Feud: Capote vs. The Swans

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans
Season 2
Promotional poster
Starring	Naomi Watts Diane Lane Chloë Sevigny Calista Flockhart Demi Moore Molly Ringwald Treat Williams Joe Mantello Russell Tovey Tom Hollander
No. of episodes	8
Release
Original network	FX Hulu
Original release	January 31 (2024-01-31) – March 13, 2024 (2024-03-13)
Season chronology

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans is the second season of the American anthology television series Feud created by Ryan Murphy, Jaffe Cohen, and Michael Zam for FX. Directed by Gus Van Sant, Max Winkler, and Jennifer Lynch, it is written by Jon Robin Baitz. The eight-episode season is based on the book Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era written by Laurence Leamer. Its first two episodes premiered on January 31, 2024, with episodes available on Hulu the day after broadcast on FX.

Premise

Acclaimed writer Truman Capote ruins his friendships with the Swans, a socialite group of New York City high society, by writing a thinly veiled fictionalized account of their scandalous and hedonistic lives in his (ultimately unfinished) novel, Answered Prayers. When Esquire publishes the chapter "La Côte Basque 1965", after the restaurant of the same name frequented by the Swans, several vow to ruin his life in revenge.

Cast

Main

• Naomi Watts as Babe Paley
• Diane Lane as Slim Keith
• Chloë Sevigny as C. Z. Guest
• Calista Flockhart as Lee Radziwill
• Demi Moore as Ann Woodward
• Molly Ringwald as Joanne Carson
• Treat Williams as Bill Paley
• Joe Mantello as Jack Dunphy
• Russell Tovey as John O'Shea
• Tom Hollander as Truman Capote

Recurring

• Jessica Lange as Lillie Mae Faulk, Capote's mother
• Ella Beatty as Kerry O'Shea
• Roya Shanks as Louisa Firth
• Jamie Askew as Jennifer Jones
• Scott Zimmerman as David Selznick

Guest

• Rebecca Creskoff as Happy Rockefeller
• David Healy as Nelson Rockefeller
• Daniel Adaro as Chris O'Shea
• Tom Stratford as Bill Blass
• Marin Ireland as Katharine Graham
• Alison Wright as Pamela Harriman
• Pawel Szajda as Albert Maysles
• Yuval David as David Maysles
• Chris Chalk as James Baldwin
• Charlotte Cronin as Cornelia Guest
• Jeffrey Grover as Richard Avedon
• Dennis Staroselsky as Stanley Siegel
• Jessica DiGiovani as Kate Paley
• Dan Cordle as Joe Capote

