Variety inaugurates Ryan Murphy backlash

The Hollywood show changing the history of film with a bozo cast was what did it for me.

He's a tool.

Blah, blah, blah. Don’t like it don’t watch it. Another woke bullshit article.

The Nurse Ratched Horror Story Show was overload for me. That whole project never needed to happen.

[quote]The Hollywood show changing the history of film with a bozo cast was what did it for me.

Is that the one where they had Rock Hudson lusting after a black boyfriend even though the real guy preferred blonde Adonises?

I find his stuff loud and dumb. Sort of the Andy Cohen of TV drama.

R2 has no idea what “woke” means, though makes themselves look like an Elon stan/asshole by using that word.

Some of his stuff is trashy and good.

Some is trashy and bad.

R7 True - the common denominator being trashy,

Since Murphy is getting backlash, I would love if the media finally called out that cunt Shonda Rhimes for being a hack.

It seems like he's kind of run out of ideas, frankly. Grotesquerie could have just been a season of AHS. Monster could have been part of American Crime Story. And he just launched American Sports Story with something that also could have just been called American Crime Story.

Has Murphy made any mention of any plans for future seasons of American Sports Story?

Tired of him and his shit. When I learn he’s involved with a project I try to avoid it now.

[quote]Has Murphy made any mention of any plans for future seasons of American Sports Story?

Jacob Elordi *IS* Lia Thomas in American Sports Horror Crime Story.

BTW why wasn't Monster the 4th part of American Crime Story?

Consider Murphy is now actively casting such acting luminaries as Travis Kelce and Kim Kardashian.

Nurse Ratched was ridiculous dreck. AHS:NY was hideously terrible. The Watcher was lousy.

People watch his stuff because they like horror. But there’s lots of hate-watching.

Jacob Elordi has little, ugly feet

Yes there was OJ, Versace murderer, Monica & Bill, and now the Menendez Brothers

But why wasn't Jeffrey Dahmer part of the OJ/Versace/Menendez series? Why did Dahmer get a stand alone series?

Dylan Mulvaney IS Natalie Wood in "American Crime Story: Boat."

I have wondered how Ryan Murphy would do with a miniseries on Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. I doubt he will cover that.

An obvious biopic would be Martina and Chrissie, one of the greatest sporting rivalries in history that turned into one of the closest friendships.

Martina defecting to the US and leaving her parents behind, discovering the joys of lesbianism, playing doubles with Pam Scriver, is a story in itself but then you've got ice maiden Chrissie who aborted Jimmy Connors' baby, married that English guy etc.

But Martina and Chrissie are now proud TERFs so too toxic for tv.

If Mulvaney stars I do not watch

Paul Giamatti is Laurel Hubbard in "Laurel", the inspiring biopic of New Zealand's Olympic weightlifting heroine.

Laverne Cox is Marion Jones in American Sports Crime Story: BALCO

Murphy isn’t doing Evert/Navritilova.

He does stories of murder, mayhem and perversion.

Their story would hold no interest for him.

Renee Zellweger is Judy Murray in American Sports Story: Judy - Mother Of Champions

Now that Pete Rose is dead, I could see some other producer maybe Adam McKay doing a miniseries on him or a miniseries that focuses on the Pete Rose scandal and the later controversies with Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott.

Deb Messing IS Lucy in "American Horror Story: MAME"

[quote]He turned to parasitic, lowest common denominator schlock out of contempt for both the industry and the audience.

Bitch, please. You've clearly never seen "Nip/Tuck," only his second series ever: it began churning out parasitic LCD schlock after its second season. (Out of six total. And back when cable shows still did 16-episode seasons.)

Ryan Murphy was never anything more than a hack who struck it big thanks to "Glee." He's as addicted to tacky schlock as his queer directing predecessor Joel Schumacher was: consider the final three OG Batman movies with nipples and huge codpieces on Batman as well as Robin. He's churning out fictional versions of the most sensationalist campy true crime of all time, except the only one that didn't totally suck was the first one about O.J.

