'Impeachment: American Crime Story' review: Fascinating, but flawed limited series

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Not long after Paula Jones (Annaleigh Ashford) has filed a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton (Clive Owen) for indecently exposing himself to her when he was governor of Arkansas, Monica Lewinsky (Beanie Feldstein) arrives as an intern at the White House. While there, she begins a two-year affair with the President. This ten-episode limited series (the third installment of FX's "American Crime Story" anthology franchise), picks up after Lewinsky is transferred to the Pentagon in 1996 where she confides in another unhappy White House transferee, Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson). At the urging of her smarmy literary agent Lucianne Goldberg (Margo Martindale) — yes, Linda wants to write a book and now knows just what to write about — Tripp tapes her calls with Lewinsky. His Whitewater investigation floundering, Kenneth Starr (Dan Bakkedahl) later decides to link the Jones suit with Lewinsky. In the seven episodes made available for review, Hillary Clinton (Edie Falco) is hardly seen but clearly has no clue what's coming: Impeachment.

MY SAY The Washington, D.C., of "Impeachment" is a hollow place filled with hollow bureaucrats, or to borrow the line from that famous poem about such people, they're shapes without form, shades without color. A transactional town, rewards and punishments are meted according to the self-dealing dictates set by the self-dealing white male hierarchy. Everyone shuffles between drab offices and drab homes. They're all bored, even (or especially) a libidinous commander in chief.

Clearly, a starry-eyed 22-year-old White House intern doesn't — and didn't — stand a chance in a place like this. But an embittered, chain-smoking 50-something career civil servant who still longs for the days when Ronald Reagan refused to enter the Oval Office without suit and tie? This Washington was made for her. Either by design or default, so was this series.

"Impeachment" is about setting records straight and restoring the human dignity of Lewinsky and Jones, both recalibrated here as MeToo casualties dragged through the mud by an unscrupulous President and feckless press. (Lewinsky is an executive producer of the series.) But the more interesting character is Tripp. She almost couldn't be otherwise.

Paulson, in fact, got some unwelcome prelaunch publicity when it was revealed that she wore (excuse the term) a "fat suit" to play Tripp. She also wears enough prosthetic makeup to completely obscure the rest of her features. While Paulson is unrecognizable, Linda Tripp certainly isn't. It's as if we see her all over again for who she was or who we think she was. (You can take that, by the way, as warning

Paulson's portrayal isn't entirely posthumous character assassination (Tripp died in 2020) and in a sense, she's already had some practice for the role too. Back on the 4th season of "American Horror Story," she played conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler, with Bette the Dr. Jekyll to Dot's Mr. Hyde. There's some Bette and Dot in her Tripp too — the good and evil, the back and forth. Should she betray Monica or help her? Tripp finally arrives at the sketchy formulation that to betray Monica is to help her. We know she's fooling herself, on some level she does too, but to her mind there's a greater good anyway — unmasking Clinton. Paulson's Tripp may be a hardhearted backstabber but at least she's not an unthinking one.

There are lots of other characters in "Impeachment," all instantly recognizable, none as remotely as engaging. Owen perfectly captures Clinton but it's more impersonation than performance. Like Tripp he's a villain, but unlike Tripp, he's dead behind the eyes. There's nothing there, certainly no one worth getting to know. Feldstein's Lewinsky, meanwhile, is the tragic naif among wolves. She's a good and flawed person — a terminally dull one too.

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.

BOTTOM LINE Linda Tripp steals Monica's show.