"The beauty writer Jessica DeFino refers often to the "mirror world" inside our phone, the uncanny, glistening selfieverse that's also become more real for many of its devotees than the lumpy, blotchy meatspace where the rest of us live. I thought about the mirror world while watching All's Fair, Ryan Murphy's new creative product-I can't call it a television show, because it isn't one."
"Rather, it's Instagram Reels at episode length, 45-minute collections of bedazzled moving images, targeted at the idly scrolling second-screen viewer. Scenes pass quickly, as if to emulate the true feed experience: Here's a private jet, swaddled in ultra-feminine bouclé; here's a ring, its diamond as big as a grape, slipped gently onto a finger with a two-inch acrylic talon; here's lunch, three lavishly adorned bites of salad;"
All's Fair constructs a mirror world of glossy, hyper-curated imagery that often eclipses ordinary reality. The series resembles Instagram Reels with 45-minute episodes composed of rapid, bedazzled visuals aimed at second-screen viewers. Narrative functions mainly as connective tissue for lavish images; scenes begin abruptly and resist conventional plot order. The premise follows three lawyers—Allura Grant, Emerald Greene, and Liberty Ronson—who left a sexist, conservative firm to start a divorce practice; a decade later their firm succeeds and conspicuous luxury saturates the characters' lives. Visual excess and celebrity spectacle dominate the series' tone.
Read at The Atlantic
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