TOll’s fair by Ryan Murphy massacred by reviews is news so to speak. Nothing about the TV series released on Disney+ last Tuesday – series with Kim Kardashian actress and producer – made one think the opposite. But is it really bad? Yesbut it is also a show that lifts the soul from social pressure of always having to look at – or look for – masterpieces (or presumed to be so), those to be commented on with critical subtleties such as “punch in the stomach”.
This does not mean that it has not the size of a tease, the consistency of an Instagram reelthe woodiness that here in Italy one might associate with The Lady by Lory del Santo. That is, adding everything up (and not without a shiver down my back), what artificial intelligence currently produces when asked to make trailers or edits of historical footage. That is to say, an average showroom gloss of bodies and environments, and simplicity of interactions (only peaks: either do-goodism or malice, or lost glances, those of Kim).
All’s fair Is this the worst series ever? The review, plot and cast
To Glenn Close (in the cast together with Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and indeed Kim – all producers of All’s fair; Kris Jenner is also inside), the zeros given to the series were not liked. In a post on Instagram posted the boiling pot of the ending of Fatal attraction with critics and rabbit inside. Unequivocally: go to hell. Since it’s hard to believe that an actress with her experience didn’t know what she was getting into, more than a simple defense, the pot suggests a shared plan.
In short, create an absurdly rich series on femininity (cars, private planes, clothes, jewelry – at one point Allura/Kim’s husband gives her a ring that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor) but also shrewd; cynical, unscrupulous, trivial like a truck driver or like – if you want – the chat of the performative feminists of the newsbut also human and supportive, and in which man is a cheating object or a terminal husband.
The result is a heady and ridiculous case of hyper soap opera. One who, unlike the dementia of And just like that and his blind pursuit of the times, he decided to make everything revolve around the statue-like fixity – it is no longer clear whether current or anachronistic – of Kim Kardashian, star of the series together with her Birkins (she was the one who had the idea for the series, inspired by divorce lawyer Laura Wasser). Everything you see in All’s fair in fact, it looks like the set of one of his social shots, mixed with a cheap aesthetic from Jlo’s video clips (zooms, slow shots, shots from below, dramatic entrances and exits from buildings and rooms).
Kim Kardashian in “All’s Fair”. (Disney+)
Looks, witty jokes, planes, jewelery auctions, Kim Kardashian as expressive as a traffic light
Everything is therefore exciting, sensational, capital in this world of “fierce, brilliant and emotionally complicated” divorce lawyers (says the advertisement for the series, distorting the most famous “sweetly complicated”). However, it is an excitement without a convincing management of both the aberrant and the vulgar. Wealth he doesn’t have the novelty of his look that he had in Dynastyin the general alignment between high and low, appears fake like fast fashion copies. While the ferocious jokes (see above) are few compared to the barracuda context where everything is fair. But when they are there they are quite tasty (Dina/Close says one here that is unrepeatable; take note and use it according to the etiquette).
To tell the truth, after the first episode, where the group made up of Kardashian, Watts and Nash-Betts quit their sexist studio to found their own, and where after 10 years none of them has aged a minute, the events acquire a certain plot. It happens that Allura Grant has to deal with the divorce from Chase (Matthew Noszka; the one of the 2 million brilliant Liz), who as a lawyer takes on his arch-enemy Carrington Lane (Sarah Poulson)a former colleague from the patriarchal studio who was dumped when she ran away because, let’s say, she was a bit of a bitch.
Sarah Poulson in “All’s fair”. (Disney+)
The relief of watching a deep series like a screensaver
So, between the use of camp guest stars like Elizabeth Berkley (Showgirls) and Jessica Simpson, stuff Susan Sontag for – were she alive – she should write a downward appendix like this to hers Notes on Campto the divorces resulting in billions in compensation from the clients is added that of the lawyer Kim (the horniest in California). Kim who, devastated by the separation and the fact that she can no longer use the frozen embryos, is forced to interact with professionals such as Close, Watts and Poulson, shows the charisma of a traffic light going from red to orange. The sad ones at a deserted intersection.
Acting isn’t his thing, you know, parading like the whole cast does with not even extraordinarily extraordinary looks, but yes. And parading vacuously is the ultimate structure of All’s fair, a series that, given the premises, could have become more than a curiosity. But even so limping, All’s fair it’s a road accident that, like all disasters, it’s hard not to look at how far the carcass will roll. I highly recommend a complete viewing. Also because, like any product with dazzling packaging and depth equal to a screensaver, creates a peace effect that saves money in mindfulness. Then you can’t live on forever The Ladyor maybe yes?