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All's Fairis TV's most expensive meme. The Ryan Murphy–produced Hulu drama starsNaomi Watts,Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, Niecy Nash, andSarah Paulsonas a squad of #GirlBoss lawyers with very real-sounding names like "Allura Grant" and "Emerald Greene." There are outrageous lines like "You may think I'm being a greedy pig bottom," which make the show feel like it's made to be viewed via screenshots on an Instagram carousel. It practically begs to be a cultural moment. And against the odds—and perhaps the very notion of taste itself?—it has become one.
The first three episodes were met by an overwhelmingly negative response from critics. It debuted with 0 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, where it has sinceclimbed to just 4 percent.Meanwhile, The Guardian'szero-starreview (a brutal rating the paper has doled out only ahandfulof times) describes the show as "fascinatingly, incomprehensibly, existentially terrible." However, the numbers tell a slightly different story. Hulu hassaidthat the show is the platform's most-viewed original scripted debut in three years, with over 3.2 million views in its opening days. And on my social feed, fans can't stop debating whether the show is "so bad, it's good," or just flat-out bad. (So far, no one has been brave enough to argue that it's genuinely good.)
OnInstagram, Kim Kardashian leaned into the discourse. She jokingly referred toAll's Fairas "the most critically acclaimed show of the year" and shared viral posts where fans said they were "obsessed" with the "awful" acting, "ridiculous" styling, and "predictable" plots. It's a fitting response, because this show encapsulates the world the Kardashians have helped to build—one where it's possible to benefit from even the most negative attention.
WatchingAll's Fair,it's easy to see why so many critics have hated it. (Glenn Close, if you're reading this, blink twice for "Help me!") The show has the most implausible storylines and the creakiest dialogue and is a Frankenstein creation of constant materialism and casual cruelty dressed up as "feminism," all of which make Kim Kardashian's motionless face andspoof-worthyline delivery feel almost inconsequential. Yet despite all this, I can't switch off the part of my brain that finds the very existence ofAll's Fairweirdly, unsettlingly entertaining. To not engage with this show—and the cultural chasm around it—would almost feel like missing out. For the easily trolled among us (me), it's impossible to look away.
Since its release,All's Fairhas been likened toAnd Just Like That…,which became synonymous with the practice of hate-watching. I'm not totally convinced by this comparison, though. When listening to theAnd Just Like That…the Writer's Roompodcast, I didn't get the impression that Michael Patrick King and his co-conspirators were intentionally trying to create something bad, even ironically so. And I also didn't think fans were genuinely hate-watchingAJLT;really, it was closer to hope-watching, with each week providing tiny glimmers of theSex and the Citycharacters we once loved.All's Fair,on the other hand, is more aware of its badness. And as I watched, I found myself feeling almost sadistic: I wasn't hoping for better; I actually wanted it to get evenworse.
It's worth remembering that critical pushback isn't necessarily a barrier to something becoming culturally influential. In fact, there is a long history of culture that is considered "low art" being underestimated by critics—especially when it's created by women and gay men—from the emergence of reality TV in the 2000s way back to the work of Andy Warhol, who of course coined the prescient term "15 minutes of fame." The extreme reaction toAll's Fairreminds me ofShowgirls,a film that was branded one of the worst movies ever made when it was released in 1995 but has now been reframed as a campy cult classic, partly because of how much it was hated at the time.
A reappraisal ofAll's Fairis unlikely, but it's not impossible—especially when you consider that being rebuked by critics is basically a rite of passage for the Kardashians. Their E! reality show,Keeping Up With the Kardashians,was panned when it premiered in 2007. But Kris Jenner's brood became a phenomenon regardless, mostly because people simply couldn't stop talking about them. This is a hallmark of the attention economy, where it doesn't matter whether you've got more haters than fans, because even the most negative attention can be monetized online. Just look at George Santos, the disgraced former congressman whomade$600,000 selling personalized Cameo videos before being sent to jail for fraud. (One of thefirst thingsSantos did hours after President Trump commuted his sentence was rejoin the platform, where he charges $300 per video, posting: "I'm back!!!")
Part of what is so frustrating about social media today is that it's difficult to tell what is real and what is being posted purely for engagement. I won't even admit the amount of times recently I've had to count to 10 before deciding that, no, it's not worth hitting Reply to a purposefully provocative post from someone who is almost certainly trying to game the algorithm. But it'ssohard not to fall for it.All's Fairconjures that exact same response; the show, and our reaction to it, makes it almost feel like a cultural shit-post.
It seems like we're entering an era where expensive TV shows are essentially engagement bait from streaming platforms, designed to provoke the same feelings of judgment and superiority as the influencers we hate-follow. I wonder if the most revealing thing aboutAll's Fairis how it holds up a mirror to us, reflecting our need for a shared experience. The desire for connectivity is collectively lowering our expectations.
This all feels vintage Kardashian, whose emergence was similarly equated with a wider cultural decline. In 2011, when Barbara Waltersinterviewedthe family as part of her yearly "10 Most Fascinating People" series, she seemed vaguely annoyed about it, telling them, "You don't have any talent!" To her surprise, they agreed. "I don't think we disagree," said Kourtney, while Khloé responded: "None of us think we could sing or act or dance." Sitting quietly next to them was Kim, who is now being billed ahead of Glenn Close in a TV drama.
Yes, the reviews ofAll's Fairhave been brutal, but I suspect that Kim is secretly enjoying being back in the cultural fray. She has long since ascended to the A list to such an extent that her level of fame is now uncontroversial—almost boring. And here she is, once again forcing people to question their ideas of taste, or what someone in her position should be "allowed" to do. Somehow, this zero-star, 0 percent show has become another reminder never to underestimate her. I guess all's fair in love, war—and getting attention.
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