On Screen: “The Shards”
The Shards
A shard is a broken piece of a delicate artifact — and the titular “Shards” populating Ryan Murphy’s new nine-episode series fit that definition perfectly.
Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ (“American Psycho”) semi-autobiographical 2023 novel, it revolves around affluent Buckley prep school students in Los Angeles in 1981, when distracted, absent parents let their privileged offspring host cocaine-fueled pool parties, then cruise Mulholland Drive in expensive cars.
As the jaded, elite teens jockey for superficial status — observed by aloof aspiring writer Bret (Igby Rigney) — their shallow Sherman Oaks social hierarchy is headed by student body president Susan Reynolds (Kaia Gerber) and quarterback Thom Wright (Graham Campbell), destined to rule the gilded Homecoming Court.
Bret’s hooked up with sex-crazed Debbie Schaffer (pop singer Hayes Warner), whose mother (Evan Rachel Wood) battles desperation and predatory producer father (Wes Bentley) feigns interest in Bret’s novel “Less Than Zero.”
Meanwhile, closeted bisexual Bret has been making it with doomed stoner Matt Kellner (Owen Painter) until his latent lust is ignited by charismatic, psychopathic, Porsche-driving Robert Mallory (Homer Gere), who joins their senior class.
“He was a virus,” obsessive Bret notes, “who was going to invade and destroy school and me.”
Ryan Murphy’s quirky casting gimmick is that apparent ‘nepo babies’ — beautiful Kaia Gerber and handsome Homer Gere — are the unrelated offspring of Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere, who were once married to each other. Big whoop!
It’s only a minor distraction that there are anonymous, heavy-breathing phone calls and a gruesome serial killer, dubbed “The Trawler,” is on the loose, abducting pets, then kidnapping and mutilating his victims.
Plus the paranoia of home invasions, staged by the Riders of the Afterlife, an Ojai-based cult who scrawl bloody pentagrams and are led by Bruce, a former English teacher. Although never acknowledged, there’s an obvious parallel between this cult and Charles Manson’s ‘family’ who once terrorized the Los Angeles area.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Shards” is a lurid, hedonistic 5, streaming on FX/Hulu on Wednesdays — and a day later on Disney+.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.