Impeachment: American Crime Story re-litigates the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal

The most famous political scandal of the 1990s gets a do-over with this star-studded, slickly produced new TV drama.

How much do you remember of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal?

There was the infamous stained blue dress, plus those secret tape recordings, and a zealous prosecutor with a name made for headlines, Kenneth Starr. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”. And all those other women.

While it seems like recent history, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal turns 23 this year and with time, some of the more salient details escape memory. Which is why now seems like a perfect time for American Crime Story to sink its dramatic teeth in with Impeachment.

Just like the two American Crime Story instalments before this (The People vs OJ Simpson, The Assassination of Gianni Versace), Impeachment isn’t just a play-by-play of what happened, although there is plenty of that.

The series seeks to explore what the whole affair tells us about the culture which created the monster that the scandal became – from the media frenzy and the political machinations to how a 24-year-old woman became the most famous mistress in the world.

Monica Lewinsky and the actor who plays her younger self, Beanie Feldstein. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

With Lewinsky among the series’ producers, Impeachment re-litigates the human cost to those involved, reframing the story as more than just a circus for a voracious public who ate up every salacious detail.

Lewinsky re-emerged in public life in 2014, at a time when the discourse on abuse of power had progressed to a level that led many to wonder whether the public shaming in 1998 was proportionate to her “crime”.

She knowingly had an affair with a married man, but she was also 22 years old when it started. He was 49, the most powerful person on Earth and, by all accounts, intensely charismatic.

Impeachment is interested in these questions, as well as examining the various parties that exploited two young women to further their political agendas – to bring down Clinton.

Casting Beanie Feldstein as Lewinsky is key to rehabilitating Lewinsky’s image. Feldstein has an innate sweetness. Her Lewinsky is likeable even when she’s at her most lovestruck, obsessively pining for Clinton with the unreasonable fervour of a schoolgirl with a crush.

A famous scandal recreated. Picture: FX

The way she talks about their stolen glances really emphasises how young she was at the time – and she was sheltered, having grown up in privilege in Los Angeles. When she is exposed, the full ramifications of everything hits her hard.

But the series doesn’t rob her of agency. Lewinsky is shown as knowing full well what she is doing, but there is an element of naivete that is shattered when she is betrayed by Linda Tripp, her supposed friend and confidante from the Defence Department.

Tripp, played with a venomous acridity by Sarah Paulson, is a thoroughly unlikeable character, even remarked upon by another character (Colin Hanks) who says that a jury would hate that woman.

Tripp was a career public servant with a heightened sense of self-importance who probably deep down knew of her actual insignificance. In Impeachment, that clamouring for validation and drama – and a disdain for the Clintons – is what set her on the path to secretly record her telephone conversations with Lewinsky.

Tripp was also significantly older than Lewinsky and it’s played as if Tripp groomed the younger woman for her ends.

Be careful who you take advise from. Picture: FX

That theme of grooming and exploitation is prevalent through the series. The other story strand is Paula Jones (Annaleigh Ashford), whose sexual harassment lawsuit exposed Clinton to those perjury charges.

Jones, another young woman, is used by a many-thronged political establishment eager to tear Clinton down, including backroom Republicans, media personality Ann Coulter (Cobie Smulders) and conservative powerbroker Susan Carpenter-McMillan (Judith Light), the latter of whom is “advising” Jones but not necessarily with her best interests.

The series whirls around many of the players at the time including Matt Drudge (Billy Eichner), then a fledgling gossip hound with a newsletter and a website, fixer Vernon Jordan (Blair Underwood), Clinton accuser Kathleen Willey (Elizabeth Reaser) and literary agent Lucianne Goldberg (Margo Martindale).

It’s a stellar cast that also includes Clive Owen who infuses Clinton with a chilling creepiness but also undeniable charm. Edie Falco’s Hillary is barely present in the first six episodes (out of 10) made available for review but expect her to be centred in the back half.

Other recognisable faces in supporting roles include Patrick Fischler, Kevin Pollak, Taran Killam, Fred Melamed, Mira Sorvino, Jim Rash and Dan Bakkedahl. The complex web of personalities and their power games is akin to House of Cards, only real and less murder-y.

Clive Owen as Bill Clinton in Impeachment: American Crime Story Picture: FX

Impeachment is a slick series that’s well-produced, shot almost like a nineties political thriller of that era, all muted tones, soft filter and laden with dramatic purpose.

The series is entertaining and compulsive but it also commits that sin so many historical dramas can’t resist, which is telegraphing the future.

For example, Coulter goes on a rant about Clinton’s behaviour setting a precedent for any “flabby conman who will see a path to the White House” while Brett Kavanagh briefly pops up for the sole purpose of the line “I don’t like to take no for an answer”.

Those lines might elicit a cheap laugh, but that kind of wink-wink knowingness is jarringly anachronistic and takes you straight out of the story.

Impeachment was created by Sarah Burgess, whose previous work includes Dry Powder, a satirical theatre production that parsed the specific culture of finance and private equity, so she has a grounding in navigating these esoteric, high-stakes worlds.

Adapted from Jeffrey Toobin’s book, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President, the pacing of the first six episodes already feels as if it could be condensed into six or eight episodes instead of 10, but it’s far from a dealbreaker.

Produced by Ryan Murphy, the American Crime Story anthology has always been the prolific filmmaker’s most reliable work, and with this instalment, it continues to uphold its strong standard as an absorbing and dynamic TV series.

Impeachment: American Crime Story is on Binge* from Wednesday, September 8

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*Binge is majority owned by News Corp, publisher of news.com.au