It’s an intentionally delicious and messy show, born to be binged, although a lot of the name-dropping – Tallulah Bankhead, Noel Coward -- may float right by some. No matter, its glittery blend of the tacky, corny and controversial, while lacking real weight, is an escapist balm.
As silly as the series’ exaggerated plotting can be—and it definitely takes a bit to tie all its odds and ends together (the components that, in Hollywood’s vernacular, would make it a “message picture”)—everything eventually coalesces during production.
The early episodes of “Hollywood” are an entertaining mix of earnest inclusiveness and dishy wallow in showbiz lore. But, like those Murphy-produced TV series that went on too long, by the end, “Hollywood” is floating on so many alt-history good vibrations that it becomes less of a celebration, and more of a lecture.
A consistently handsome, often moving, frequently sanctimonious erasure of the actual slow nature of Tinseltown progress in favor of something that's more a fairy tale than an alt-history. Much more so than Pose, a fundamentally hopeful show set against the unlikely backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, Hollywood too often comes across as simplistic and naive, though if it causes anyone to research the period depicted, there's value in that.
This is the most disastrous project of his career, a limited series that not only fails dramatically but attempts a degree of social commentary that can only be called insulting.
Some Movies depict reality, others are for nightmares and some are for Dreams.
The Dream of "what if, after the second world war, when America and Hollywood had the chance and power to redefine itself, minorities like black, ****, Asian, female or Jewish would have been able to stand up for themselves" is a tantalizing one.
And the fact that obvious to everyone, it's as far from reality as it can possibly be, might be the biggest criticism of an era at its dawn.
That this criticism appears on Netflix is even more ironic.
I had an amazing time with this show and were blown away by its incredible cast and how it comes together.