- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: May 14, 2021
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Watching McGregor spew this exquisite venom like a deranged rattlesnake is entertaining enough, and he gets great support from the rest of the cast—particularly the amazing Krysta Rodriguez (Smash), who captures the manic energy of early Halston advocate Liza Minnelli as if she were born into it. But most of the credit has to producer Murphy, who has an unparalleled ability to carve compelling narratives out of tangled, throbbing messes of characters and subplots.
-
This compelling epic about ego that embeds you in his world of brilliant designs and self-sabotage. It doesn’t hurt that it has a career-best performance from Ewan McGregor as its center.
-
What makes the whole thing work, start to finish, is McGregor’s huge, bizarre, involved, and inspired turn as Halston. ... Halston is easily Murphy’s best show for Netflix to date.
-
Halston is at its best when it depicts the inner workings of the fashion world, incorporating the creative process and its dazzling end results. Unfortunately, the familiar overtures of a troubled visionary and his downfall can only sustain our attention for so long.
-
One can’t help wondering whether a mini series about his relationship with Liza Minnelli (who refused to talk ill of her friend in the 2019 documentary and clearly loved him as much – or more – than any of her husbands) would have been a far more moving and emotional TV drama than this fun but forgettable Halston turns out to be.
-
Despite telling the kind of tormented-creative-genius story we’ve seen in many a Hollywood biopic, complete with crass moralising about the dangers of an indulgent lifestyle, this latest Ryan Murphy concoction eventually manages to get under the skin.
-
"Halston" doesn't merit the kind of adulation that its namesake craved, but strictly in terms of garnering attention, combining a marquee star with juicy material is one of those things that never goes out of style.
-
Perhaps as things go along, we’ll see more development from these characters. But it may also be that Halston is the only one we see any kind of depth from. And that feels like a missed opportunity. ... McGregor’s performance ties together the flatter characters that are depicted in Halston’s orbit. Despite the broad strokes, five episodes sounds just about right for this series.
-
The show is trashy fun, but it could have been so much more. White and Murphy could have gone deeper into Halston’s psyche, but all we get are a couple of brief flashbacks to his unhappy childhood.
-
It argues that Halston’s name was sullied by just how much stuff he put his name to – but it comes at the cost of characterisation. This is only five episodes long, but it takes time to earn viewers’ sympathy for the main character, and it isn’t until the last two episodes that it really gets under his skin.
-
Like one of its titular character’s own designs, Halston is clean, sleek and beautiful to look at – but you might find yourself wishing it was a little messier around the edges.
-
High on glamour and low on insight, we're treated to eyefuls of elegance, McGregor's prosaic impression of Halston's silken fussiness and enough powder to make Donatella Versace dream of skiing. But whatever poetry made Halston who he is remains left undiscovered and unspoken.
-
An intermittently fascinating but mostly frustrating five-part drama.
-
There’s a hesitation here that’s absent in the rest of Murphy’s work—and say what you will about his recent output, this was hardly the time to be restrained. By its end, including a typed coda that deflates the swell of emotion that immediately precedes it, Halston still looks like a sketch of what’s to come instead of a head-turning creation.
-
It’s nowhere near as unique or compelling as it should be. But at least Murphy is starting to ask himself the right questions.
-
Mostly this is see Halston go up, then see Halston go down, a far too familiar story. Just because it’s real doesn’t make it interesting. “Halston” never bothers to go beyond the obvious.
-
Murphy keeps such a tight rein on the designer’s world that Halston is unable to breathe as a subject. He never becomes truly strange or surprising.
-
Every now and then, the miniseries finds a burst of inspiration. ... But Halston the TV show feels like something you’d find on the clearance rack at Penney’s, rather than the bespoke tribute that such a singular vision deserves.
-
Over five episodes, the series is littered with incidents that seem like they could be focal events if only Halston had focus, or structuring devices if only the show had structure.
-
Generously, I might say that Halston intends to leave viewers with this complexity. Truthfully, it’s a big mess.
-
It eventually just stops telling its story — cuing up onscreen titles explaining Halston’s death and what happened to the other famous figures we met — without having provided a real ending, or much of a beginning or middle, either. ... “Halston” looks for all the world like premium product, but McGregor is the only person here trying.
-
After five episodes, nothing in the series shimmers. Any attempt to rehabilitate or revive the mononymous fashion artist’s name via the passionless dramatic info dump about Halton’s highs and (frankly) mostly lows is left in tatters.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 8 out of 11
-
Mixed: 1 out of 11
-
Negative: 2 out of 11
-
May 14, 2021Such an incredible TV show! I absolutely enjoyed it. Sad that's just 5 episodes. Acting, cinema, shots, music. All in very high level!!!
-
Dec 3, 2021