His Netflix deal died because he achieved the seemingly impossible: he was an even BIGGER diva than GOOP herself, whom he cast on his first big Netflix show, "The Politician." The story you probably won't read anywhere online is that they cancelled it after two seasons because it got even lower ratings than "Cobra Kai," and cost 12x as much. (Not an exaggeration btw. GOOP'S salary alone was more than the entire production cost of a "Cobra Kai" episode.) His bizarre revisionist-history miniseries "Hollywood" was similarly low-rated, and Netflix was saved from his massive $300 million production deal being a total wipeout by the unexpected success of "Dahmer," never mind that Murphy had to go to the LOWEST denominator – gay serial killers – to garner more high ratings.

Even his mainstream stuff is rapidly dying. Both "9-1-1" and "9-1-1: Lone Star" – ostensibly two of his biggest hits – BOTH being cancelled in the same year? Not good, but that's what you get when you amp up the hype factor with batshit-crazy ideas like L.A. getting inundated by a tsunami. Anyway, in case you bitches haven't noticed, Murphy's show ideas usually work for at least a first season, but rapidly devolve afterwards. "Glee" and "Nip/Tuck" are the best examples. Gee, how can he address that known problem? By, say, launching more "limited series" than literally any other widely known writer/director? (Why else do you think AHS has lasted this long? A new plot every year along with stunt casting with Kardashians and the like.)

The backlash has been there for quite a while now.

Kathy Bates would be perfect as Marge Schott.

Everything R29 wrote is on the money. My partner is rewatching "Nip/Tuck" since it just landed on Prime. It was always over the top but the first couple of seasons were very watchable. Then, Season 3 is when it got really ridiculous. Then, it got progressively worse and those last couple of seasons when the show moves to LA are better left unmentioned. For a show that was (I guess) trying to make a point about aging with grace, it certainly didn't practice what it preached. The soundtrack was great, though.

Some of his ideas would have worked better as movies, not miniseries. Feud Bette and Joan being a prime example of this. It should have been a great stand-alone two-hour film, with better leads. Sometimes, less is more.

Also, his obsession with Sarah Paulson was a major turn off.

[quote] Kathy Bates would be perfect as Marge Schott.

I would rather see Bates in this type of role instead of the Matlock remake crap.

It isn't a remake of Matlock, r33, which you know.

Why is this presented as a question?

R16. So small cock?

That would explain his lack of frontals.

Nothing we haven't been saying here for years.

His last semi-cohesive show, at least for me, was the Bette and Joan FEUD.

FEUD was decent enough. The funniest part was when Susan Sarandon re-created scenes from Bette's films like All About Eve and Baby Jane. She was, um, "lacking."

It made you appreciate what an incredible actress Bette Davis was.

Nip/Tuck was a hit because it was edgy. Glee was a hit because it spoke to the kids putting high school angst into song. The first season of AHS was a hit because it was never really seen before. But like all Murphy shows - all of them suffered from random plot lines that went no where, stunt casting and eventual burn out of story arcs. Probably the most interesting was the Coven cross over with Murder House. After that....meh. I think he thought with 911 and 911 Lonestar he was creating his SVU, something that would live for decades. I think Murphy's problem is he is good at starting a story but not finishing one, and finishing it is really the part that is needed.

Alison Herman is representative of the shitty current class of Variety critics—moralistic and allergic to fun. There’s a very Karenesque, “how dare this faggot?” tone to this piece.

I’ll bite.

Ryan got too self important and passed off projects to others. The writing in most of his work is to shock, awe or disgust, not especially to develop characters well. We need less “ground breaking” and more great stories.

Series like POSE seemed to talk down to a large swath of the public, and wanted to “teach” us everything we thought about transgenderism is wrong. He also has a habit of leaning into one or two characters until he gets bored of them like playing with dolls and moves on. Much of that show was sophomoric and if I can be honest, bad acting.

He took a lot of liberties with historical facts to the degree many of us gays have become wary of watching a show.

Finally, much of it has becomes as formulaic as AI.

Billy West should do the voice of Marge Schott.

Billy West as Marge Schott could never be done today, god he was hysterical.

