Ryan Murphy Takes Us Back to 1981 with 'The Shards' | Streamed & Screened Podcast
The erotic thriller has reached Hulu’s Top 10 as viewers respond to its dark storyline, according to FlixPatrol.
- Following its August 5 premiere, Ryan Murphy's The Shards climbed Hulu's top 10 rankings, with the sexually charged thriller based on Bret Easton Ellis' novel reaching the platform's most-watched shows by August 11, 2026.
- Set in 1981 Los Angeles, the series follows 17-year-old Bret Ellis during his final year at elite Buckley prep school, where a mysterious new student joins as a serial killer known as the Trawler begins targeting teenagers across the city.
- Originally developed by HBO, the project moved to FX after budget cuts at Warners in late 2024 forced it into turnaround; Murphy, 60, then acquired the rights in a deal including Ellis' first two scripts.
- On Rotten Tomatoes, critics have awarded the series a 55 percent score, though audience ratings are considerably lower at 35 percent, reflecting mixed reception despite strong platform performance.
- The thriller releases new episodes weekly, with the nine-episode season concluding on September 2, 2026, giving viewers several weeks to follow the unfolding mystery across Los Angeles.
37 Articles
37 Articles
Bret Easton Ellis first explored hot, entitled youth with Less Than Zero—but they forgot to make the movie gay!
Image Credit: ‘Less Than Zero,’ 20th Century Home Entertainment Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, as audiences catch up with The Shards, based on Bret Easton Ellis’s novel, let’s revisit another screen adaptation of the author’s works, 1987’s Less Than Zero. Last week, the long awaited television adaptation of The Shards finally premiered on FX. Produced by Ryan Murphy and based on Bret Easton…
The Independent
The Independent (US)Ryan Murphy reveals one thing Bret Easton Ellis requested for The Shards adaptation
The ‘Glee’ creator was not the first filmmaker to attempt to adapt the 2023 novel
Jordan Roth Reflects on Breakout Role in Ryan Murphy’s “The Shards” and How It All Started with a DM
Set in the glitzy Hollywood Hills of 1981, Bret Easton Ellis‘ semi-autobiographical thriller The Shards has just about everything one would want from a Ryan Murphy series. The acts of violence are mysterious, the teens are poreless, everyone is oversexed. It comes as no surprise then, as Murphy was building his roster of fabulous and [...] The post WATCH: Jordan Roth Reflects on Breakout Role in Ryan Murphy’s “The Shards” and How It All Started …
Ryan Murphy on His Three-Season ‘Shards’ Plan, What Past Seasons Will Pop Up in ‘AHS13’ and His Powerful Connection to Norman Lear
Ryan Murphy knows one thing for certain: 1981 was the year that made him. He was 16, growing up in a Catholic family but getting his first taste of freedom. That included television. It was only a few years earlier that his mother had even let him watch it for the first time, an experience […]
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