The latest legal drama from Ryan Murphy, "All's Fair," starring Kim Kardashian, has been met with a chorus of criticism from TV critics and journalists alike, who have described the show as "existentially terrible," "tacky," and a "disaster zone." The 10-episode series, now available on Hulu and Disney+, follows a team of female divorce attorneys who start their own practice in L.A. and navigate high-stakes breakups, scandalous secrets, and shifting allegiances in both the courtroom and within their own ranks.
The Times' Ben Dowell penned a zero-star review, writing: "Well done, Kim. You must have quite a healthy ego to star in what may well be the worst television drama ever made. 'All's Fair' (Disney+) is so bad, it's not even enjoyably so. It thinks it's a feminist fable about spirited lawyers getting their own back on cruel rich men but is in fact a tacky and revolting monument to the same greed, vanity, and avarice it supposedly targets."
The Guardian's Lucy Mangan also gave the series a zero-star rating, describing it as "fascinatingly, incomprehensibly, existentially terrible." The reviews were universally panning the performances, particularly Kardashian's as divorce attorney Allura Grant. Ed Power of The Telegraph wrote: "Amid this disaster zone of soapy plotting and reeking dialogue, it is perhaps unfair to single out Kardashian. Her participation is just one disaster among many (she is an executive producer alongside her mother and manager, Kris Jenner). Yet there is no glossing over her stilted acting, already confirmed by her guest appearance in season 12 of Murphy's 'American Horror Story.' Even more striking than her lack of thespian chops is her complete absence of screen presence. She has no aura, no unfiltered charisma. Forget an X factor, Kardashian has a Zzzzzz... quality that threatens to lull the unprepared viewer into a stupor whenever she opens her mouth."
Dowell added: "Does Kardashian (who plans to take bar exams, we are told) make a convincing lawyer? No, she does not. She is to acting what Genghis Khan is to a peaceful liberal democracy, though of course the dialogue—a tsunami of clunking cliché that drowns this whole enterprise in the first five minutes—doesn't help her cause."
"All's Fair" marks Kardashian's second collaboration with Murphy after starring in the 12th season of "American Horror Story," subtitled "Delicate." The reality TV star also serves as an executive producer on the legal drama alongside Murphy. Glamour editor Emily Maddick compared "All's Fair" to watching an episode of "The Kardashians," writing: "And after sitting through the first episode of 'All's Fair,' if 'aspirational' is what they're aiming for, then god help us all. For it seems that Ryan Murphy, arguably one of the hottest names in TV, with countless brilliant and diverse, award-winning shows under his belt, including 'Glee,' 'American Horror Story,' 'Pose,' 'Scream Queens,' and 'Nip Tuck,' has been fully Kardashian-ified. He's drunk the Kris Jenner Kool-Aid and the Murphy cinematic universe has been infected by this so-called 'aspirational' lifestyle the Kardashians dictate we should all be conforming to aspire to; which, in other words, translates as 'behaving like a billionaire.'"
