{"id":6425,"date":"2026-08-05T22:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6425"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:39:06","slug":"what-to-watch-shards-is-a-terrifically-tawdry-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6425","title":{"rendered":"What to watch: ‘Shards’ is a terrifically tawdry thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A successful collab between a popular novelist and high-flying producer, and a steal-your-heart documentary about some young entrepreneurs top our roundup this week.<\/p>\n

Read more San Jose Jazz 2026: What to eat at Summer Fest<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shards\u201d:<\/strong> Bringing together satirist Bret Easton Ellis, a novelist known for vividly capturing pop-culture posturing with affectless prose and shocks aplenty, with hitmaker Ryan Murphy, a high-gloss creator of a sexy\/scary phenoms such as \u201cAmerican Horror Story\u201d and \u201cMonster,\u201d seems so no-duh genius you wonder why it didn\u2019t happen before now. Here, they\u2019re in perfect step with each other in am insanely entertaining nine-part FX\/Hulu series based on one of Ellis\u2019s plunges into the foibles and excesses of a specific time and place. (The hummable \u201880s soundtrack is irresistible). The embattled author of the once-banned \u201cAmerica Psycho\u201d returns to his first-book roots \u2014 an 1980s Los Angeles full of coke-sniffing, serial killing and sexual experimentation, as experienced by a brat pack of bored, horny and rich high schoolers. True to form, the story is narrated by an unscrupulous wanna-be novelist named Bret Easton Ellis (Igby Rigney), a closet case lusting away for the new hunk at his cruel prep school. Bret ogles the heck out of the alluring Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) at a screening of Kubrick\u2019s \u201cThe Shining.\u201d When he runs into Robert at school, the homme fatale disputes whether he was ever in that theater. Uh-oh. The suspicions and secrets and lies pile on from there as a Night Stalker-like serial killer named The Trawler stalks wealthy estates and a Manson-like cult called the Riders of the After Life paint satanic symbols and invade homes.<\/p>\n

If those monsters aren\u2019t enough to remind you of real-life counterparts, there\u2019s a who\u2019s-who assembly line of human predators slithering about and preying on duplicitous Bret, troubled Robert, \u201cperfect\u201d student Susan (Kaia Gerber), attention-seeking Debbie (Hayes Warner), insecure and fragile Thom (Graham Campbell) and the formidably talented Ryan (Daniel Dale). Each characters is a far, far cry from anything that event resembles virtuous. Yet you can\u2019t help but want to watch them. The adults are much worse: Debbie\u2019s smarmy, touchy-feely dad (Wes Bentley, so good he\u2019s destined for an Emmy nomination) is a slimebucket and drugged-out Hollywood exec who likes the boys a little too much. Then there\u2019s his blurry-eyed car wreck of a wife (Evan Rachel Woods), an actress faded into obsoleteness.<\/p>\n

They all are juicy characters to portray and to watch, and the cast couldn\u2019t be better at getting into their toned, tanned and scaly skins. There\u2019s a lot of sex and many nasty acts committed by these beautiful people. But beyond that there\u2019s a vitality and spirit here that is filled with nostalgia, and that sense extends from a televised dance-off contest (one of the best episodes) on to the sexy, anything-goes pool and house parties and gossipy lunches where teens get overserved. \u201cThe Shards\u201d captures \u2014 as Ellis always has \u2014the mood, the style, the music and the tempo of these wild times. And Ellis and Murphy do it with style and substance. After watching the final episode, all I can say is there better be another season on the horizon. Details:<\/strong> 3\u00bd stars; first two episodes land this week on Hulu and FX, with one episode released each week after.<\/p>\n