Two thoughts- one, most of Ryan Murphy's work screams ADHD, storytelling-wise. Good to great introduction, and then loses perceivable focus 40% of the way in - I have the same type and I recognized it in his work going all the way back to Nip/Tuck, where every season had the same storytelling affliction of peaking too soon - a pattern I share. and two, the Marge Schott stuff is magnificent.

AHS! Brick the haunting of stonewall! Shaquille O’Neal IS Marsha P. Johnson!

American Horror Story: CNN.

Dylan Mulvaney is Kaitlan Collins.

[quote]Dylan Mulvaney is Kaitlan Collins.

I've never seen them in the same room together.

I think the Assassination/Versace was the best one. Better than OJ. Because… it was basically fiction. No one is alive who could describe those events.

And guess how many streams the Menendez shit got. Murphy is fine.

I think Murphy will probably do a miniseries on the 2020 Election/Big Lie or J6 in the next five years. Sarah Paulson with age makeup and a wig will play Sidney Powell. Leslie Grossman with facial prosthetics will play MTG (makeup department will win an Emmy for that). Finn Wittrock with a forehead prosthetic is Matt Gaetz. Murphy will convince Amber Riley to play Shaye Moss. Ari Graynor can play Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Martin Short could be Rudy Giuliani.

Just kind of bored with all of his stuff a few years back. I can't imagine watching this.

[quote]FEUD was decent enough. The funniest part was when Susan Sarandon re-created scenes from Bette's films like All About Eve and Baby Jane. She was, um, "lacking."

Not to mention, when she recreated Davis performing "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" on Andy Williams, Sarandon looked stiff and embarrassed whereas Davis seemed shameless and looked like she was having a ball.

he should try making films.

R50- you underestimate Sarah Paulson (and Ryan Murphy). She’ll play Donald Trump.

It is true that everything Murphy has turned out for Netflix has been garbage. That having been said, that is exactly what Netflix asks for out of creatives so they only have themselves to blame. Their programming philosophy has been, for years, we don’t care how shit the stuff we’re putting out is, we just need to be constantly producing new (ideally sensational) stuff to get new subscribers. And (with rare exceptions) they don’t give any show more than 3 seasons because again they only care about those new subscribers not trying to maintain a steady audience.

Murphy and Netflix are a match made in hell so they really can’t complain.

[quote]I think the Assassination/Versace was the best one. Better than OJ. Because… it was basically fiction. No one is alive who could describe those events.

Was this because Murphy had limited involvement? He directed the first episode but didn't have any writing involvement.

[quote]Then, it got progressively worse and those last couple of seasons when the show moves to LA are better left unmentioned.

R31, I'd actually forgotten about the L.A. move! (and I watched the entire series) Goes to show how unmemorable the final seasons were.

[quote]Glee was a hit because it spoke to the kids putting high school angst into song.

"Glee" was a hit because it actually *was* good for most of its first season, which I credit entirely to its other two showrunners. Also, while trying to do 22 episodes of *any* series – as has long been standard on network TV, of course – is difficult, doing it while simultaneously having the actors learn every single song (including blocking for dance numbers) is possible, but not without mostly producing a load of total garbage. "Glee" is a textbook example of the inherent problems in the network model: it'd be far better to produce 12 episodes of very good TV – or eight episodes of superlative TV – than 22 of mostly schlock. The speed with which its ratings dropped are roughly in sync with its decline. I'm still amazed it lasted longer than three seasons.

You could also argue it had a similar appeal in one way as, say, "Mamma Mia!" or "Jersey Boys": the songs they used were mostly pop songs, and usually huge hits at that.

[quote]I think Murphy's problem is he is good at starting a story but not finishing one, and finishing it is really the part that is needed.

Yes, THIS! EXACTLY! He probably falls asleep giving blowjobs as well.

[quote]Series like POSE seemed to talk down to a large swath of the public, and wanted to “teach” us everything we thought about transgenderism is wrong.

True. Even his more mainstream stuff was consistently preachy, and "Glee" definitely seemed like an afterschool special every fifth episode or so. Another example of a show where he delusionally thought "teaching" people was necessary was "9-1-1: Lone Star." For those unfamiliar with the premise, it's about a NYC firefighter who relocates to Texas with his (gay and briefly suicidal) son because those rednecks need a lesson on *diversity*, dammit! He flew straight down and hired his own son – which doesn't count as nepotism because he had a Gay Pass – alongside a trans man *and* a Muslim woman with badass MMA skillz!

