Feud, episodes 3 and 4, review: a funny, snipe-filled examination of female dynamics

There’s a perverse pleasure to be had from watching two volatile people collide catastrophically with one another. In one fantastic montage in last night’s Feud(BBC Two) double bill, Bette Davis (a deliciously snarky Susan Sarandon) and Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) sabotaged each other on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in such increasingly ludicrous ways – Crawford tied weights to herself for a scene where Davis had to carry her; Davis accidentally-on-purpose kicked Crawford in the head – that, were it not all true, you’d think the writers had gone miles too far.  

But Feud, which tells the story of one of the most famous rivalries in Hollywood and the comeback movie that brought the pair reluctantly together, avoids passing the whole thing off as a cat fight. Crawford and Davis were proud to a fault, but they were also victims of a system that under-represented women, pitted them against each other, and punished them for getting older.

If that sounds depressingly familiar 55 years on, Feud clearly thinks so too, injecting lines so meta that I’m surprised the characters didn’t side-eye the camera as they said them. “By 1970, there will be six million more women than men,” said Crawford’s housekeeper and confidante Mamacita (Jackie Hoffman). “Do you know what this means? Studios will have to make half of stories about women, by women, for women!” Oh Mamacita. If only. 

As it happens, last night’s episodes were directed by women – Gwyneth Horder-Payton and Liza Johnson respectively. Both upheld the gloriously hammy style Ryan Murphy adopted in the first two episodes and explored the reasons behind the characters’ behaviour without excusing it. For example, Crawford, whose elegant charisma has been diluted by insecurity and copious fifths of vodka, is so terrified of ageing that she has Mamacita pin back her neck skin between scenes. “Every time she comes out of that trailer,” said Pauline, the assistant director with ambitions of her own, ”she’s lost five years.”

From Bette and Joan to Marilyn and Olivier: classic Hollywood's greatest feuds

If you see it as such, Feud is a fascinating examination of female dynamics, male power and internalised misogyny. But it’s also a funny, snipe-filled melodrama in which Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, just like their on-screen counterparts, chew up the scenery and spit it at each other.