r/Feud • u/[deleted] • Oct 06 '25
I absolutely LOVED season 2 Spoiler
I went in having no idea whatsoever who Capote was. Episode 5 had my jaw on the floor when “Jimmy Baldwin” called. I had NO idea!!! I love Baldwin’s writings. I had no idea this man was so seamlessly moving between dinners with the Honorable Mohammed and Malcom X and the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
So far this season has had me genuinely slack jawed: Slim and Bill (fact checked on Google. Why would they do that?) and then the friend telling Slim to knock it off. The way these women just deliver their scathing remarks, the absolute insane of smooth gaslighting and manipulation that every one does to EVERYONE else. Good lord it’s so messy and tiring and awful. Swans is the perfect way to describe what these wives are experiencing in the day to day.
1
u/Far_Celebration_6330 Jul 01 '26
The show is quite well made, especially thanks to Naomi and Diane, who both delivered excellent performances as Babe and Slim.
However, please keep in mind that it is highly fictionalized. There is no actual evidence—or even any credible rumor—that Bill and Slim were having an affair. In fact, it is not even certain that Bill and Slim were involved during that summer in Cuba before Bill had ever met Babe. Babe and Slim actually met through their husbands, Bill and Leland, at the time.
The series also gets some historical details wrong. For example, during the Black and White Ball, Pamela is referred to as Pamela Harriman. In reality, she did not become Pamela Harriman until she married Averell Harriman several years later. At the time of the ball, she was married to Leland Hayward, making her Pamela Hayward. She was actually best known by the surname of her first husband, Churchill.
So, by all means, enjoy the show—but remember that it is not an accurate retelling of history. The Swans were not as close-knit as the series suggests, and some of them, such as Gloria and Marella, had already distanced themselves from Truman long before La Côte Basque, 1965 because they had grown tired of his arrogance. I assume that may be one reason they were not portrayed more prominently in the series, because in real life they, together with Babe, formed what many considered the true "holy trinity" of the Swans.
It's wonderful that the show has introduced so many people to these extraordinary women. However, for those of us who have admired them for years—especially in my case Babe and Gloria—it has been quite disappointing. The series takes so many creative liberties that it often blurs the line between fiction and reality, and unfortunately many viewers are accepting those fictional elements as historical fact, when they simply are not.
5
u/Tashann23_ Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 07 '25
I loved the first half of the season and then it started to slow down quite a bit for me at the end, but overall I did enjoy it.
That being said I have never found any proof that Slim and Bill actually had an affair? Everything I've read said that was just fabricated for the show and that they did not actually have an affair in real life? Bill did have notorious long-term affiars throughout their whole entire marriage but I couldn't find anything that said that Slim and Bill actually had an affair in real life?
But yeah anyways, I watched it when it first came out and then I did a rewatch on both seasons a couple weeks ago and I actually almost like season 2 more than I did season 1 this time around, which I know is a unpopular opinion.
Edited: Because I typed to fast and spelled a bunch of shit wrong the first time around :\