Whatever Happened to "Whatever Happened..."

You would think that a mini-series about the legendary catfights between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis on the set of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" would be off-the-chart fun.  

At least, that's what I thought.   Now I've hung in there for most of it and I am still waiting for the claws to come out.  In the hands of super-gay producer and director Ryan Murphy, this should have been as bitchy as they come.  But, indeed, Murphy has done the impossible.   He's made this all dull and boring.

Okay, I've got to give the guy some props for delving deep into Hollywood lore and looking at a movie production from 1962.  After all, most people think that the first movie ever made was "Star Wars."   And, from the hearsay on the film, you know there was a lot to work with.   But, somehow, it doesn't turn up on the screen.   Yawn.

Jessica Lange is Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon is Bette Davis and I wonder if their own battles would have provided best fodder than what Murphy shares.   Indeed, the mini-series meanders from one sleep-inducing scene to another and, frankly, the acting is pretty mediocre.

To make matters worse, the production values are sort of a bargain basement variety.  While the attention to detail is there when they are redoing actual scenes from the film, the rest of the set pieces look cheap.   At one point, a Golden Globe Award ceremony looks like it was shot in a Cheesecake Factory.

Oh, the missed opportunities, one after another.

Now if you want to have some real fun with this, go seek out the original movie and perhaps it's playing on a big screen near you.   This happened in Beverly Hills a few weeks back.   The place was packed and they loved every scene-chewing moment.   To make the fun even giddier, there were two drag queens in the lobby playing Baby Jane and Blanche reciting scenes from the movie.

Now that was fun.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.