Netflix miniseries review

In one of the biographies of Marilyn Monroe (strangely never mentioned in the miniseries), the writer Norman Mailer describes the attempts of the aspiring actress to enter the market after a notorious career as a model. Although restricted in this regard, Mailer cannot help but mention the executives and producers with whom Marilyn was seen dozens of times when she was fighting for an important role in Fox. In speaking of this determining period, the author says that “Among these relationships (with important men), Marilyn was possessed, even devilishly, by the need to be a star”. Years later, already very famous, she took revenge on those men for being the best actress on screen and the worst behind the scenes.

When Hollywood, miniseries created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, was announced as one of the new jobs resulting from Murphy’s 300 million deal with Netflix, the public was filled with expectations. With the freedom he would have on the platform and the violent and transgressive way his head can function, stories like Miss Monroe’s were expected to be the most important. “Light” About production. Skeletons were expected in the closets, deaths, crimes, all the rot of an industry that created dreams while grinding lives. After all, Murphy guts and mutilates each year in episodes of American Horror Story. Why not show how cinema mutilates and disembowels dreams of fame and success?

However, the association with Ian Brennan It is strategic. While Brad Falchuk (the third member of the group) keeps most of the adult productions, Brennan was primarily responsible for several episodes of Glee, Scream Queens and by The politician Falchuk is also Murphy’s dark side and Ian Brennan The most fun. What both parties have in common is something that moves the work of Ryan Murphy in all the titles you work on: optimism. Although the built stage is extremely violent, even the darkest seasons of AHS had happy endings. It is as if the showrunner refuses to accept the world as it is, trying to extract from this reality a perceptual re-education: if, despite everything, good things happen many times, perhaps some part of the world will absorb this energy.

The miniseries Hollywood Follow this guideline and have a great differential in the masculine approach. Issues such as harassment, abuse and prejudice focus primarily on men, which is poorly illustrated in such productions. Jack (David Corenswet), a fictional character who wants to be a star; and a very free version of the Rock Hudson icon (Jake Picking), are the names in search of success as actors. Archie (Jeremy Pope) is a black screenwriter who also dreams of the big screen. Both converge in a service station that functions as a prostitution point (and that existed), managed by pimp Ernie (Dylan McDermott, in an inspired performance). Everyone’s life changes when the movie Meg, directed by Raymond Ansley (Darren Criss) is approved, even with Camille Washington (Laura Harrier), a black actress, in the title role.

Realistic fantasy

As always with Murphy’s stories, the pace is intense, the characters are immediately charismatic, and they take various narrative liberties. It’s scary how he gets a lot out of the young squad without losing sight of the delivery of the mature squad. Characters like disgusting Henry Wilson (Jim Parsons), producer Dick Samuels (Joe Mantello), Avis Amberg (Patti LuPone) and Ellen Kincaid (Holland Taylor) are built with precision and sensitivity. There is constant direct interference from this “Ideal world” that the scripts are slowly injected into the reality of the characters. But, this is an artifice that viewers of Quentin Tarantino It tastes great and that generates passionate reactions, for better and for worse.

The point is that in the construction of what would be the proposal for Hollywood there were a lot of elements that would go through this “Fantastic sieve”. While in Once upon a time in Hollywood Tarantino needs to repair just a bruise in exploiting a massacre as a pop culture job, in Murphy’s miniseries it’s not just a bruise, but a real beating. Racism, homophobia, exploitation, harassment, abuse, machismo … When the dressings begin, towards the final two episodes, the feeling is that the story has become a statement of absolute naivety, although it is necessary to maintain the perspective that the The main objective is to establish that the course of events and the present in which we live would have been a better one if the most difficult decisions had been taken at that time.

All the statistics about Hollywood are very scary, even today. Only a black woman won the Oscar for best actress in over 80 years. It was Hale berry, in 2002. Only six black women won the Coadjuvante. The first Oscar awarded to a film directed by a black man was in 2014, for 12 years of slavery and a black screenwriter won only recently. It was Jordan Peelefor Run!. Gay actors are still in hiding for fear of losing jobs, and Harvey Weinstein’s bullying scandals have sparked major moves only in the past decade. Looking at this scenario, it is difficult to be grumpy with a playwright who preferred to play and rewrite history.

All of this fantasy is not really part of a complex picture of the industry. But this is another piece of a man’s work that contradicts his transgression with optimism. This world of Ryan Murphy it’s nice. We cannot blame anyone for preferring to live within it.