It’s pretty rare for a movie or TV show to land a coveted, perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. This happens so infrequently that it becomes news any time it does occur. Just last week came the news that the graphic novel adaptation 100 Nights of Hero had reached a 100% rating on the critic aggregator. On top of that, Apple TV also premiered its new TV series Pluribus, the sci-fi epic from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, which has arrived as one of the best-reviewed TV shows of the year, sitting at 100% approval with 66 total reviews. All this praise leads us to the other end of the spectrum.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Not every TV show can get a 100% rating; it’s rare for a reason, but perhaps even more rare than universal praise is near ubiquitous disdain, and Ryan Murphy‘s news TV series All’s Fair premiered to some of the worst reviews of the year. As of this writing, with 22 total reviews, All’s Fair is now sitting at a single digit of approval, a 5% rating, and the dreaded green splat indicating the series is rotten. Despite the derision from critics who saw the series, All’s Fair has launched to become a streaming hit.
All’s Fair on Disney+/Hulu Becomes a Hit Despite Dreadful Reviews
On paper, All’s Fair seems like a TV series idea that could work and find an audience (and it may still). The series follows a team of female divorce attorneys who band together to start their own practice, with the official description reading: “Fierce, brilliant and emotionally complicated, they navigate high-stakes breakups, scandalous secrets and shifting allegiances—both in the courtroom and within their own ranks. In a world where money talks and love is a battleground, these women don’t just play the game—they change it.” The appeal for the series becomes even more clear when looking at the cast, which stars Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts, Emmy-winner Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, Kim Kardashian, Emmy-winner Sarah Paulson, and Oscar-nominee Glenn Close.
As noted, All’s Fair has one of the worst scores of a TV series released this year and the reviews are scathing. TheWrap said that Ryan Murphy’s “snark has rotted into contempt, for audience and art alike,” while Consequence says that All’s Fair is like a “peek into an alternate universe occupied by creatures who might look vaguely human but do not speak or act as you and I do.” Vulture wrote that the series is “girlboss nonsense” and “cotton-candy TV” that’s “sticky, airy, and, once it’s all gone, both satisfying and nausea inducing.” Finally, critic EJ Moreno calls it “one of the worst shows of the year.”
It’s not all bad, though; there is, of course, the one positive review. Decider earns the distinction of being the only outlet to give All’s Fair at least some praise, writing that the series is “over the top and campy as hell, but it also knows it’s both of these things, which is why the show and the cases the firm deals with are going to be fun to watch.”
Despite all these reviews, All’s Fair has premiered to big viewership. According to Flix Patrol, the series premiered as the #1 streaming show on Hulu in the United States, a distinction it carried for a few days (though it now sits at #5). Globally, however, All’s Fair appears to be a big hit. Internationally, the series is streaming on Disney+ and has a global average ranking of #2, and sits only behind the Fortnite x The Simpsons shorts on the TV charts. That said, those two shorts are only 11 minutes in total, meaning they’re much less of a time commitment for hte audience. As a result, All’s Fair’s viewership may be even higher than expected if the audience is sticking around to watch all three episodes that premiered.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of 2th Century Studios -
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
