All’s Fair spoilers incoming…
Welcome to ‘Showtime with Emily Maddick’, in which Glamour’s Assistant Editor and Entertainment Director brings a unique perspective to the month’s most hyped film or TV show. For November’s instalment, Emily takes on the new Ryan Murphy, Disney+ legal drama, All’s Fair, starring Kim Kardashian, who, alongside her mother, Kris Jenner, both act as executive producers. And having seen the first episode, Emily argues that rather than watching a Ryan Murphy drama, it feels more like an episode of The Kardashians.
At the glittering Leicester Square premiere of Disney+’s much-hyped new Ryan Murphy legal drama, All’s Fair – centred on an all-female divorce attorney firm in LA – the all-star cast, including Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Teyana Taylor, Niecy Nash-Betts and of course Kim Kardashian, were paraded up on stage to be interviewed. As per all premieres, there was the obligatory backslapping, fawning and self-satisfied superlatives sprayed about (Mr Disney+ Big Cheese must have called his show ‘amazing’ at least 10 times). And when the cast was then asked to describe All’s Fair, the Oscar-nominated actor, Naomi Watts, declared triumphantly: “And the show is… aspirational!” “Yes! Aspirational”, all her co-stars cooed in agreement.
Ser Baffo
And after sitting through the first episode of All’s Fair, if ‘aspirational’ is what they’re aiming for, then god help us all. For it seems that Ryan Murphy, arguably one of the hottest names in TV, with countless brilliant and diverse, award-winning shows under his belt, including Glee, American Horror Story, Pose, Scream Queens and Nip Tuck, has been fully Kardashian-ified. He’s drunk the Kris Jenner Kool Aid and the Murphy cinematic universe has been infected by this so-called ‘aspirational’ lifestyle the Kardashians dictate we should all be conforming to aspire to; which, in other words, translates as ‘behaving like a billionaire.’
And is it any wonder? Because the woman on the top of the billing, the executive producer, is indeed, the Kardashi-matriarch, Kris Jenner, whose ‘Kris Jenner Productions’ appears alongside ‘Ryan Murphy Television’ in the credits. So coupled with Kim (also an exec producer) at the top of the call sheet – her character, Allura Grant is, if the pilot is anything to go by, very much the star of the show – the pecking order is clear and we are very much indeed in a Kris Jenner production. (Murphy even pitched the show to Kris on an episode of The Kardashians.)
The story of an all-female divorce attorney firm borne out of a misogynistic, male-dominated one, where three rising female hotshots break free to set up on their own under the mentoring of Glenn Close, going on to win hordes of female clients bazillions of dollars, should, on paper, be a great, kick-ass, feminist show, especially in Murphy’s hands. But, from the word go, we’re force-fed ‘aspiration’ akin to posts from either Kris, Kourtney, Khole, Kim, Kendall or Kylie’s social feeds or indeed from any episode of fellow Disney+ show, The Kardashians.
Listen, I don’t want to come across a reality TV snob here, nor indeed a Kardashi-hater – in many ways, I have respect for their phenomenal power and status in our popular culture, despite their problematic nature at times. It’s also impressive that Kim, following her late, famous attorney father’s footsteps, is currently retraining to be a lawyer herself IRL. Nor do I want to be a Debbie Downer, as I know that some of Murphy’s shows are often, by lore, all infused with a certain outrageous level of camp, fun and OTT – and we’re not expected to take it all that seriously.
