Copyright Screen Rant
Hulu's new legal drama, All's Fair, debuted to abysmal reviews. The Ryan Murphy show received a 6% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the director, Anthony Hemingway, finally spoke out against the critics, defending the new Kim Kardashian-led series. After the first three episodes were released, reviewers from several major platforms ruthlessly attacked the show. Despite All's Fair's star-studded cast, which includes: Kardashian (Allura Grant), Naomi Watts (Liberty Ronson), Sarah Paulson (Carrington Lane), Glenn Close (Dina Standish), Niecy Nash-Betts (Emerald Greene), and Teyana Taylor (Milan), the series was almost universally disliked. It was deemed "the worst TV show of the year" by USA Today. A critic from The Guardian stated that the show was "fascinatingly" bad. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Hemingway stated that people are allowed to have their own opinions about the legal drama. He explained how there is no way that any TV series or piece of entertainment could be loved by everybody, so it's not surprising that All's Fair received some negative reviews, and he doesn't take it personally. You’re not going to please everybody. You may have certain criticisms, while there are a million others who love it. I think the show holds a mirror up to each person who watches it. It’s just about: Can you connect to it or relate to it, and see yourself? It may be out of your league, it may not be anything you can connect to, and I think that goes for anything that gets presented on screen. It’s entertainment, it’s a comedy, and it’s a matter of finding ways to tap into real conversations and real human dynamics in a different way. Every time you meet any sort of difference, it takes a minute to either develop a taste for it or not. It may not be for you, and that’s OK, but I personally enjoy the show. I had a lot of fun relating to it in my own way. Not everything is for everybody, and you can’t also expect one person to define something and for that be the totality of what it is — I don’t agree with that. Hemingway also said that audiences shouldn't judge All's Fair right off the bat because it just came out. It usually takes a bit of time before a show's score on Rotten Tomatoes becomes more accurate. Since the show was just released yesterday (November 4, 2025, at the time of this article's publication), it hasn't garnered enough reviews yet. The director urged people to give the show a chance and not just write it off before checking it out for themselves. I also think sometimes things may take time. I did The Wire. No one liked the show when it was out. They hated it. They didn’t watch it. Two people watched it every week. But it got to a point where it found a moment. I’m not comparing the show to The Wire — let’s get that straight — but it’s an example of how people can react to something in one moment and it becomes something totally different in another time. The show takes a minute to get into gear, but I do feel like it is absolutely striking something that is refreshing and creatively fulfilling. He also advised viewers not to go into the show ready to hate it or believing that it's bad before they even hit play. Hemingway explained that he wanted people to keep an open mind and try to respect Murphy's vision for All's Fair. Don’t come at it with such a critical or literal frame of mind. It strikes a different tone, and it will evolve over time; it will get more human. Something that was important to Ryan was fulfilling fantasies. [He was] wanting people to see what they may not be able to obtain, but can escape into and live out through an entertainment space. [He wanted to] give some wish fulfillment and light to this world.
