Impeachment: American Crime Story

This is a propulsive, incredibly watchable show, not really pulling the curtain back on a story you already know but turning that story into high drama, filled with fantastic performances. It may not have the nuance of “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” but few shows do—it remains Murphy’s greatest achievement—and it stands on the top tier of 2021 dramatic programming.

Though Impeachment is not as emotionally resonant as previous ACS' previous installments, The People v. OJ Simpson and The Assassination of Gianni Versace, it's a gripping and challenging retelling of a presidential scandal — and our nation's moral failure.

Look past the rubber noses and horrible wigs and see an incisive drama about American politics, with (yet another) incredible performance from Sarah Paulson.

Look past the rubber noses and horrible wigs and see an incisive drama about American politics, with (yet another) incredible performance from Sarah Paulson.

“Impeachment” doesn’t provide a radically new context for what we know, but it compensates for that by delivering the familiar story in a detailed, strongly acted, and compulsively watchable way. It’s all tinged by the wisdom and awareness that come with hindsight, naturally, but the big draw is the dramatic retelling.

The series is rapt by [Linda Trapp's] role in this famous presidential scandal, and though its depiction of her is flawed, sometimes deeply, its detailed obsession with Tripp is nevertheless so utterly caught up in her that the show manages to leap past all the reasons why it absolutely, unequivocally, should not work. ... Impeachment is imperfect, but its excavation of this era in American history is nonetheless transfixing, and it’s not least because there is now a mythic quality to the story it tells.

Sarah Paulson's portrayal of Linda Tripp steals the show, but there's no shortage of remarkable work in a production that deserves an Emmy for its prosthetic makeup alone.

You’ll leave Impeachment feeling many things: anger at Linda Tripp, disgust toward Bill Clinton, revulsion about the cutthroat media landscape and our current team mentality of politics. But you’ll also leave it understanding that Monica Lewinsky was a real person rather than a punchline.

What we do get is something not that different from what actually happened during the impeachment scandal of 1998: a sometimes deliciously sordid tale of abuse and manipulation.

A lurid, sudsy, melodramatic and addictively watchable political noir thriller and character study.

Often funny and always captivating.

Beanie Feldstein gives a heartbreaking and revelatory performance that helps make Impeachment a riveting indictment of everyone on all sides of this, shall we say, affair. [13 - 26 Sep 2021, p.17]

“Impeachment” is not subtle but it can be entertaining. The real-world scandal, driven by gossip and people constitutionally incapable of keeping their mouths shut, was equal parts salacious, delicious, infuriating and just plain sad, which is true of “Impeachment,” too. The series thankfully allows space to be hilarious.

Yes, "Impeachment" is watchable and (yes) it's also flawed. But it's fascinating, even though you too may come to suspect, for all the wrong reasons, or one of them anyway.