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
9	1	"Pilot"	Gus Van Sant	Jon Robin Baitz	January 31, 2024 (2024-01-31)	3WBB01	0.461
In 1968, Babe Paley tells Truman Capote that her husband Bill is having an affair. In 1955, Truman accompanies the Paleys and film producer David O. Selznick on a trip to Montego Bay, during which he charms them with witticisms and an outrageous story that Ann Woodward murdered her husband. After dinner, Babe tells Truman about her husband's affairs, which he tells her to use to her advantage. In 1975, Truman meets banker John O'Shea in a bathhouse and takes him to lunch with Babe, Slim Keith, and C. Z. Guest at La Côte Basque. Ann confronts Truman, but he is unmoved. O'Shea suggests Truman use his friends' lives as inspiration for his next novel, Answered Prayers. Despite attempts by Jack Dunphy, Truman's erstwhile partner, an excerpt is published in Esquire, with many recognizing it as a thinly veiled attack. Babe tells Bill she has been diagnosed with cancer. While lunching with Babe, Slim reveals Ann committed suicide before the excerpt's publication and suggests exacting revenge on Truman.
10	2	"Ice Water in Their Veins"	Gus Van Sant	Jon Robin Baitz	January 31, 2024 (2024-01-31)	3WBB02	0.263
A few months following the scandalous article being published, Truman's downward spiral begins. Following Ann's suicide, the Swans decide to present a unified front as they set in motion a plan of revenge against Truman.
11	3	"Masquerade 1966"	Gus Van Sant	Jon Robin Baitz	February 7, 2024 (2024-02-07)	3WBB03	0.298
In a documentary of 1966, Capote has cameras filming as he sets up for a Masquerade. Despite various times asking to not have their private issues shown on camera, the camera crew continues filming. In the background, Capote claims to be inviting a special guest, causing the women to guess unsuccessfully the identity. At the party, Ann Woodward and her son party crash with her wanting him to stop his smear campaign. At the end of the evening, Capote hallucinates dancing with his deceased mother.
12	4	"It's Impossible"	Gus Van Sant	Jon Robin Baitz	February 14, 2024 (2024-02-14)	3WBB04	0.259
Babe continues her radiation therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, but receives unfortunate news about its progress. As she faces a harsh reality, Babe forgives her husband of his indiscretions and hints at forgiving Truman to the dismay of Slim. Slim tries to slander Truman in the press while the rest of the Swans discourage her efforts. Truman completes his stint at rehab, but quickly relapses and returns to John O'Shea and his old habits.
13	5	"The Secret Inner Lives of Swans"	Max Winkler	Jon Robin Baitz	February 21, 2024 (2024-02-21)	3WBB05	0.342
In 1975, Babe reads the Esquire article and argues with Bill about his lack of discretion in choosing his lovers. Despondent from a conversation with Bill Paley, Truman tries to commit suicide. He receives a phone call from James Baldwin, with whom he is acquainted, and James invites him to lunch at La Côte Basque. James offers Truman emotional support and encourages him to get sober. As they discuss behaviors of wild swans and compare them to the negative and hurtful behaviors of Truman's Swans, Truman recalls salacious details he did not include in the article. Truman awakens the next day (from his suicide attempt) in the same clothes he wore before the day with Baldwin, implying that the meeting has been a dream, and continues writing his book. That evening after telling Jack this is his best writing ever, he eats a roasted swan by candlelight.
14	6	"Hats, Gloves and Effete Homosexuals"	Gus Van Sant	Jon Robin Baitz	February 28, 2024 (2024-02-28)	3WBB06	0.281
Truman advises the professional styling of Kate Harrington, the daughter of John O'Shea who he has taken under his wing as a protégé, and pressures her to mimic the look of Babe for her upcoming photoshoot with Richard Avedon. Both Lee and Dick encourage Kate to not allow Truman to control her image. Kate loves and admires Truman, but grows disillusioned with his irresponsible lifestyle and resumed alcoholism. Meanwhile, both Truman and the Swans struggle with their advancing ages and fading relevance in the social scene as their favorite stores and fashions become outdated. Truman takes a boorish repairman as a brief lover, only to find the affair unfulfilling. Entrenched in the threat of a lawsuit from Gore Vidal, who he had defamed on television, Truman elects to undergo plastic surgery and later resumes writing, wistfully recalling happier times with the Swans.
15	7	"Beautiful Babe"	Jennifer Lynch	Jon Robin Baitz	March 6, 2024 (2024-03-06)	3WBB07	0.297
An increasingly frail Babe learns that she has only six months to live and makes peace with her mortality. She dies in the summer, surrounded by her family, and has a dying vision of reuniting with Truman, whom she praises as being one of the greatest and most important relationships in her life. The Swans attend her funeral, from which Truman has been banned, and begin to go their separate ways. Truman, grieving Babe and regretting their failure to reconcile, slips further into alcoholism and drug abuse, culminating in a disastrous and incoherent appearance on Stanley Siegel's talk show. Jack cuts ties with him and leaves him with Joanne Carson, Truman's only remaining friend. Joanne tries to support Truman's writing efforts, but Truman instead continues to drink heavily as his health declines. He hallucinates Babe comforting him as he dies of organ failure, and Joanne informs Jack that Truman's final words were "Beautiful Babe".
16	8	"Phantasm Forgiveness"	Gus Van Sant	Jon Robin Baitz	March 13, 2024 (2024-03-13)	3WBB08	0.307
In 1984, Truman visits Babe's grave and lies down on top of it, longing to be reunited. He later visits Jack's apartment while pursuing sobriety, and the two reconcile and part ways as Truman vows to finish Answered Prayers as an apology to his former friends. As he writes, he envisions himself reconciling with the Swans by selflessly granting their deepest wishes. Between chapters, he has a vision of his combative mother, which drives him back to drinking and using drugs. During one such episode, he recalls her suicide, and hallucinates Ann, who informs him that Answered Prayers will never restore his friendships, as he wrote it with the intent of destroying high society out of revenge for himself and his shunned mother. He destroys the completed manuscript in secret and departs for his final stay with Joanne. In 2016, Truman's ashes are sold at auction for $45,000 (with Kate Harrington in attendance) as the ghosts of the Swans critique the proceedings.

