The Kim Kardashian-Led 'All's Fair' Isn't Even Worth the Hate-Watch

Y'all, it is bad with a capital 'B'

alls fair hulu review
Disney/Ser Baffo

This week, a very promising new show with a stacked cast arrived courtesy of Ryan Murphy: All’s Fair. The new Hulu show stars Sarah Paulson, Kim Kardashian, Niecy Nash, Naomi Watts, Glenn Freakin’ Close. The premise? Successful female divorce lawyers run their own firm and, in turn, rule the world. Sign me up, I thought.

alls fair hulu review glen close
Disney/Ser Baffo

I heard some not-so-great rumblings about the show, but I was determined to give it a fair shot. With a cast like that, how bad could it be?! I thought. So last night, I poured a glass of Savvy B, popped a little popcorn and sat down to hopefully binge the first three available episodes. Yada yada yada, I couldn't bring myself to watch more than one episode. What the hell just happened? I thought.

I'll dive a bit more into the "yada yada yada," but I should point out that I'm not alone in my negative review of All's Fair. In fact, the show's Rotten Tomatoes score is a jaw-dropping zero. As in, the lowest possible score in existence. Do I think this score is a bit exaggerated or dramatic? Absolutely not. The show is a mess—and not even in the fun kind of way.

Things kick off at comically lightning speed. The opening moments take place years in the past—Allura (Kardashian) and Liberty (Watts) get advice from the regal Dina (Close) to go and start their own firm, like, right this second. The pair race (as in, run) to bring Nash's Emerald with them. They're then startlingly confronted by Carrington (Paulson) who is pissed she wasn't asked to go with them. Too bad, Carrington, you can't sit with us. And the women are off! I honestly don't know if I've ever seen so much exposition and backstory in such a short amount of time. Why didn't they spend the first episode developing this backstory? I thought. Or this could have been a set of flashbacks later, after we've eased into the plot?

Instead, we get a time jump and the Allura/Liberty/Emerald firm is in stiff competition with Carrington's own firm (I guess she started one too), and Carrington is out to crush her former colleagues. All of this unfolds at breakneck speed, before we've had time to care about any of the characters.

While some have chosen to pick apart Kardashian's performance (yeah, she's a bit stiff but give the woman a break), my biggest gripe concerns the surprisingly sloppy, all-over-the-place writing. Case-in-point: Allura's husband leaves her after confessing, “Next to you, I feel hopelessly small.” Did we ask ChatGPT for predictable, cheesy soap opera dialogue or...?

The first (and only one I'll be watching) episode was co-written by Murphy and directed by Murphy. Perhaps he was relying on the unbelievably talented cast to elevate the material, but even that proved to be an impossible task here.

The scenes and the dialogue are really tough. Who talks like this?! I screamed into the void. Even one of my all-time favorite actresses, Judith Light in a cameo role, was relegated to painful dialogue and a cartoonish character. (Her reason for cheating on her husband? “He stopped looking at me the way he used to.” Cool cool cool.)

alls fair review
Disney/Ser Baffo

In a show that's supposed to uplift women and revolve around hugely successful women, the episode stopped just short of a collective "Girl power!" high five moment at the end of every scene. It felt dumbed down and reductive.

I guess you could watch the show just so you know what everyone is talking about. Or, ya know, you could watch one of the million other good shows that came out this week. Don't say I didn't warn you, I whispered.

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Philip Mutz Headshot

VP, News and Entertainment

  • Oversees news and entertainment content
  • Is an award-winning playwright and has hosted two entertainment podcasts
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