Critic Reviews

There were a bunch of lines in the first episode of All’s Fair that we rolled our eyes at, but there were some that made us laugh out loud. Much of that has to do with who’s delivering those lines, but some of that also has to do with the general outlandishness of the show in general. .... The cases themselves are entertaining, and haven’t entered the realm of 9-1-1-level ridiculousness yet.

A show that might look expensive — but is cheap in all the ways that actually matter.

All’s Fair is the most frustrating kind of show in that it has resources most creatives could only ever dream of acquiring and somehow manages to waste every single one (save for maybe its costuming budget, which is by far the best part about it — in the words of Aretha Franklin, “Beautiful gowns”).

All’s Fair is cotton-candy TV: sticky, airy, and, once it’s all gone, both satisfying and nausea inducing.

It's so stilted, artificial and awkward not even a glass of wine and leftover Halloween candy can make it remotely enjoyable to view.

The only reason to keep on watching is the steady clip of guest stars. .... Bring back Ed Gein – a drama about a man who wears his victims’ skin for underwear cannot be half as terrifying as this smorgasbord of schlock.

It takes a special talent to make something so fascinatingly dull, especially with a cast this strong. No words yet invented can fully convey just how much you need to avoid this disastrous show.

These characters are so thin, their storylines so flimsy and their motives so underbaked that there’s no recognizable emotion underlying any of it, and thus no feeling to be provoked by watching it. You might as well be looking at random GIFs from some show you’ve never seen before.

Everyone in “All’s Fair” is a stock caricature from a man’s idea of a woman’s drama. It’s a cavalcade of wigs and screeching in search of truth, but Murphy seems to have lost the magic touch that made his work so appealing for so long. His snark has rotted into contempt, for audience and art alike.

“All’s Fair” is a clumsy, condescending take on rah-rah girlboss feminism, half-baked even by the standards of an overextended Murphy, who co-created the show with Joe Baken and Jon Robin Baitz. .... “All’s Fair” demonstrates such a low opinion of its own viewers, assuming we’ll bark like seals when fed disconnected scraps of sassy one-liners, flashy outfits and men-ain’t-shit commiseration.