Ryan Murphy’s ‘The Shards’ Streaming Success Sparks Mixed Reactions from Fans

Ryan Murphy has spent decades transforming true crime, camp horror, and glossy melodrama into some of television’s most talked-about content, from ‘American Horror Story’ to ‘Glee.’ His latest endeavor represents yet another tonal shift, adapting a novel that has long been regarded as one of the more unsettling coming-of-age tales in contemporary fiction.

This project, ‘The Shards,’ debuted on FX on August 5, bringing Bret Easton Ellis’s semi-autobiographical novel to life with Ellis co-creating alongside Murphy. Set in 1981 Los Angeles, the series follows a fictionalized 17-year-old version of Ellis, portrayed by Igby Rigney, during his final year at the elite Buckley School, where the arrival of a mysterious new student coincides with a serial killer known as the Trawler targeting wealthy teenagers throughout the city.

The premise has led to a genuine ratings phenomenon, despite sharply divided reactions to the show itself. Just one day after its release, ‘The Shards’ became the No. 2 most-watched show in the United States on Disney+, according to FlixPatrol, while also securing second place on Hulu’s Top 10 chart and third overall. This momentum has continued globally, with the series ranking as the most-watched show worldwide on Disney+.

Despite its commercial success, critics have offered mixed reviews, with the show hovering around 52 to 55 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, depending on the review count, and an even lower audience score of 35 percent. The Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus suggests that the collaboration between Murphy and Ellis should yield “magnanimously pulpy TV,” but instead relegates the show to “obtuse style with mildly entertaining substance.”

Reactions have varied significantly across different outlets. Collider’s Gabrielle Moss rated the series a 7 out of 10, commending its restraint compared to Murphy’s usual excess, stating that the show “plays its cards close to its chest, and hopes you care enough to lean in and read them.” In contrast, ScreenRant’s Graeme Guttmann offered a harsher critique, claiming that Murphy sanitizes Ellis’s novel for the screen, while Variety criticized the casting of Robert Mallory and the decision to stretch Ellis’s original story into a multi-season format.

Other reviews have landed somewhere in between, with RogerEbert.com labeling it Murphy’s best work in over a decade, while The Hollywood Reporter described the season as “nostalgic, over-the-top and unsurprisingly uneven.” This range of opinions has turned ‘The Shards’ into a sort of Rorschach test among critics, with nearly every review acknowledging the show’s striking visuals and 1980s atmosphere while disagreeing on whether the underlying story holds together.

‘The Shards’ arrives as just one part of an already busy period for Murphy, who also has ‘American Horror Story’ returning to FX for its thirteenth season on September 24. This new installment is being promoted as a greatest-hits season, featuring franchise favorites such as Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, and Kathy Bates, among others from the anthology’s history.

Whether Murphy’s track record continues to attract audiences despite critical reservations remains uncertain, but ‘The Shards’ has already demonstrated that Murphy’s brand still holds significant appeal with streaming viewers, regardless of what critics think.

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