Excellent read about a TV show called All’s Fair from Lucy Mangan. I didn’t know 0 stars was possible.
So there still can be bad reviews …
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Scripted by a toddler who couldn’t write ‘bum’ on a wall, according to The Times.
I wonder how the producers, crew and cast felt while making it? They must have known it was honking all over the place. I guess they kept going in the belief that a big enough celebrity will sell anything.
You would think something like this would never have made it past the pre-script treatment/outline stage, but no.
It seems likely that a project’s actual level of awfulness only becomes truly apparent when the cameras start rolling. Those making the thing will simply grin and bear it while waiting for their salary cheque and their next project.
The golden rule William Goldman came up with in Adventures in the Screen Trade sums up how and why duds like this ever reach the screen:
“Nobody knows anything”
Given the success the producer Ryan Murphy has had over the years it’s likely that there’s simply no-one in a position willing or able to say ‘no’ to him anymore. And that includes himself.
Agreed. Some of his more recent shows have been awful
Rotten Tomatoes has now added to the All’s Fair pile on with
a 0% rating
Isn’t there that story that Hugh Padgham was producing Macca’s ‘Play’ and offered an opinion that might not have been 100% in line with his guvnor’s ideas of how things should sound, whereupon the NMLNH turned to him ‘when’s the last time you had a Number 1 single, Hugh?’
A similar dynamic here, I should think.
That would be Press
The other side of that is the story about Dylan at the time of Under The Red Sky. Someone asked “Do you ever wish someone would have the guts to say, actually, Bob, this is a bit shit?” And he replied, “Oh, people tell me that all the time…”
“…mainly the rest of the Wilburys…”
The trouble is, I may have to give it a watch now I have read that review.
It will probably do quite well, as it seems quite well suited for the modern tv genre of “Hatewatching”.
Meghan Markle’s series on Netflix received extraordinarily terrible reviews across the board. Everyone hated it. Even the Economist waded in. People ended up watching it to see just how bad it was. Those people included Mrs Hawkfall and myself, who watched some episodes. It really was terrible. It’s just started its second season.
The two series were apparently filmed back to back and the second
Eight episodes were dumped in NF’s new arrivals section with minimal
Fanfare back in August.
IIRC, the head guy at NF went on to denounce them as “grifters”
I do love that, given a big enough platform, there is still room for the joy in reading about disaster, sparing no punches. I enjoy Lucy Mangan’s writing, but she occasionally goes too far the other way, as in he overly exuberant 5 stars for the new Mick Herron adaptation, Down Cemetery Road, which isn’t really as good as she makes out at all. Emma Thompson tries hard to be edgy and spiky but too hard, and is ultimately just trying.
I seem to remember that one of the ideas behind the late, lamented Word was that they would only write about things that they liked or found interesting. That was refreshing but of course meant that the one thing they didn’t provide was the pleasure of reading someone giving something a good shoeing.
And, frankly, CW Stoneking was there all the time…
And Seasick Steve.
Useless fact.
SS’s real name is Mal Demer
Feel exactly the same about Mangan – always enjoyable to read but she is often way too generous – Netflix’s ludicrous The Hostage was another she praised to the hilt. So All’s Fair must be really bad.
Just a one second glance at the headline and I would have given it the swerve.
The name KK is an imprimatur of awfulness on its own.
She apparently filmed this while studying to qualify as a lawyer
They’re all piling in now. The Guardian has a follow-up article with this brilliant observation: Kim Kardashian’s central performance is so relentlessly listless and monotone ‘that it just sort of sits there like a fart cloud at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.’ Classic.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/06/kim-kardashian-alls-fair-show
“It’s so awful it feels contemptuous. I looked for Julian Fellowes’ name in the credits”. Made me chuckle.
Back in the 90s, they made a diabolical film version of Lost in Space. To award it ‘no stars’ is an act of Santa Clausian generosity. It has to be seen to be reviled: by some measure, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen on a big screen, and I’ve watched Madonna act.
Gary Oldman and William Hurt – plus Joey from Friends – waste their collective perspiration on this absolute bin juice of a movie. I’ve never walked out of a film, but I was sorely tempted here. Had I not been with friends (not Joey), I’d not only have walked out, I’d have started a pretty aggressive leaflet campaign.
I flew to New York the next year. As an uneasy flyer, I joked with my then-girlfriend that I’d watch any in-flight movie other than Lost in Space…I think you can guess what the in-flight movie was.
Please watch this film. Any sibling you’ve fallen out with; any lover to whom you bear a grudge…all will fade with the tumbling seasons in comparison to this utter celluloid groin strain.