Kim Kardashian fails California bar exam
Kim Kardashian revealed in an Instagram post that she took the California bar exam in July but didn’t pass, writing, “I’m not a lawyer yet.”
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As I watched Hulu’s new star-studded Ryan Murphy drama “Old’s Fair,” I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
There’s definitely a deeper reason why this series, starring Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, and, yes, Kim Kardashian, was so unfathomably bad. I didn’t understand the meaning of “Fair,” a wealthy fantasy about a talented divorce lawyer in Los Angeles. When an award-winning actress gives a performance that would get her fired from a minor show, when the dialogue is laughably stilted, when the plot is disgustingly boring and stupid, and when it’s all wrapped up in expensive and tasteless fashion, you’d think some kind of sleight of hand was going on. Maybe it was all a dream? Perhaps it was all a prank? Perhaps the reason Kardashian’s character wore visible underwear in court is because the entire series takes place on a distant planet that worships “The Thong Song”?
But that’s not the case. The creators of “The Fair,” both in front of and behind the camera, presented this awful show to the world on Nov. 4 with completely misplaced seriousness. Still, despite an avalanche of negative reviews, viewers flocked to it: The series delivered Hulu’s biggest scripted series premiere in the past three years, garnering 3.2 million views worldwide in its first three days of streaming, according to Deadline.
It’s all good for Kardashian and Murphy and their pals, as they can enjoy viewership numbers from their mansions and post cheeky Instagrams poking fun at the series’ 4% Rotten Tomatoes score. (There are a lot of viewers who actually enjoyed the show, considering Tomato’s much higher and more positive audience rating of 66%.)
After all, do negative reviews matter? Is Kardashian’s star power strong enough to overcome her lack of acting ability on this show? In short, yes, yes.
Let’s start with the critics. Even in the era of woefully mediocre television, it’s rare for a show to inspire such wildly and unanimously negative reviews. Truth be told, I can do my best to keep you away from bad TV shows that I think will waste your precious time. But sometimes it bounces back and ends up encouraging viewers, also known as “hatewatch.” We critics often create a morbid curiosity among the unsuspecting public, inadvertently drawing people into series with flashy lines like “Someone has a vagina of revenge.”
Of course, you can decide what to see and enjoy. Personally, I don’t think “Fair” is so frustratingly bad that it’s not even a fun hate watch, but if you find pure or even mocking joy in the cold, dead stares of the Kardashians and the humiliation of A-list actresses, give it a watch. To borrow a chronic online terminology, I don’t get “fucked up.”
The Kardashian effect also plays a role. Her fans have been bombarded with advertisements for the series across her social media, and have grown accustomed to the deliberate facade the reality star and business mogul puts on around herself. In many ways, the vague unreality of “Fair” is familiar to longtime Kardashian fans. Real people don’t talk and act like the characters on The Fair, even super-successful divorce lawyers don’t have huge mansions, and they don’t dress like third-rate social media influencers in court. But ordinary people don’t act like the Kardashian/Jenner clan on Hulu’s hit reality series “The Kardashians.” Perhaps if your client is a billionaire, there might be a modicum of humor in owning a private jet, causing wanton destruction, and pretending to spew vulgar insults like a middle school boy. Perhaps there is some interest in considering the train wreck of The Fair as a kind of anthropological study of what happens when Hollywood becomes extremely lazy and lethargic.
When Kardashian asked her 354 million Instagram followers, “Did you watch the most critically acclaimed show of the year!?!?!?”, it was both a joke about pot and a challenge. Everyone, if you have the courage, please listen.
“The Fair” director Anthony Hemingway, who has worked with Murphy on acclaimed shows such as “Glee,” “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story,” seems to think critics don’t “get” the show. “You may have certain criticisms, but there are a million other people who love it,” Hemingway told The Hollywood Reporter. “It may be beyond your scope, it may not be something you can connect to. I think that applies to anything you see on screen.”
Looking at the lively performances of actresses like Paulson & Close and Teyana Taylor, who will probably be in the Oscar conversation this year for her role in One Battle After Another, I think it’s a little extravagant to say that “Fair” simply “exceeds my standards.” But he was right, I didn’t connect with it. In fact, I wish I could take back all the time I spent watching this film. After all, time is our most precious resource.
Not everyone in Hollywood can produce prohibitively expensive shows that they promote to their millions of followers on Instagram. So here’s my challenge to you. There are dozens of worthy, transcendent, and profound series that premiered this year that actually add something to our culture. Made with heart and soul by honest artists. They are funny, tender, heartbreaking, tragic, and triumphant. So perhaps for every minute you spend watching “The Fair,” you could try an episode of Netflix’s exquisite military comedy “Boots” or Disney+’s “Star Wars” masterpiece “Andor.” Try HBO Max’s clever, Emmy-winning “The Pitt” or Amazon’s raucous and hilarious “Overcompensating.” Remember what it’s like to find media that doesn’t insult your intelligence, but delights you with wonder and thoughtfulness, and allows you to escape from real life without repeating offensive profanity.
All’s Fair in Love and War and Television Criticism. Like what you like, but don’t forget about other TV shows that might become your next favorite.
