It’s Watchable Ryan Murphy, At Least

Ryan Murphy’s The Shards, the complex psychological coming-of-age series adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’s novel, concludes in a truly over-the-top and confusing way. The Shards, Season 1, brought Bret Ellis’s autofiction to television.

The Shards Season 1 stars Igby Rigney as Bret, Homer Gere as Robert Mallory, Kaia Gerber as Susan, Hayes Warner as Debbie, Graham Campbell as Thom, Wes Bentley as Terry, and Evan Rachel Wood as Liz. Ryan Murphy brings his visual style and flair to the murder-mystery-meets-coming-of-age story, blending the glossy, polished aesthetic of ’80s Los Angeles with the ever-growing paranoia and gruesome horror that wreak havoc on Bret and his friends’ world.

The Shards Season 1 centers on Bret, a young, affluent, and aspiring writer with dreams of writing films. Bret and his friends’ lives are turned upside down when a spate of break-ins, abductions, and murders starts popping up, just as they enter their senior year of high school, and a new kid joins their school.

Ryan Murphy sets his sights on adolescence in the 1980s.

Robert Mallory, the new Kid in question, comes with a dark past and erratic behavior that only seems to put Bret on edge. As the season goes on, other people’s deep, dark secrets start to come to light, risking the fracturing of Bret’s facade and his tight-knit group.

At the start of the series, most of the story is told from the main character’s perspective: Bret. This can, at times, make Bret come off as an insufferable, pretentious protagonist, but it is also hard to outright dislike him.

It is important to recognize that Bret, like many young adults in their teens, often believes he has the whole world figured out and that he is more mature and smarter than others his age. However, in reality, he is still a child navigating a world of fears, insecurities, and secrets he does not want exposed. 

Bret is one of the first people in his friend group and community who seems to be genuinely concerned about the series of murders and disappearances. Initially, following the disappearance of his secret lover and school acquaintance, Matt, Bret seems sincerely worried and suspects that Matt has become the Trawler’s latest victim. However, that concern quickly turns into an obsession with proving that Robert is the Trawler behind Matt’s disappearance and the other teenagers’ disappearances.

The first few episodes of The Shards Season 1 started off very promising. Unfortunately, as the season continued, the show felt like it was less focused on the mystery and truth behind the serial killings and more interested in the petty teen angst, jealousy, drama, and paranoia that developed adjacent to the murders. Throughout the season, some episodes would start to pull on the narrative thread of the Trawler murders, hopefully leading to a bigger reveal.

While other episodes focused more on the interpersonal issues between characters and their relationships, the uneven narrative weight between the two plots often left the characters feeling slightly detached from the terror and real danger surrounding them. It is difficult to tell if this was an intentional decision or just a misstep in the storytelling process. 

Bret and Robert’s relationship dynamic is a large focus of The Shards Season 1. As the show progresses, Bret’s obsession with Robert seems less about uncovering the truth and bringing justice to the deceased and more about proving his suspicions right.

The tension between characters in The Shards is great; what they do is less so.

Additionally, Bret’s personal life makes the obsession with Robert and The Trawler killings even more complex. Bret is constantly hiding the truth about his sexuality from his friends and girlfriend, which makes him a very vulnerable figure for others to manipulate and target as well.

Bret’s fears of being outed add another layer to his paranoia, as the possibility of having his sexuality exposed makes it harder to separate his actual concern about the murder and his own fears and insecurities. Although Bret may not be the most likable character, The Shards Season 1  does a good job of making his insecurities relatable enough to have a small soft spot for him at times.

Debbie, Bret’s girlfriend, undergoes an impressive yet natural character evolution by the end of the series. Initially, she is a jealous, daddy’s little girl whom everyone underestimates, but she is desperate for her own moment in the spotlight.

As The Shards Season 1 progresses, Debbie starts to show more of her fangs and take what she wants in her life rather than ask for it. This doesn’t necessarily make her the best person, but it at least moves her from accepting what happens to her to taking charge of what she wants in her life.

