An addictive stylish new thriller show is coming to streaming this week

The series is from the creator of Netflix's Monster and The Watcher.

Their seemingly idyllic community is rocked by a string of grotesque murders, killings which coincide with the arrival of an enigmatic new student at their school named Robert (Homer Gere, Euphoria). As Robert ingratiates himself with Bret’s friend group, the aspiring novelist tries to prove that the interloper is responsible for the shocking crimes.

The Shards Review

Co-created by Ellis and Murphy, the pair make for a great fit. Murphy's trademark flashy style (full of beautiful people, lavish costumes and settings, and countless pop needle drops) is deployed to capture '80s LA, or at least create a stylised version of the time and place, where darkness lurks just underneath the picturesque surface.

This approach is a perfect match for the story, which is narrated by an older, rueful Bret (a fictionalised version of the author). This is as he looks back on the summer when his innocence was lost and "everything changed".

The result is a show that is highly compelling both as a coming-of-age drama and a haunting mystery, similar to Euphoria, but with a killer on the loose and a soundtrack full of banging tunes.

The cast - which also includes Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld), Jordan Roth (Smash), and Wes Bentley (American Beauty) - is terrific across the board.

There has been a pattern of Ryan Murphy shows starting strong but fizzling out over the course of their seasons (American Horror Story, Grotesquerie, The Watcher). On this, we can say that we've seen all nine episodes of The Shards. While we have some issues with how the story plays out, we were hooked right up to the very end.

The Shards Interview

JOE spoke to Graham Campbell (Late Fame) and Kaia Gerber (Bottoms, Saturday Night), who play Thom and Susan, a couple who are best friends with Bret in The Shards.

The pair's relationship seems perfect at first, though cracks start to appear in this facade throughout the series, exacerbated by the mysterious Robert.

Graham Campbell, Kaia Gerber, and Homer Gere in The Shards

Given that Gerber is a noted fan of Ellis' writing and a frequent collaborator with Murphy, we asked what she thinks makes the two such a good fit as collaborators.

She told us: "I love Bret Easton Ellis. I've read all of his work, including The Shards as soon as it came out… In a lot of ways, and Ryan said this… he sees a lot of himself in this story. And it's very personal to him.

"Also, Ryan's specificity and his aesthetic are so wonderful... I think Ryan really allows his actors to go to extremes, and that's such a fun place to act from and to perform from and creates such a safe environment.

"So, we're really allowed to dive into some of the darker stuff that Bret created in the book and also in our show."

Speaking at a recent premiere for The Shards, Campbell said about the show's period detail: “I don’t think there was a cigarette or a soda can that didn’t go through the Ryan Murphy approval process”

As such, we asked Campbell and Gerber if they did similar research to get into the headspace of an '80s teen.

The young leads of The Shards

"Oh yeah, I mean, there's so many cultural references from the 1980s that I feel like are still very much a part of the American zeitgeist," Campbell noted. "So it was really, really easy to immerse yourself in that world.

"Shout out to my mom... around [the time] we were first shooting, she got me six different magazine issues from the fall of 1981.

"So, I got to sit and pore through all of the advertisements for films, and the models of the era, and the alcohol and the cigarettes and the cars and the clothes and all this stuff. It was like an over oversaturation of the 1980s."

Campbell and Gerber also started an '80s-themed "unofficial movie club".

On this, Gerber adds: "If we felt like there was a film from the 80s that would be a good reference for whatever scene we were filming the next day, we would watch it the night before and get inspired.

"Ryan also thankfully is so specific about his references... He would give us really great films, and we would go home and do our homework."

We asked if the pair had any recommendations for viewers who enjoy The Shards so much that they want to check out some of the movies that inspired the show.

"You know what I watched, which I had never seen before, was kind of the original Brat Pack flick, St Elmo's Fire," Campbell said.

"I really, really got into that because, I think it was a little bit later than our series takes place, but it was kind of as 80s as you could possibly get.

"Rob Lowe carrying around a saxophone like it's normal."

Gerber joked: "But when Rob Lowe does it, it is normal," to which Campbell replied: "It's at the very least attractive. I don't know about normal."

Kaia Gerber as Susan

The pair also shouted out Dirty Dancing, with Campbell admitting: "We stole some choreography from that for one of our scenes."

Gerber added: "Body Double was another one. There's a lot of Brian De Palma references. Such a great film. I'd never seen that.

"Carrie, The Shining, very important to watch as a companion," while Campbell also recommended The Breakfast Club and American Gigolo.

JOE told the pair that the series reminded us of the '80s-set 1997 movie Boogie Nights, to which Campbell replied: "We love Boogie Nights! There's a lot of Boogie Nights in this."

The daughter of legendary model Cindy Crawford, Gerber also said: "It didn't feel like homework because… these are actually all my favourite films."

When Campbell noted: "I think our generation was really, really raised on cinema from the 80s, so it was pretty easy to go back," Gerber added: "Because those are the films that your parents are showing you, because those are the ones they grew up on. So, it was really fun."

How to watch The Shards

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The first two episodes of The Shards will be released on Disney+ on Thursday, 6 August. The rest of the nine-episode season will land on the service weekly.