While this would be utterly ridiculous under any scenario, the fact that Murphy set the show in Austin is utterly batshit. I don't know how he could've missed the memo that Austin's been deep-blue liberal for 50+ years now – and its police & fire departments are amply diverse, unlike the "100% inbred redneck racist asshole cisgender straight dude" types suggested on the show. (Texas has plenty of those, just not in - or remotely near - its major cities.)

[quote]I think Murphy will probably do a miniseries on the 2020 Election/Big Lie or J6 in the next five years.

I have to disagree on that one. He only did "The Politician" because he wanted to do a political satire. Literally all of his true-crime stuff has a campy angle, and if there's one thing Jan. 6 was not, it's that. (I'd also argue five years is too soon for ANYONE to rehash this shit. I still remember it like it was yesterday.)

[quote]And guess how many streams the Menendez shit got. Murphy is fine.

Gee, I can't even fathom why a miniseries starring two hot actors as brothers with very heavy incest overtones would be popular among an audience consisting primarily of gay men. 🙄 (Problem being that there are a limited number of queer-related true crime dramas, and he's also done several of the highest-profile ones, and Murphy's already nearing the bottom of the barrel.)

[quote]"Glee" is a textbook example of the inherent problems in the network model: it'd be far better to produce 12 episodes of very good TV – or eight episodes of superlative TV – than 22 of mostly schlock

You mean you didn't enjoy the rushed Whitney tribute episode where Blaine was upset with Kurt flirting with another gay so sang It's Not Right But It's Okay and Kurt tried to win Blaine back by screeching I Have Nothing?

I’m with r2 on this. People are always crying and whining about nothing. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.

But people are watching. Monsters is a fucking HIT. It’s been on the Top 3 of Netflix for 3 weeks now. People are watching.

R60 tons of shows that are 10 episodes SUCK. And there have been tons of shows that are 20+ episodes a season that had strong seasons throughout.

I consider Ryan Murphy a modern-day Aaron Spelling. Ryan has a signature look and style for his shows, some of which hit and others don't. He knows how to create a conversation around his shows, which is half the battle in producing TV, and Variety fell into the trap by contributing to the discussion.

Pose would’ve been fine as a miniseries. He got burned by handing creative control over to Janet Mock.

Pose season 1 was amazing.

Janet Mock imploded his career by complaining publicly about making $40,000 a week (he was worth so much more!), reading Ryan Murphy to filth, and confessing he was fucking a much younger member of the cast while being a producer.

IMDB shows cobwebs in his tuck ever since.

[quote]Since Murphy is getting backlash, I would love if the media finally called out that cunt Shonda Rhimes for being a hack.

But she wasn't.

They both got Netflix deals and she ended up turning out (at that time) Netflix's most watched show in that category whereas Murphy had a string of flops. Murphy "left" his deal for Disney. Shonda's was expanded.

Her shows are generally well received (although she has had some misses) but the ones that are successful (Grey's, Private Practice, Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder) got to have full runs although Grey's is still going.

Murphy is still working with Netflix. Hence Monsters and a third season is happening

Yes, R68 but Monster was renewed for seasons 2 and 3 back in 2022. They were going to happen.

His deal ended in 2023. Like when he left for Netflix, that doesn't mean his old shows suddenly had to end but he's not going to be popping out any new ones for the streamer.

He just might with how massively successful Monsters is. I don’t think they will give him a big exclusive contract again like before but definitely could see them hiring him for singular projects here and there.

The New Yorker has joined the backlash

R22 prefers Kirk Cameron movies

I see the right-wing transphobic trolls have invaded the thread to spew off-topic rants about Dylan Mulvaney, Janet Mock, etc.

Don't you guys have a Trump rally to attend?

His only good shows are his Netflix projects, like Dahmer, Menendez Brothers, Halston and The Watcher. His early Netflix projects were trash, though, except for Ratched, which I enjoyed. Murphy's FX shows have been awful for years now. His last good FX shows were Bette vs. Joan and Versace.