First of all, Jessica Lange is my favorite actress working today. Quickly, before my topic, fans of Jessica should see Normal, Frances, Tootsie, Blue Sky, Grey Gardens, A Thousand Acres, Sweet Dreams, and even Don't Come Knocking, solely and if for nothing else than one powerful scene she does with Sam Shepard. It's only about two-three minutes long, filmed as they walk down a street. It makes the entire movie worth watching. She's that good. Oh! And don't miss Hush, because the movie is so bad, it's good. Even Lange doesn't like to discuss the movie, and when you see it, you'll know why. The whole ending was reshot, and it's a mess altogether, but it's worth it to see Jessica have meltdown after meltdown. It rivals "Mommie Dearest" in the camp factor, I'd say.

Anyway, with Jessica, I was of course excited to watch Feud, but disappointed. Not with Lange's acting, but with the script overall. As far as Sarandon is concerned, I agree with other posters that she's not the one to play Bette Davis. Besides having large eyes and yes, she can be made to look quite like Bette...well, IMO she's not disappearing into the role enough to be believable. While Jessica shows restraint (she could easily make Joan a caricature), Sarandon acts as if she's not really trying much at all. While it's true I'm biased due to my love for Jessica Lange and her abilities, I'm trying very hard to have an open mind and be as equitable as possible, my take is that Jessica is holding back...she has to, or she'll end up worse than Faye Dunaway...and Susan's well...just not that great of an actress to begin with. Other than fandom from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Thelma & Louise, Dead Man Walking (Sean Penn made that film more than Sarandon, IMO), and Bull Durham, she's really not done much to acclaim. Sarandon throwing too much of her personal life (e.g., her political agendas, etc.) out there doesn't help her in the believable part of playing someone other than herself, either.

I'll obviously keep watching, for Jessica alone. There are seven more episodes, so hopefully it will get better. So far, though, the first episode left me going, "Meh. It's nothing special if it stays like this."