Looking for The Shards season 1 review before you tune in? Here’s the truth: this FX show has a great story buried under a bad one. Ryan Murphy takes a dark, dangerous novel and turns it into a glossy teen soap opera. Screen Rant gives it a flat 5 out of 10. That’s generous.
What Is The Shards About?
The story comes from author Bret Easton Ellis. He wrote the original novel. The show takes place in 1980s Los Angeles. A group of rich high school kids attend an expensive private school called Buckley Prep. They party. They cheat on each other. They lie constantly.
But something dark circles around them. A serial killer called the Trawler hunts people across the city. Bodies show up. Fear spreads. And a creepy new student named Robert Mallory joins their friend group — and nobody knows his secret.
It sounds terrifying. It should be terrifying. It isn’t.
The Teen Drama Swallows the Horror Whole
Here’s the big problem. Every time the show builds up real fear — every time the Trawler feels close and dangerous — the show cuts away. Back to a party. Back to a breakup. Back to the same rich kids doing the same rich-kid things.
The horror never lands. The scary moments feel out of place. When the Trawler finally appears, you don’t feel dread. You feel confused — like you’re watching two different shows fighting each other. The teen drama wins every time. The horror loses every time.
Bret Ellis’ novel mixed fear and desire in a sharp, dirty way. This FX show cleans all of that up. And in doing so, it wipes away everything that made the story powerful.
The Cast Does What It Can
Igby Rigney plays the lead character, also named Bret. He narrates the show in a flat, bored voice. It fits the character — but it doesn’t help pull you in. Kaia Gerber plays his best friend Susan. She brings a fun, knowing energy to every scene.
The standout? Hayes Warner as Debbie — Bret’s girlfriend he constantly cheats on. She plays the role with sharp wit. Every scene she owns.
But even strong performances can’t fix a story that keeps getting in its own way.
Ryan Murphy Gets Too Involved — and It Shows
Ryan Murphy directs the first episode himself. He co-writes almost half the season. His style takes over — big music choices, long drawn-out scenes, flashy visuals. It looks beautiful. It feels hollow.
The show spends far too long on storylines that go nowhere. One episode runs nearly an hour and wastes most of it on a silly musical scene that has nothing to do with the killer plot. It kills all the tension the show just spent episodes building.
Final Verdict
The Shards season 1 review lands here: wasted potential. Ryan Murphy and this FX show had something genuinely scary in their hands — and they chose to make a teen drama instead. The Trawler deserved better. The novel deserved better.
Score: 5/10. Pretty to look at. Empty to feel.
