Hollywood

The early episodes of “Hollywood” are an entertaining mix of earnest inclusiveness and dishy wallow in showbiz lore. But, like those Murphy-produced TV series that went on too long, by the end, “Hollywood” is floating on so many alt-history good vibrations that it becomes less of a celebration, and more of a lecture.

“Hollywood” proves an entertaining diversion, but it carries less weight than the smog hovering over Los Angeles.

Too bad the vehicle for their improbable success, based on the story of a woman who jumped off the Hollywood sign to her death, looks like a laughable dud. The grown-ups come off better, even when you know they know they're slumming. [11 - 24 May 2020, p.7]

It’s this very sincerity, even generosity — its best features, really — that keep the series from being lifelike, and, indeed, can make it seem a little ridiculous. “Hollywood” is determined to deliver good outcomes to its characters; it’s a fixed game, and while it’s easy enough to watch, and to sympathize with its desire to liberate a repressive age, it has little urgency.

Hollywood comes as a disappointment, then, in spite of its stellar cast and admirable ambitions. It’s kind of like some of the big-screen icons that rose to fame in the early days of Hollywood: plenty of gloss, but not enough substance.

The show does sometimes achieve the righteous thrills it sets out to provide. But beyond the plot holes and absurd twists and preachy speeches that Murphy fans routinely forgive out of affection for his exuberant, propulsive, pluralistic fictions, it lionizes some questionable figures—like Ernie, who has made his living essentially duping desperate young men into sex work. And it makes enacting large-scale social change look too easy. ... Hollywood’s act of faith feels naive.

A consistently handsome, often moving, frequently sanctimonious erasure of the actual slow nature of Tinseltown progress in favor of something that's more a fairy tale than an alt-history. Much more so than Pose, a fundamentally hopeful show set against the unlikely backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, Hollywood too often comes across as simplistic and naive, though if it causes anyone to research the period depicted, there's value in that.

It’s tin-eared and confident but totally inadequate as a portrait of Hollywood as it was outside of its production design, which is admittedly rich.

Hollywood is a curiously inert, borderline dull, limited series that displays a startling lack of awareness about its formulaic narrative and boring (male) characters. Despite its pedigree, the latest Ryan Murphy/Netflix collaboration simply isn’t worth the leap.

It is a show that is smug and obtuse enough to believe la la land’s self-regarding idea that celluloid art directly shapes our lives. ... It’s a crushing disappointment nevertheless. Not ready for its closeup, Mr DeMille.

Even though their characters are poorly written, a few of the performers do manage to help matters with their energy and command. LuPone is never not fun to watch, Joe Mantello is beautifully restrained as a gay producer, and Holland Taylor is moving as a lonely casting director.

A vivid but unconvincing ensemble fantasy about who gets to go to Dreamland and who has to keep dreaming.

Hollywood can never decide whether it wants to be an aspirational woke-alternate-reality fantasy or a nihilistic black comedy, and its conflicting tones sit uneasily together.