As a lifelong fan of Bret Easton Ellis, it is hard being me. When Ellis is good, he’s really good. But when he’s frustrating, it is almost impossible to enjoy the story he’s weaving. On the flip of that, being a lifelong fan of Ryan Murphy is pretty much the same experience. So when the two teamed up to bring us the new FX series The Shards, I mentally prepared myself.
The series is based on Ellis’ novel of the same name. Ellis, who became a world renown author with novels like Less Than Zero and American Psycho, released The Shards in 2023 as an autofiction piece. Ellis is a character within the novel itself along with some of his friends from growing up. But it turns into a piece of fiction with the mystery/murders surrounding his time in school. The show starts feeling like Murphy and Ellis’ own live-action take on Patrick Bateman and quickly turns into a mess of a show. An addictive mess but a mess nonetheless.
Bret Easton Ellis (Igby Rigney) is a young man growing up in Los Angeles with an obsession. That obsession is stopping a killer from hurting his friends. The problem is that it leads to many in his life thinking that he has something to do with it. Or that his obsession with Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) is strange. All while Bret is hiding his own secret as a closeted gay man. All these elements make a fascinating story. It’s all the other bits that bog down what both Ellis and Murphy are doing with the series.
What exactly is The Shards?
The 2023 novel set the scene for the FX series. Bret goes to school in Los Angeles and details a fictional time in the lives of him and his friends where a serial killer is haunting their every move. Bret, Susan (Kaia Gerber), Susan’s boyfriend Thom (Graham Campbell), and Bret’s girlfriend Debbie (Hayes Warner) are an unbreakable unit. That is until Robert Mallory shows up and throws their entire dynamic into question. Not to mention Bret’s secret relationships and the serial killer lurking in the shadows.
When Rhonda (Ivy Wolk) goes missing, Bret is determined to find out who took her. Through mysterious phone calls, a cult trying to turn his fellow students, and typical teenage angst, there is a lot going wrong in Bret’s life. The Shards feels like a mix between Ellis’ Less Than Zero and American Psycho with the energy of Murphy’s dead on arrival pilot, Pretty/Handsome.
Why does Bret Easton Ellis sound like Patrick Bateman?
There is a tone and a cadence to Patrick Bateman that the 2000 film from Mary Harron, starring Christian Bale, that became the quintessential voice for the character. And in many of Ellis’ novels, the main character is pulling from aspects of Ellis’ own life. Less Than Zero had Clay Easton (Andrew McCarthy) representing Ellis and even Patrick Bateman is Ellis’ anger and hatred for New York. So having a character that is supposed to be Ellis by name doing the voice is both predictable and….strange.
But what really makes The Shards a brilliant yet frustrating watch is rooted in the styles of Murphy and Ellis almost competing with each other. As a fan of both of their work, while the similarities between them work, the differences almost pull The Shards apart. Murphy’s more outrageous style takes the grounded murder mystery and makes it feel like a dated season of Nip/Tuck at times.
Still, even with my frustrations, I have found myself captivated by the series. From Susan’s dedication to her friends and Debbie’s need to be loved by everyone, the series has layered and brilliant characters to try to understand. It is what makes being a fan of both of these creatives so frustratingly beautiful. You love the worlds they create and have your frustrations but still end up captivated by the story at large.
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