Debbie’s transformation is effective because it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Debbie has dealt with her parents’ toxic marriage, her father’s high expectations, and Bret’s half-hearted affection. It makes sense that she finally recognizes the people in her life are messier than she wanted to believe. Other supporting characters also undergo a sort of metamorphosis.

For example, Susan and Thom’s relationship quickly shifts from a steady, popular it-couple to a breakup, adding to the drama of this season. Susan recognizes her potential and does not just want to be someone’s girlfriend or wife. Meanwhile, her boyfriend.

The psychological themes in this Ryan Murphy trip to the 80s are interesting, just meandering.

Thom is desperately holding onto Susan so tight because he has lost so much following his parents’ divorce and his father abandoning him. Once Robert joins the group and makes his intentions for Susan known, it adds to the drama and growing fractures in the friend group.

Although it is easy to blame Robert for disrupting and poisoning the group’s dynamic, the season makes it clear that many of the cracks in the group existed long before his arrival. Although Robert may have catalyzed certain revelations, he did not create every problem in Bret and his friends’ lives. The jealousy, insecurities, and secrets had long been there; Robert’s arrival just made it harder for the others to pretend their lives were completely perfect.

The relationship dynamic drama of Bret’s friend group is one of The Shards’ stronger elements, as it uses these characters and their supposed tight-knit group to explore each character’s inner struggles, insecurities, and fears. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for how the show handles its overarching mystery by the end of the season.

As murders and kidnappings escalate over the course of the first season, Bret’s obsession with proving Robert is behind the crimes heads into questionable territory, such as possibly hallucinating conversations and sexual encounters with Robert.

Instead of Bret really investigating The Trawler, it seems like his obsession, hatred, and jealousy have started to turn into infatuation and desire for Robert. At times, the chemistry between them seems like a mutual attraction, but it’s unclear whether that is because we are only seeing Robert through Bret’s perspective. 

Meanwhile, the overarching mystery of the Trawler murders and disappearances continues to escalate as more teenagers wind up missing or dead, but goes unresolved by the end of the season. It is a disappointing, clichéd note to end the season on. Understandably, the series would want to go in the direction of a huge cliffhanger, but ending on two: one being the true identity of the Trawler and the other being who attempted to kill Terry Schafer.

While a cliffhanger is not the worst way to end a season, especially on a show like The Shards, Terry’s attempted murder, coming so late in the season, is clearly intended as an unexpected twist that can be explored further in another season. Unfortunately, it also adds to the ever-growing list of unanswered questions, leaving the overarching mystery unsolved.

The Shards Season 1 has a glossy finish, but it stumbles just as much as it thrills.

In all honesty, The Shards Season 1 would have been better served as a limited single season rather than stretching it out into another season. The complicated relationships, paranoia, and general teenage angst, coupled with a serial-killer mystery, seemed to have enough intrigue to captivate and carry the story for one season. But now, having left the season’s main mystery unresolved and throwing in a shocking plot twist, it just feels like The Shards is being dragged out unnecessarily. 

Performance-wise, Igby Rigney excels at capturing all of the various parts of Bret. Rigney manages to capture the character’s simultaneous paranoia, vulnerability, and pretentiousness in a way that makes him sympathetic. Meanwhile, Homer Gere, who portrays Robert, does an excellent job of keeping his character’s motives and intentions ambiguous.

In every scene, Gere shows just enough of Robert’s darkness and vulnerability to make audiences question whether he could be the killer. Overall, the main cast’s performances truly sell their friend group and relationships. Tensions among the characters make audiences feel like they could have been familiar with their lives. 

The Shards Season 1 has a glossy, stylish aesthetic that captures the flair of the ’80s, and its graphic horror and psychological themes make the show watchable, but it is not a must-watch by any means. The Shards has genuinely compelling characters paired with a thrilling mystery, paranoia, drama, and dark secrets. However, for a series that centers on a mystery, the first season ends with more questions than answers, leaving it without a truly satisfying payoff. 

The Shards Season 1 is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.