The Shards is a hetero adaptation of a queer novel

Ryan Murphy’s sanitized TV adaptation

Whatever you think of Ryan Murphy’s writing, he should at least be commended for giving roles to older actresses. Do I wish that Angela Bassett, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, etc. had more people knocking down their doors? Absolutely. But sometimes, when I want to see some of my fave actresses in something new, the only person providing is Murphy. Ironically, this is one of the reasons Murphy was absolutely the wrong person to adapt The Shards. He cares about women too much.

Bret Easton Ellis does not care about women.

This isn’t an accusation of misogyny. Well, not really. Ellis’ books are highly misogynistic, but I won’t use that as an indictment of him as a person. Let’s talk about the text. Ellis’ books have toxic attitudes toward women because his books usually depict the POVs of extremely toxic men or the toxic environments they live in. The Shards is narrated by a closeted Bret who uses his girlfriend Debbie as a beard while moralizing about her hyperactive sex drive. This is juxtaposed with his obsessions with the men in his life, the brutal murders of his high school classmates, and Robert Mallory as the pinnacle of male hotness while also being a headcase. Men on the verge of a nervous breakdown are the point of The Shards.

By contrast, Murphy’s version of The Shards is focused on moving characters around like Barbie dolls. The women, strongly written female characters as some would tell you, are concerned about cocaine, graduation, winning dance competitions, and because the penultimate two-part episode is titled “Homecoming,” they now care about becoming Homecoming Queen! As I said in a previous review of this adaptation, when you have the time to finish the entire product before it airs, some cohesion in the series would be nice. And yet, this once again feels like a random episode of Glee where everyone suddenly cares about Homecoming! Which isn’t to say that Homecoming isn’t important — I was on Homecoming court myself sophomore year of high school — but you don’t start campaigning for the crown the fucking day before voting!

By adding scenes where Debbie and Susan help Rhonda campaign for Homecoming Queen, the show continues hammering nails in the coffin of any relation to the novel. Do any of these girls care that a serial killer is murdering their classmates? Do they care that Rhonda was kidnapped and held hostage by the Trawler? Introducing Rhonda into the series was one thing, but then refusing to do anything with her as a character is a higher crime. Ivy Wolk is actually quite good as Rhonda, but she’s given very little to work with. There’s no attempt to tie Homecoming to Bret’s neuroses and the overall arc of the season. Involving the closeted narrator in this storyline would’ve made sense. One of the boys he’s been fucking (Ryan) is on the Homecoming court, along with the boy he’s obsessed with (Robert), and the best friend he’s maybe in love with (Thom). But Murphy (a gay man btw!!) has abandoned all of the queerness of Ellis’ novel. You’d never even know Bret was supposed to be gay without actor Igby Rigney swishing his hips in every scene like he’s doing the Jailhouse Rock.

Instead, the series is focused on the women and not the men. Which is great for an ensemble show, but makes no fucking sense for Bret’s narrative. Ellis has always infused his characters with a dash of misogyny and a quagmire of queer identity. Back in 1990, he came under the ire of Gloria Steinem and the National Organization of Women for American Psycho¹. Tammy Bruce, a coordinator of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, created a hotline (how ‘90s!) so people could listen to an excerpt of American Psycho and see how misogynistic the book was. Bruce called the novel “the most misogynistic communication we have ever come across. The book is…in effect, a how-to novel on the torture and dismemberment of women.”

At the time, many people with only a passing knowledge of Ellis assumed he was straight. And they hadn’t read the book, so they didn’t know that it was a satire and that Patrick Bateman is a faggot! As I said, I won’t hypothesize about Ellis as a person, but you can point to American Psycho and The Shards, where spoiler alert: Bret is most likely the Trawler, and conclude that he thinks being closeted and conforming to society can turn you into a serial killer.

Which is to say, the gay shit in The Shards is the fucking point of the novel. Without it, you’re not watching an adaptation of Ellis’ novel. You’re just watching… well, Ryan Murphy’s The Shards.

1. Ironically, Steinem is Christian Bale’s stepmother. Bale would become the lead in the film version of American Psycho the same year Steinem married his father.