Copyright Screen Rant
Earlier this week, Ryan Murphy's All's Fair landed with a resounding dud when it released its first three episodes, but the hate for the show is greatly exaggerated. The All's Fair cast is led by Kim Kardashian, who plays Allura Grant, a divorce lawyer and one-third of the partners who make up their all-female practice. Allura's glamorous world is rocked when he much-younger husband decides to leave her. All's Fair initially received a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes, though it has since clawed its way up to a not-much-better 5%. Critics dinged the legal drama for lackluster writing, repetitive storylines, and a poor performance on Kardashian's part. But while there is some merit to these criticisms, All's Fair's detractors are missing what makes the show so enjoyable. Ryan Murphy's Signature Campy Tone Proves All's Fair Is Meant To Be A Guilty Pleasure Look, nobody, not even its apologists, is calling All's Fair prestige TV. Between its outrageous fashion, revolving door of hand-rubbing scorned women, and over-the-top displays of wealth, All's Fair is closer to science fiction than any resemblance to the real world known by its audience. But, like most of Ryan Murphy's shows, that's the point. If there's one thing Murphy is known for, it's camp, and in All's Fair, he doesn't hold back. You have to choose early if you're along for the ride of vengeful divorcees and the lawyers who get rich by helping them get even, but if you do, it's incredibly fun. Most critics would disagree, and have said that the camp falls short because of the show's performances, with most of the blame being laid at Kim Kardashian's Louboutin-clad feet. Her detractors have dismissed her acting as stilted and wooden, with a level of gleeful vindictiveness that borders on shocking. Is she going to be winning any awards for her All's Fair role as Allura? No. But Kardashian's iciness is the point of her character, as Allura got to be at the top of her career by being cold and calculated, keeping her emotions close to the chest. Also, if Kardashian is ice, Sarah Paulson is absolute fire as Carrington Lane, Allura's former colleague, who holds a white-hot grudge against Allura and her partners for not inviting her to join their firm. Every scene she's in finds Carrington spewing hate-filled insults at Allura and co. It's some of the meanest dialogue Murphy has ever written — and that's saying a lot — but Paulson, his longtime collaborator, delivers it with such gusto, she's beyond charming and steals every scene she's in. Even those who panned the show admitted that Paulson was the best thing about it. But if Kardashian matched Paulson's heat, they would just be carbon copies of each other, and defang the show. Kardashian is by no means on the same level as Paulson, or any of Murphy's other leading ladies, like Emma Roberts, who was full of deliciously petulant snark as the protagonist of Scream Queens, but the pile-on is undeserved. Critics have long had it out for women who are famous for being famous, like Paris Hilton in the 2000s, and years later have been called out for their meanness. So, now that we've established that All's Fair is not trying to be Shakespeare, let's celebrate it for what it really is, which is a guilty pleasure that understands the assignment. These characters are hot messes, and sometimes the show is too, but it knows that and revels in it. If you do too, you might enjoy it. All's Fair Would Have Worked Better Being Released On The Binge Model The thing about guilty pleasure shows is that we can't look away. How many of us have binged a Real Housewives marathon on Bravo, or lost dozens of hours watching long-running teen soaps like Gossip Girl? That's what makes it so frustrating that Hulu is releasing All's Fair in weekly installments (save the first three episodes, which were released in a batch). I want to gobble up Murphy's legal drama like a bowl of candy and let it rot my mind. I want to eagerly hit "play" to see which female celebrity will play the firm's next client, what venom will come spewing from Sarah Paulson's mouth, and what ridiculously work-inappropriate outfit Kim Kardashian will be wearing next. But that's not enough to turn All's Fair into appointment TV. I tore through the first three episodes, wishing there were more, but now that I'm out of my candy coma, I'm not missing it the way I would Succession or The White Lotus. Had All's Fair released all of its episodes in one fell swoop, it might have gotten more buzz in a "What did we just watch?" kind of way.