Production

Development

FX renewed the Feud series for a second season in February 2017, with Ryan Murphy and Jon Robin Baitz attached as writers, with an initial focus on the relationship between Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales.

By April 2022, the focus had shifted onto Truman Capote and his tempestuous relationship with New York high society with Gus Van Sant on board to direct and Naomi Watts attached to star.

Baitz adapted the bestselling book Capote's Women by Laurence Leamer for the series. Executive producers on the series include Murphy, Alexis Martin Woodall, Baitz, Van Sant, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Watts, Eric Kovtun, and Scott Robertson.

It was the last project of Treat Williams before his death in 2023.

Casting

In August 2022, Tom Hollander was cast as Truman Capote with the cast also including Diane Lane and Calista Flockhart. In September 2022, Demi Moore joined the cast.

Filming

Filming began in New York in the autumn of 2022.

Release

The first two episodes of the season premiered on January 31, 2024, with episodes available on Hulu the following day. Internationally, the series will be available on Disney+ through Star and on Star+ in Latin America.

Reception

Audience viewership

In February 2024, Ryan Murphy Productions announced Feud: Capote vs. The Swans was the number one television series on Hulu upon its release. According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, it was the eighth most streamed television series in the United States during the week of February 4, the third during the week of February 14, and the ninth during the week of February 21, 2024. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, it was the sixth most streamed television series in the United States during the week of February 5–11, 2024.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans holds an approval rating of 77% based on 64 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While this Feud might lack the abundance of incident that made its predecessor such a nasty delight, Capote vs. the Swans' luxe milieu and dynamite ensemble will keep spectators entertained." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

David Bianculli of NPR praised the season and concluded that "Capote vs. the Swans deserves our attention. It's a good drama, a compelling story with a powerhouse cast — and in this new installment of Feud, they all do some very powerful work." For IGN, Emma Fraser gave Feud: Capote vs. The Swans a grade of 8 out of 10, praised the performances of the actors, especially Hollander's, complimented the costumes and the production design, and called the show a "delicious cautionary tale of writing." In commending the show's handling of the "complex, enduring, often co-dependent bond between straight women and gay men", Alison Herman describes in Variety that the "series is ultimately a sincere and moving study of a dynamic that’s rarely explored with such empathy and depth, a novelty that makes its flaws more forgivable as the price of ambition."

Other critics were less effusive about the season, particularly for its inadequate depth in plot and character development. Jackson McHenry wrote in his review for Vulture that "Capote vs. the Swans gives us plenty of the surface of Capote, of the public bons mots, but it has trouble getting inside his creative self." He elaborated that the show "delivers on the cattiness and the glamor and the factoids, like that Capote served everyone spaghetti and chicken hash alongside the champagne" in lieu of "a deeper insight into why Capote’s guest list was so revolutionary or how ’60s society was shifting as it happened." In Salon, Melanie McFarland noted that the female characters in Baitz's script lacked depth and observed that he "extensively invests in writing to one layer of these women’s interiority without convincing us that there's more to them than their vindictiveness, prejudice or selfishness." She also examined the comparisons drawn by FX and the show to The Real Housewives franchise, a perception she deems "a disservice" to the cast, and juxtaposed the show's portrayals of the women with those from the franchise: "Bravo's housewives may be as shallow as Capote’s, but Cohen is a master at casting problematic people into addictive spectacles. Conversely, Baitz and that cast stuff so much effort into their characters as to make them stiff objects instead of granting them the flexibility to be wickedly real."

External links

• Feud: Capote vs. The Swans at IMDb