You want to see this new series The Shards by Ryan Murphy
Do you also miss the time when everyone in a series was unrealistically good-looking and filthy rich, and the biggest problems arose between pool parties, secret affairs, and drives in ridiculously expensive cars? Great, because we finally found something for the Gossip Girl-shaped hole in our hearts: The Shards. This new series from Ryan Murphy feels like a dark version of Gossip Girl, but set in 1980s Los Angeles. One is more attractive than the other, the outfits are amazing, and behind every pair of sunglasses seems to hide a terrible secret. Add a serial killer to that and you get exactly the kind of over-the-top dramatic series that we love so much. XOXO, we’re not going anywhere for now.
What is The Shards about?
The Shards is set in 1981 and follows seventeen-year-old Bret, played by Igby Rigney. He lives in Los Angeles, attends an expensive private school, and spends his days with a small group of rich and popular friends. At first glance, his life looks amazing. He drives a black Mercedes, attends parties in large villas, and works on his first novel in the meantime. Bret has a girlfriend, Debbie, but secretly also meets up with boys. Moreover, he is in love with his best friend Susan, played by Kaia Gerber. Quite complicated, and the real drama hasn’t even started yet.
That drama appears in the form of Robert Mallory, a mysterious new student played by Homer Gere. Robert is handsome, charismatic, and quite hard to read. While the rest of the friend group embraces him immediately, Bret doesn’t trust him at all. He becomes increasingly obsessed with Robert and begins to suspect that the newcomer has dark secrets. At the same time, Los Angeles is plagued by the serial killer The Trawler, who targets young people and leaves his victims horrifically mutilated. As stranger things start happening and Robert also gets involved in Bret's secret love life, jealousy, fear, and paranoia completely intertwine. But is Robert really dangerous, or is Bret just making a bigger story out of everything in his head than it actually is? That’s the question that keeps you watching episode after episode.
This is Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, but darker and very much 80s
What The Shards what makes it so enjoyable to watch is the world in which the series is set. This is not the 80s of brightly colored leg warmers and aerobic outfits. Think more along the lines of Gucci loafers, Ralph Lauren shirts, silk blouses, sunglasses, sleek white interiors, and shiny cars. The young people move between expensive restaurants, shopping malls, pool parties, and enormous houses where their parents are conspicuously absent. All of Los Angeles looks as if it has been polished up specifically for a campaign. Everything is beautiful, rich, and perfectly styled, but beneath that nice layer of glamour lie sex, drugs, insecurity, and violence. Just like in Gossip Girl so, only here, alongside an anonymous gossip, there’s also a serial killer on the loose. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, who wove his own high school experience into fiction. Ryan Murphy then created an incredibly stylish thriller that. The Guardian even calls the series his big comeback and praises how beautifully everything is shot, styled, and accompanied by music. We completely agree with that.
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The amazing casting of Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere
And then we have to talk about the casting, because it’s not only very attractive but also quite funny. Kaia Gerber is of course the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, and Homer Gere is the son of Richard Gere. Their parents were once married. Cindy and Richard eventually divorced and later both had children with other partners, but now their children are starring together in a series about rich and stunningly beautiful young people in the 80s. As if the casting director deliberately wanted to add an extra layer of Hollywood history to the story. Kaia plays the popular and perfect Susan, while Homer as the mysterious Robert shakes up the entire friend group. It all just fits together.
The Shards has glamour, secrets, stunning people, and just enough danger to ensure that you don’t only watch for the outfits.
