The Shards (2026)

The critic finds the adaptation an intriguing mix of Ellis's detached blank fiction and Murphy's visual excess and horror elements. Rigney's lead performance is singled out as uncanny and fantastic, though one episode's dance competition detour disrupts the tone before the second half redeems the series.

Murphy is back on form with this gorgeously curated, shot and scored adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel about a serial killer stalking privileged LA teenagers. The serial killer storyline pulls the story along, but its heart is in the longing for an era gone by, for youth flown.

This is a watchable, dreamily shallow series about watchable, dreamily shallow kids, made by a watchable, dreamily shallow creator, which occasionally delivers on the horror. Suspense though? Sadly not, and that’s the real measure of excellence.

The series delivers the expected excess from the Murphy-Ellis team-up but is nostalgic, over-the-top and uneven, with a plastic first half faithful to the novel giving way to chaotic but more entertaining later episodes.

This adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel starring nepo-babies is full of coke, convertibles and crushing tedium, and it is hard to care about the monotonous world of privileged LA high schoolers.

The review argues that bold deviations and additions derail the adaptation despite a strong lead performance. It fails to capture the novel's distinctive feeling or sustain its ambiguity and mood.

The critic calls the series a tragedy of adaptation that fails to capture the book's ambiguity and nuance. It shrinks into recycled storylines from Glee and Euphoria, becoming neither fun trash nor compelling horror.

The review praises the exquisite 1981 Los Angeles production design and strong lead performance by Igby Rigney as Bret. It notes the show is gloriously and compellingly trashy despite some heavy-handed narration.

The critic praises the stylish, sexy, and lurid adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s meta-memoir as an LA horror story set in 1981, highlighting the paranoia around a mysterious newcomer amid serial killings and the strong eighties production design.

The review calls the series a stylish but restrained crime thriller more interested in the emotional horrors of adolescence and identity than graphic violence, commending strong performances especially from Igby Rigney while noting it loses focus in the final stretch.