Michael Chernus as John Wayne Gacy in 'Devil in Disguise.' Brooke Palmer/PEACOCK Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Nearly six full hours into Peacock's Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, we finally see the eponymous serial killer applying make-up and donning the clown costume that, for many viewers, is inextricably linked to Gacy's murderous reign. The moment is striking and also, if I'm being completely honest, corny. It's a wild reversal from the relative subtlety of the first three-quarters of the limited series, the sort of iconographic emergence one might expect in a Superman (the first time Clark Kent removes his glasses and takes flight) or a Batman (Bruce Wayne covering his head in a black cowl). Related Stories Movies Celine Song on How 'Materialists' Subverts the Rom-Com With a "Really Frank Conversation" Movies 'Materialists' Review: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal Bring Affecting Soulfulness to Celine Song's Perceptive Romantic Drama Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy The Bottom Line Leaves no time for clowning around. Airdate: Thursday, October 16 (Peacock)Cast: Michael Chernus, Gabriel Luna, James Badge Dale, Michael Angarano, Chris Sullivan, Marin IrelandCreator: Patrick Macmanus At home, I literally sighed and wrote, "Here comes the Monster version of the series." For years, across various franchises on FX and Netflix, Murphy and his collaborators have often broadly insisted that their latest serial killer opus wasn't driven by fetishistic ghoulishness but, instead, a desire to honor the victims and/or the sociological context enabling the malevolent antihero. That desire apparently only lasts until the first opportunity to show Charlie Hunnam masturbating in frilly lingerie; from there, operatic monstrosity ensues. (Credit where it's due: Sometimes Murphy and company have truly succeeded. The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story suffered from comparisons to the flashier O.J. Simpson story, but it's ultimately a much more complex and humane work.) But Patrick Macmanus, creator of Devil in Disguise, isn't playing that game. Our first glimpse of Gacy in full harlequin regalia is our last. No clowning mayhem ensues. Instead of the orgiastic madhouse that fans of Monster and American Horror Story have grown accustomed to, Devil in Disguise is a somber affair, as aesthetically chilly as a December in Des Plaines, Illinois. In eight hours spent depicting one of the most prolific spree killers and sexual predators in American history, the onscreen violence is almost exclusively psychological. And although Michael Chernus gives an impressively unsettling performance in the main role, this is actually a serial killer drama in which the humanity of the victims, the challenges for law enforcement and the unfolding of a complex thesis on the genre are given equal - and eventually more than equal - time to the carnage. Macmanus slightly overplays his hand and slightly overpopulates the show's world. A tighter version of the story - six hours, perhaps - would be less draining, and the finale, in which Gacy is nearly absent, buries what should be its best scene. Still, I respect a serial killer drama that's this willing to eschew exploitative shock and simple answers in favor of sadness and weariness. Macmanus and director Larysa Kondracki hold back on introducing us to Gacy in the pilot as well. Instead, starting on December 11, 1978, we meet Elizabeth Piest (Marin Ireland, TV's go-to for sadness and weariness), a suburban Chicago mother whose teenage son was supposed to meet a contractor about a job but never came home. She goes to the local police, where chief of detectives Joe Kozenczak (James Badge Dale) tells her, "They usually show up, kids." That's not enough for Elizabeth, so Joe sends Rafael Tovar (Gabriel Luna) to do rudimentary investigations that bring him to the house of simultaneously friendly and squirrelly Gacy. Suspicion leads to interrogation. Interrogation leads to confession. Soon, the police are tearing up Gacy's home and finding a nightmarish collection of bodies; Gacy's attorney Sam Amirante (Michael Angarano) is trying desperately to get his loquacious client to shut up; prosecutor Bill Kunkle (Chris Sullivan) is fantasizing that the high-profile case that could lead to a judgeship; Elizabeth is wondering why still nobody can find her son; and Joe is beginning to poke around into the circumstances that allowed John Wayne Gacy to kill at least 33 young men despite previous incarceration and multiple reports of shady behavior to multiple other police departments. Not to say that this is a show the entire family should gather together to watch, but Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy keeps its content somewhat muted even when digging into queasier parts of Gacy's biogra