Ryan Murphy Outdid Himself

"These platitudes are peppered with vulgar outbursts in which every fifth word is "bitch" or "cum" or "extort." A mind-numbingly deadpan Kim Kardashian and her fellow lawyers are surrounded by the stuff of powerful females: couture and diamonds and drawers full of sex toys. The legal drama is pulp feminism from top to bottom - oh yes, add "anal" to that list of overused words - yet I kept pressing play,"

"At his best, Murphy is a connoisseur of low culture, a maestro of story lines that play out at a buzzsaw pace, a sculptor of characters who spit out corrosive one-liners and gnaw through scenery, an architect of goofy sex scenes, and a mastermind at presenting exploitation as empowerment. All's Fair is cotton-candy TV: sticky, airy, and, once it's all gone, both satisfying and nausea inducing."

All's Fair overflows with thinly empowering dialogue and recurring vulgarities, trading nuanced feminism for mass-market platitudes and sexualized spectacle. The series outfits beleaguered lawyers Allura Grant and Liberty Ronson in couture, diamonds, and drawers of sex toys as they break from a misogynist firm under Dina Standish's encouragement. The show fits within Ryan Murphy's oeuvre, alternating camp, soapy melodrama, genre excess, and cultural commentary, and often converts exploitation into a form of empowerment. At his best Murphy stages rapid, corrosive storylines and outrageous characters; here the result is cotton-candy television: simultaneously satisfying and nauseating.

Read at Vulture