Anatomy of a Ryan Murphy Queer Murderer Show

The shows are not carbon copies of one another. They diverge in tone, structure, and quality. Murphy’s roster of collaborators and level of involvement vary; so do the personalities of their predatory protagonists. Of the three series I’ve watched (Netflix has not provided critics with advance access to Menendez), the first to air, 2018’s Versace, is also by far the best. Written by Tom Rob Smith (Class of ‘09), the stylish period thriller, set largely in neon-lit ’90s Miami Beach, casts Glee’s Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, the status-obsessed spree killer who murdered five people, including the iconic fashion designer Gianni Versace (Édgar Ramírez). Both men were gay. Innovative in its reverse-chronological structure, Versace has shrewd satirical elements that recall American Psycho. And in contrasting Versace’s personal and professional success with Cunanan’s abjection and deceit, Smith captures a moment, concurrent with the second decade of the AIDS crisis, when the rapid mainstreaming of queer culture coexisted with virulent homophobia.