Variety TV critic Alison Herman has reviewed FX's new series "The Shards," an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel co-created by Ellis and Ryan Murphy, concluding that despite a strong central performance the show ultimately fails to work. The review argues that while the source material's meticulous, brand-obsessed prose gives the production a ready-made visual and atmospheric template for its 1980s Los Angeles setting, the adaptation loses its footing once it departs from the book and starts making its own bold narrative choices.

Herman praises Igby Rigney's performance as the young Bret, a semi-autobiographical, unreliable narrator, saying he convincingly captures the character's contradictions, including his aloof, guarded manner and closeted sexuality alongside his underlying youthful naivety. The story blends Ellis' own prep-school and early-writing experiences with a lurid subplot about a serial killer known as "the Trawler" targeting his classmates, but the review suggests the series leans too heavily into that violent thread at the expense of coherence, with the show fracturing into disjointed "shards" rather than sustaining the atmosphere it initially builds.