the material (though there are various theories offered, including one by Capote's longtime partner Jack that the writer was seeking to "amputate" the swans from his life and thus be free of them). More central to the plot is how the swans form a bloc to freeze Capote out of the high society he loved being part of.

That bloc does have a chip in its armor, though, in C.Z. (Chloë Sevigny, especially luminous even amongst such an illustrious cast), who feels that while the offense is grave, the punishment is just as onerous, if not worse.

Over time, the others start to feel that way as well, with Jackie O. sister Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockheart) eventually growing sick of the way Slim seeks to control the situation and manipulate everyone else according to her wishes... even as Slim herself commits a heinous act of betrayal.

Demi Moore features as an "honorary swan" named Ann Woodward, whom Capote targets in a smear campaign, telling everyone that she murdered her husband. It's a premonitory echo of what Capote himself faces, being in retaliation for a slight Capote took to heart – and indeed, the season's third episode, styled as footage from a documentary, explores this, showing not only how Woodward warns Capote, in so many words, that karma is a bitch, but also revealing where Capote got the title for "Answered Prayers."

Longtime Ryan Murphy collaborator Jessica Lange is also featured, looking more glamorous than ever (and possibly more glamorous than any of the swans) as Capote's mother... or, better said, his idealized, loved-and-hated memory of his mother.

"Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" is, like the series' first season. It's a gorgeously realized period piece with stellar acting and writing that verges on the purple but is elevated to operatic passion... at least, in fits and starts. Tom Hollander turns in mesmerizing work, transforming himself into Capote without reservation and presenting a man who's both utterly in control of most situations (including a Palm Springs-set exchange with a hunky plumber that has to rank among the all-time best on-screen gay pickups) and yet unable to stop himself from sabotaging his own career, health, and relationships.

Not that this is unusual for Ryan Murphy-produced content, but there are moments among the show's electric thrills when the drama feels flat despite the directorial hand of Gus Van Sant (who directs all but two of the episodes; Jennifer Lynch and Max Winkler direct Episodes 7 and 5, respectively). It doesn't help when the score – often atmospheric and effective – turns into a nagging drone.

The above characterization of swans comes from the show, in a moment of dialogue that exemplifies how the metaphor is hammered too relentlessly and presented too literally. In one dream/hallucination, a swan swims in a bathtub; in another, a major character poses serenely on a swan boat floating in a swimming pool. There's even an episode in which Truman Capote receives an A-level lecture series from none other than James Baldwin (Chris Chalk) on the qualities and traits of swans, including the queer ones.

Where the show works best is in its dual emotional cores: Capote's mommy issues, which are directly related to his need for high society glamor and the beautiful women who embody it, and his genuine love for the swans, especially Babe (who struggles with cancer throughout the season). Theirs is an intense, if crossed-wires, love story, and its when the show surrenders to its melodramatic impulses in a series of dream sequences that it achieves an unexpected emotional authenticity.

This may be one flock of swans that can't quite fly to the heights of television's dreamscape, but the show certainly does cut a dashing, even romantic, figure.

"Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" premieres Jan. 31 on FX and FXX with two episodes, followed by new episodes weekly. Next-day streaming will be available on Hulu.