Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hollywood’ On Netflix, Ryan Murphy And Ian Brennan’s Examination Of The Movie Biz’s Golden Age

What do we know about the Golden Age of Hollywood, right after World War II? Well, we know it was the beginning of the era of massive stars, epic productions, and the years where the studio system was at its strongest. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan are naturals to write about that world, given their love and knowledge of showbiz history. But in Hollywood, they’re looking at fictional characters who’ve made a lot of sacrifices to make it. Read on for more…

HOLLYWOOD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A young man eats popcorn as he watches a newsreel where the narrator says “California! Tinseltown is boomtown!” A black-and-white shot of the HOLLYWOOD sign (which in the ’40s said “HOLLYWOODLAND”) is on the screen.

The Gist: The young man is Jack Castello (David Corenswet), who served in World War II, fighting in Anzio. He and his wife Henrietta (Maude Apatow) have moved to Los Angeles in order for Jack to pursue his dreams of being a movie star. While she works at Schwab’s drug store as a waitress, he goes to the Ace Studios gate every morning to see if he can get work as an extra. When the “old gorgon” who wrangles the extras (Alison Wright) picks people, she never picks Jack. When he asks her one day, she says that he needs training; she just can’t pick him because he has a pretty face.

After Jack and Henrietta are turned down for a mortgage, Jack gets drunk at his local watering hole. An older gentleman named Ernie (Dylan McDermott), who bought him a drink the last time Jack was in the bar, buys him another, and tells Jack that he runs a gas station called the Golden Tip, where he’s looking for pretty faces to fill his crisp white uniforms. Without much choice (he comes home to find the electricity turned off), he ends up accepting the job, only to find out that Ernie’s gas station is just a front for a male brothel. When a customer drives in and says they want to go to “Dreamland”, that’s the signal for the attendant to get in and do whatever needs to be done.

Jack’s reluctant, but when Ernie asks if Jack ever cheated on his wife, Jack remembers the one time he had sex with a woman on leave. “First one’s the hardest, you got that out of the way!” says Ernie. Jack’s first customer is a wealthy woman named Avis (Patti LuPone), who parades him through the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel and tells him that she as an actress during the silent era who looked “too Jewy” to be in talkies. Now she’s a kept woman whose movie executive husband barely touches. She tells Jack that he’s got that “it” factor to be a success.

After that “kind” encounter, Ernie asks Jack to do a quickie in the trailer behind the station. Jack is shocked when he sees it’s a guy (Darren Richardson), who Ernie tells him is Cole Porter. Jack would rather quit than do guys, but when he finds out that he and his wife are having twins, he hatches a plan: He pretends he’s a cop and finds an aspiring screenwriter named Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope) turning tricks at a theater showing gay porn. He threatens to arrest Archie then takes him to Schwab’s to tell him about Ernie’s gas station. The two of them strike a deal and we see a montage of them raking it in, and even bringing in new recruits. Jack’s doing so well that he beds a young casting director, who gets him a speaking part. Yes, things are definitely rolling… until they’re not.

Our Take: I’ve been trained over the past decade-and-a-half to go into any Ryan Murphy-produced show with some skepticism. It feels like no matter what show he and his collaborator Ian Brennan create, you need to make a real effort to cut through the requisite slickness and find the relatable stories and characters underneath. Hollywood‘s first episode really challenges those sleuthing skills, because, while it’s great looking and well-acted, we’re not sure we care all that much about the story underneath the style.

Because the first episode concentrates mostly on Jack, Ernie and Archie, there are a whole slew of characters, played by big names like Darren Criss, Jim Parsons, Queen Latifah and more, whom we haven’t even been introduced to yet. Jack’s story already seemed nice but slight to begin with, and our concern is that it will just get watered down by the introductions of these new characters. At a certain point, how many stories are we going to have to keep up with, and are we going to give a hoot about any of them?

That all being said, when Murphy dials down the stylistic tics and just concentrates on character, his shows can be consistently excellent — the two American Crime Story seasons and Feud attest to that — and he tries to dial it down here, relying on the glam and glitz of post-World War II Hollywood to carry the show’s visual style. And it never hurts when he has his “family players” like McDermott on board, who can hilariously deliver a line about Ernie failing out of the military because “my cock was too big. Twelve inches, soup to nuts. And not floppy, either. I get hard as a fuckin’ rock!”

The idea Murphy and Brennan are getting at is that this version of Hollywood’s golden era will be more inclusive than what actually occurred. Archie will find success as a screenwriter, even though in the real late-’40s Hollywood, being gay and Black would have been two big strikes against him. We’ll see a fictionalized version of Rock Hudson (Jake Picking) that might not have to hide his sexuality like the real one did for decades. Criss’ character is married to a Black woman named Camille (Laura Harrier), and it seems like their marriage is more accepted in the world of Hollywood than it was in the real Hollywood of the time.

That’s a noble thought, and the presence of pros like McDermott, LuPone and the promising Apatow makes Hollywood eminently watchable. We just don’t know if there’s a whole lot underneath the show’s slick surface.

Sex and Skin: Some nudity when we see Jack screwing various young ladies that aren’t Henrietta. We wanted to see some skin when he was with Avis, but our guess is that the very spry LuPone forbid it.

Parting Shot: When a Jane insists on giving Jack a tip, and he reluctantly takes it, that Jane shows her badge and arrests him, just as he gathered enough cash to put a down payment on a house for him and Henrietta.

Sleeper Star: Like we said, we are quickly becoming fans of Maude Apatow, who is mature beyond her years (she was born in 1997, right about the time her father Judd was likely writing the pilot for Freaks and Geeks… which doesn’t make us feel old at all). Henrietta is going to be kept in the dark while Jack earns his living, and we’re interested in seeing how her strong character, who liked working as a waitress to support them as a couple, reacts when she inevitably finds out.

Most Pilot-y Line: In a scene where Archie tries to make his first client, comfortable, Archie comes off as a bit aggressive, maybe even too aggressive. Then again, that could be part of his character. He wants to be a screenwriter, and not just of movies featuring black characters, and he needs to stand out. But the scene felt creepier than it needed to be. Oh, and that uncomfortable man with the helmet hair is Roy Fitzgerald, who will take the screen name Rock Hudson.

Our Call: SKIP IT, but it’s right on the Mendoza line. It feels like this could be one of those Murphy shows that could fly off the cliff into multiple silly plotlines and thinly-drawn characters, or it could become a well-thought out character study and period piece. The first episode, though, is giving us strong feelings that it’s going to be the first thing.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Hollywood On Netflix