The other night, Kevin and I were talking about The Shards, which by the way he accidentally referred to as The Sharts — and not 12 hours later, my friend Lauren texted me, “Every time I see a poster for that show, I think it says The Sharts.” Now that’s all I will call it. Anyway, the actual context of the conversation was about the big name showrunners of yore whose boom eras have faded — contrasted with Ryan Murphy, whose work I find to have diminishing returns, and a real undercurrent of cruelty and often misogyny.
Murphy’s production company has churned out 19 shows since 2020, six of which are multi-season or ongoing enterprises like 911 and its ilk, and several of which are under a similar umbrella — American Horror Story, Feud, etc. While he’s not necessarily writing, directing, or creating all of them, there are only three on which he did NONE of those things and merely offered up his production shingle. The man works, and people do talk about his output, even if it’s mostly …