‘All’s Fair’ is getting vicious reviews. Is it so bad that it’s good?

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — “All’s Fair,” the new Ryan Murphy drama starring Kim Kardashian, Niecy Nash and Naomi Watts on Hulu, is getting a ton of buzz. But buzz is not always a good thing.

Or maybe it is? After all, 30 years have passed since the film “Showgirls” was loudly and frequently trashed upon its release. Now it’s hailed as “insanely rewatchable” and considered a prime example of the “so bad it’s good” category.

We can’t rule out the idea that “All’s Fair” is actually bad on purpose. In the age of the hate-watch, the truly terrible and the seriously campy can do numbers.

That view may be the only positive thought about the sleek-looking legal melodrama “All’s Fair,” which follows a female-led law firm that tries to give off all the girl-boss vibes.

Released on November 4, the 10-episode series was immediately slammed by critics, clocking a flat 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Times of London gave the series a zero star review,” describing the show as “preening Insta boasts” strung together “into a clumsy, haphazard whole.” The Wrap called it a “stock caricature from a man’s idea of a woman’s drama” and “a cavalcade of wigs and screeching in search of truth.” USA Today cut right to the point with their story’s headline: “Kim Kardashian’s ‘All’s Fair’ is the worst TV show of the year.”

That Kardashian’s name is so prominent in the reviews is to be expected.

While the reality star and Skims magnate had a role in Murphy’s FX series “American Horror Story: Delicate” in 2023, Kardashian definitely shows as the rookie opposite established actors like Glenn Close and Sarah Paulson.

Murphy appears to have been fascinated by Kardashian long before she started starring in his projects.

The first season of his “American Crime Story” anthology was 2016’s Emmy-winning “The People v. O. J. Simpson,” which starred David Schwimmer as her father, attorney Robert Kardashian, who represented Simpson in his 1995 murder trial.

Murphy made sure to include the characters of Kim Kardashian and her sisters as youngsters growing up during the trial; in the show, they are seen watching their father on TV. The series’ showrunners, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, talked to Vanity Fair at the time and explained the decision, saying they wanted to highlight the beginning of the 24-hour news cycle and the creation of reality TV, and how it might have “affected the future Kardashian empire.” When “all this media frenzy was going on, how would that affect you?” they asked. One way or another, Kardashian as an adult became the master of the medium.

Murhpy’s fascination seems not to have successfully translated into a convincing big-budget Kardashian star vehicle.

Variety’s Alison Herman noted in her review that “All’s Fair” reminds her “of nothing so much as another unscripted series shot in the Los Angeles area,” alluding to Kardashian’s reality show “The Kardashians,” which also airs on Hulu.

“Kardashian doesn’t embarrass herself, because her role doesn’t ask much of her to begin with,” Herman wrote. Her character “exists to embody all the laziest stereotypes of what makes a strong woman” — like “getting revenge fillers and, in one particularly cringey fantasy sequence, donning a Beyoncé-esque yellow dress to go full ‘Lemonade’ on another woman’s car.”

All these little Instagrammable moments — maybe that was Murphy’s game here all along, to build a camp classic for the modern moment? The shareable nuggets, the bling and opulence, plus the stunt casting of his reality show muse all suggest there’s something to that theory.

Now it’s everyone’s turn to decide. So far, the reviews of nonprofessional watchers are mixed but tend to be far kinder. “It’s an ostentatious display of wealth and beauty and we love it,” wrote one commenter on Rotten Tomatoes. “Some scenes were🤨🙄 but it gives a goofy side. Entertaining like a soap opera.”

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