Debuting in early November, the shiny, campy legal drama All’s Fair was much hyped for its high-fashion sensibilities, A-list cast and intriguing concept. Still, when it dropped (so to speak), it generally failed to register with critics — to put it very mildly.
Centred on a gang of brilliant, sharp-tongued female divorce lawyers who leave a male-dominated firm to set up their own high-powered shop, the series was built for spectacle.
But while critics queued up to trash the series, railing against its clunky dialogue and tone-deafness toward flaunting moolah, the star-studded cast — Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close — as well as the costumery have made for entertaining, bankable streaming.
Though Variety wrote the show off as a “condescending take on girlboss fantasia” and The Guardian labelled it “fascinatingly, incomprehensibly, existentially terrible,” the Birkin-filled series still ascended to the top spot on Hulu’s viewership charts.
(Close, Kardashian and Watts are also among the executive producers.) Ryan Murphy, who writes and directs this miniseries of All’s Fair with Joe Baken, Jamie Pachino and Lyn Greene, in addition to serving as one of its executive producers with Jon Robin Baitz and Richard Levine — along with half a dozen others on that list — now has the enviable privilege of maxing out. Even Kris Jenner is in the producer mix, because, of course, she is.
The Official trailer of ‘All’s Fair’ Earns Season 2
Earlier this month, Taylor made a mild defence of the show’s polarising premiere. “It’s our maiden season,” she told Variety. “Just give us a little grace.
It appears they have, with a second season of All’s Fair already announced. Whether the show will be affected by any of that critiquing remains to be seen, but at least, if Ryan Murphy’s TV universe can be trusted for anything, it’s some gloriously extra drama and fashion to go with (and 2025-style seems like enough).
