Critics and TV journalists have watered down Ryan Murphy’s “All’s Fair,” starring Kim Kardashian, calling the new legal drama “realistically awful,” “sleazy” and a “disaster zone.”
The series, whose first three episodes are currently available on Hulu and Disney+, follows a team of female divorce lawyers who open a law firm in Los Angeles. “Navigate scandalous secrets and shifting loyalties both in the courtroom and within their own ranks. In a world where money and love are the battlegrounds, these girls don’t just play the game, they change the game,” the synopsis reads.
In addition to Kardashian, the 10-episode series stars Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close.
In a zero-star review of the series in The Times, headlined “Review of All’s Fair: This may be the worst TV drama of all time,” deputy television editor Ben Dowell said: “Well done, Kim. This may be the worst TV drama of all time.” You have to have a pretty healthy ego to be in this movie. ‘All’s Fair’ (Disney Plus) is so bad it’s not even fun. It’s supposed to be a feminist fable about feisty lawyers getting back on their feet.” It depicts the ruthless rich, but is actually a monument to the same greed and rebelliousness that this film targets, and it all feels like it was written by a toddler who can’t even write “ass” on a wall. ”
The Guardian’s TV critic Lucy Mangan also gave the series a zero-star rating, writing, “I never knew it was still possible to make television this bad. I thought there was some kind of baseline, some kind of inescapable groundwork that would prevent entry into the art form from falling below a certain standard. But I was wrong. Ryan Murphy’s new series ‘All’s Fair’ starring Kim Kardashian and Naomi Watts.” Niecy Nash is charming, incomprehensible, and existentially terrifying as the founder of an all-female law firm that dispenses divorce-like justice to incredibly wealthy but slightly unlucky women under the deep blue skies of California. ”
Most reviews were harsh on the acting, particularly Kardashian’s performance as divorce lawyer Alura Grant, with The Telegraph’s Ed Power writing, “It’s probably unfair to single out Kardashian alone in a disaster zone of soapy plots and stinky lines. (She is an executive producer alongside her mother and manager Kris Jenner), but her lofty acting skills, already confirmed by her guest appearance in season 12, of Murphy’s “American Horror Story.” But even more impressive than her lack of talent as an actress is her complete lack of screen presence. She has no aura, no unfiltered charisma. Forget the X-factor, Kardashian has zzzzz… qualities that threaten to send unprepared viewers into a stupor every time she opens her mouth. ”
Meanwhile, Dowell said of Kardashian: “Will Kardashian (I hear she’s planning to take the bar exam) be a persuasive lawyer? No, she’s not. She’s going to be the Genghis Khan for peaceful liberal democracies, but of course dialogue — a tsunami of sticky platitudes that drowns this entire enterprise in the first five minutes — won’t help her cause.”
“All’s Fair” will be Kardashian’s second collaboration with Murphy, having appeared on the 12th season of “American Horror Story,” which was subtitled “Delicate.” The reality TV star also serves as an executive producer on the legal drama alongside Murphy.
Glamor editor Emily Maddick compared “All’s Fair” to watching an episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” writing in her review, “And after watching the first episode of “All’s Fair,” it’s hard to imagine what they’re going for. If you’re being ‘ambitious,’ God help us all, because Ryan Murphy is probably one of the hottest names in television, with countless brilliant and diverse award-winning shows under his belt, including ‘Glee.’ “American Horror Story,” “Pose,” “Scream Queens” and “Nip Tuck” are thoroughly Kardashian-ized, he’s drunk the Kris Jenner Kool-Aid, and Murphy’s movie world is infected with the so-called “aspirational” lifestyle that the Kardashians set out that we should all aspire to. In other words, it means “acting like a millionaire.”
New episodes of “All’s Fair” are available every Tuesday on Hulu and Disney+.
