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Netflix’s “Hollywood” First Look

Posted on April 02, 2020

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Oh THANK GOD. Something FABULOUS has arrived on the horizon, darlings. We are SAVED. And if you think we’re being hyperbolic:

A new limited series from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, HOLLYWOOD follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown — no matter the cost. Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day. Provocative and incisive, HOLLYWOOD exposes and examines decades-old power dynamics, and what the entertainment landscape might look like if they had been dismantled. HOLLYWOOD stars David Corenswet as Jack, Darren Criss as Raymond, Jeremy Pope as Archie, Laura Harrier as Camille, Samara Weaving as Claire, Dylan McDermott as Ernie, Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid, Patti LuPone as Avis, Jim Parsons as Henry Willson, Jake Picking as Rock Hudson, Joe Mantello as Dick, and Maude Apatow as Henrietta.

THINK AGAIN, because this sounds pretty great. Ryan Murphy continues to use his gaygaygay sensibilities and love of playing with glamour dolls to turn out exactly the kind of art we want to watch right now: gorgeous, fabulous, and a little thought-provoking:

Director Janet Mock:
With the present so fraught and the future uncertain, we turned to the past for direction, uncovering buried history to spin an aspirational tale of what ifs: What if a band of outsiders were given a chance to tell their own story? What if the person with greenlight power was a woman? The screenwriter a black man? What if the heroine was a woman of color? The matinee idol openly gay? And what if they were all invited into the room where the decisions are made, entering fully and unapologetically themselves to leave victorious and vaunted, their place in history cemented. HOLLYWOOD is a love letter to our little industry town where dreamers dwell, stars are born, and magic transcends reality.

Granted, the concept is one of those risky ventures that could go either way, creatively speaking. Fantasy histories and what-ifs only really work if they have something to say about the actual history they’re actively denying. Murphy’s a master of fantastic concepts, even if the follow-through sometimes leaves something to be desired. In any case, we’ll definitely have more to say about this once it drops, if only for the gorgeous costumes alone: