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Sarah Paulson<\/a> appears to be having a blast in Ryan Murphy<\/a>\u2019s new Hulu \u201clegal\u201d drama \u201cAll\u2019s Fair,\u201d and that\u2019s about the only good thing about the show.<\/p>\n The New York Times recently ran a piece extolling it\u2019s reimagining of the power suit<\/a> (down to at least one visible thong) and I suppose that\u2019s one way of avoiding the obvious. Still, I\u2019m going to stick with Paulson\u2019s obvious glee in playing a villain. Her Carrington Lane was left behind to fester in the comic-book sexism of a male-dominated divorce law firm when two of her colleagues stalked away to form an all-female team and Carrington is not one to surrender a grudge.<\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible not to like Paulson and she is clearly enjoying the opportunity to glare and hiss and indulge in the kind of gross but creative profanity Melissa McCarthy likes to unleash when her characters hit the brink.<\/p>\n As for the rest \u2026 well, let\u2019s just say with \u201cAll\u2019s Fair,\u201d American culture is getting exactly what it deserves: A series that wallows in the shiny, knockoff-ready trappings of new money (immaculate and soulless homes, private jets, diamonds the size of a Rubik\u2019s Cube), defines \u201csisterhood\u201d as the belief that any personal crisis can be alleviated by vaginal rejuvenation combined with a girls’ trip to a jewelry auction and gauges power by the ability to plot and take revenge. Preferably in the form of huge amounts of money.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Sarah Paulson has regrets about playing Linda Tripp. But she’s not ready to let her go<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAll\u2019s Fair\u201d may or may not be, as some have said, the worst show of the year (or possibly of all time<\/a>), but with its celebration of the 1%, personal feuds and financial vengeance, it is certainly the first to truly embody the culture of the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n Down to the reality star at its center. \u201cAll\u2019s Fair\u201d gives top billing not to any of the fine and seasoned actors that star \u2014 Paulson, Niecy Nash<\/a>, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close \u2014 but to Kim Kardashian, who plays Allura Grant, head of the law firm Grant, Ronson and Greene.<\/p>\n That Kardashian (and Kris Jenner, who serves as a producer) were able to summon such forces of the galaxy to showcase her, shall we say, limited <\/i>thespian abilities could be justifiably viewed as yet another \u201cyou go girl\u201d testament to her seemingly limitless business acumen.<\/p>\n On the other hand, “All’s Fair” makes the dismal final season of “And Just Like That”<\/a> look like Chekhov.<\/p>\n Murphy, and the forces at Disney, which owns Hulu, the home of “The Kardashians,” understand Kardashian’s cult-like following and are operating under the assumption that viewers will be so entranced by her and the fashions (which include an alarming amount of hats, capes and gloves) that they won\u2019t notice that the main player is relying on her eyelash extensions to do her acting for her.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Kim Kardashian celebrates a major step in her legal journey. Next up? Passing the bar<\/a><\/p>\n To be fair to Kardashian, few nonprofessional actors would shine beside scene partners like Close, Watts and Nash, and the writing of the series, which flirts with camp but never fully commits, does no one any favors.<\/p>\n Not since “Charlie’s Angels” has there been a “feminist fantasy” with such a male gaze. (Apologies to “Charlie’s Angels,” which was in many ways a groundbreaking show.)<\/p>\n After suffering on the sidelines of a mostly male law firm, Allura and Liberty Ronson (Watts) decide to branch out on their own. They do so with the blessing of Dina Standish (Close), that firm\u2019s only female partner, and take with them ace investigator Emerald Greene (Nash). When we meet them again, 10 years later, Allura also has an assistant\/mentee in Milan (Teyana Taylor), who later provides a predictable plot twist.<\/p>\n The names alone suggest a level of parody, and, in the first episode, a send-up quality flits in and out of the proceedings, but the show chooses cynicism over satire every time.<\/p>\n Instead of sexist jokes, the partners of Grant, Ronson and Greene spend much of their time discussing how awful men are, with the possible exception of Liberty\u2019s beau, Reggie (\u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019s\u201d O-T Fagbenle), and Standish\u2019s ailing husband, Doug (Ed O\u2019Neill).<\/p>\n That is, after all, the raison d’etre<\/i> of the firm: Grant, Ronson and Greene are intent on protecting rich women from the perils of the prenup and generally making the bastards pay, sometimes through their \u201csuperior\u201d knowledge of the law (in one storyline, this involves explaining that gifts are the sole property of the recipient, which even I knew), but more often blackmail (if you have chosen to live your life without ever seeing a butt plug the size of a traffic cone, keep your eyes shut when Emerald starts her slideshow).<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Ryan Murphy: Television’s queer kingmaker<\/a><\/p>\n A brief, and seemingly contractually required, mention of the firm raising money to help the underprivileged is laughable \u2014 \u201cAll\u2019s Fair\u201d is 100% apr<\/i>\u00e8<\/i>s-moi <\/i>television, in which extreme wealth is presented as too normal to even be aspirational, and any work not done by Emerald consists of sashaying in super slick shades from one successful throwdown to the next. With brief interludes in sumptuous cars and, as previously mentioned, overbidding on hideous brooches at a high-end jewelry auction (held by a firm client, which honestly seems potentially unethical, but whatevs).<\/p>\n If the dialogue were sharp, funny or even self-aware, Murphy and his team might get away with it, but it\u2019s not \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s a shame your mother didn\u2019t swallow,\u201d Dina tells Carrington in what passes as proof that women can be as tough as men. Or that older women can talk trash. Or that Close will do her best to give a decent reading of any line. Or something.<\/p>\n There are brief nods to the women\u2019s personal lives \u2014 as a divorce lawyer, Liberty is reluctant to marry Reggie, Dina is struggling with Doug\u2019s decline, Emerald is a super-single mom \u2014 but it all feels very box-ticky. Including Allura\u2019s disintegrating marriage, which becomes a major plot point as the gals gather round to make that bastard pay as well, and her realization that if she wants to become a mother, she\u2019s running out of time.<\/p>\n In many ways, \u201cAll\u2019s Fair\u201d is an American version of the excellent British series \u201cThe Split,\u201d<\/a> which follows a matriarchal family of female divorce lawyers. Early on, one of the daughters (played by Nicola Walker) leaves the family firm and, in her own way, attempts to right the wrongs often done to women facing divorce from rich and powerful men while dealing with her own marital breakdown and a family with actual children.<\/p>\n But \u201cAmerican version\u201d doesn\u2019t really cut it. This is Trump\u2019s-America version, in which ethics, morals and virtually all human feeling are secondary to winning, and winning is defined by who ends up making their opponent pay.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> She’s ‘Black, fabulous and on TV.’ Niecy Nash-Betts is living her full self<\/a><\/p>\n Between Kardashian’s conspicuous nonacting and dialogue that often seems lifted from the all-caps regions of X, “All’s Fair” has, not surprisingly, received a critical drubbing. Which seems almost intentional.<\/p>\n Critics, after all, have long been routinely, and often viciously, disparaged (after the reviews were in, Close felt moved to post a sketch of the cast gathered around a \u201cFatal Attraction\u201d-like “critic bunny stew”). More important, reviews, bad or good, do not (nor should they) predict audience reaction (see early theater reviews of \u201cWicked\u201d). As Trump has proved again and again, bad press is still press and the worse it is, the more easily it can be cast as proof that the cultural elites (i.e. critics) are out to get … somebody.<\/p>\n So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that, despite a 5% score on Rotten Tomatoes, “All’s Fair” was Hulu’s most successful scripted series premiere in three years.<\/p>\n Reading the zeitgeist, the creators of “All’s Fair” were clearly not looking for raves or awards, just viewers. In this American moment, bad is good and shrewd operators know that if you throw in enough high-profile ingredients \u2014 Kardashian, Murphy, a bevy of fine actors \u2014 you needn\u2019t take the trouble to ensure the mix will rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n As the president builds a ballroom while food banks are overrun, why wouldn’t TV audiences want to feast on fallen cake?<\/p>\n