Feud Season 1 Episode 2 Review

Feud delivered one the finest pilots of the season, with great performances all around. I'm hoping that the second episode can live up to the first.

The episode begins with a young actress that will be in Baby Jane approaching Joan for an autograph.  She says it's for her grandmother, who's loved Joan since childhood. Of course, Joan, being the horrible person that she is, demands that Bob Aldrich fires her. At first he won't do it, but after Bette requests the same, we see the actress carrying her things out, meaning that the divas have gotten their wishes.

We now get a flashback to the 1940s, where we get to see Joan and Bette in some of their finest roles, including Joan as Mildred Pierce, a role that won her an Oscar (and also a role Bette turned down).

Back in 1962, we see Jack Warner and Bob discussing the film. Jack tells Bob to keep the women fighting, and to make them both feel as if he likes the other one more. It goes without saying that Jack Warner is a horrible person. At a meeting with the wonderfully awful Hedda Hopper, Bob tells her about something that Bette said about Joan. And when Joan reads it in Hedda's column the next day, she is livid. So Joan calls up a rival of Hedda's and says that Bette "looks old enough to be [her] mother". Bette sees this and is furious, and tells Sylvia, a reporter, to "F*** off".

Bette and Bob rehearse over the weekend, and they actually seem to have some chemistry. Joan, of course, knows about Bette and Bob growing closer and wants attention. She calls Bob and asks him to come over. When he arrives, she tries to seduce him, and he won't go for it. The next day, Hedda comes barging into Joan's home, and she's really angry that Joan spoke to one of her rivals. But Joan calms her down, and Hedda seems fine.

On set, Bette gets angry at her daughter because she's flirting, and she drags her home. They fight, some words are said, and it ends with Bette calling Bob. Bob comes to Bette's and confronts her, and they end up kissing. Eww. The episode concludes with Bob returning home to bed, and his wife is  laying there awake. Something tells me that this marriage isn't making it out of this series alive.

This was another great episode, and the acting was superb again. This week, Susan Sarandon really impressed me, and she was so good. She was able to deliver some funny lines ("F*** off, Sylvia!" was my favorite line of the whole episode) and also make you somehow feel bad for Bette, even though she and Joan are both being divas. Feud is quickly shaping up as one of my favorite shows on television.

Episode Score: 10/10
Episode Grade: A+

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