An American dramatic series from Netlfix that follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers. After the World War II, they seek to create documentaries about it. Also, they want it to be great, no matter the cost.
Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan's desire to have "the good guys" win in this fictionalized Hollywood is so at odds with what really happened that it goes beyond fantasy and fairy tale into fever dream.
In essence, Hollywood sees Murphy dramatizing the progress that he played a part in catalyzing today, but imagining if it had come at a different turning point in cinema history-70 years ago.
Among the strengths of the project, the performances and entire production are at the top. The level of detail is impeccable. Every aspect of that era is fantastically recreated. [Full review in Spanish]
Rather than look back in anger, as Murphy did brilliantly in his "American Crime Story" seasons on O.J. Simpson and on Andrew Cunanan, he chooses to use "Hollywood" to deliver a sense of denial... Ultimately, it's not healing so much as disturbing.
As you enter your own special "Dreamland," where for seven, too-short episodes you're presented with not just the make-believe we love so much, but a verisimilitude and an intimacy lending power to a story unafraid to color outside the lines.
You can see the cast are enjoying every single second on screen as the team rewrite history to a 21st century narrative, which is definitely a little confusing at times and sometimes a bit too sickly sweet to come off well.
All its good intentions add up to a show as interested in moving Hollywood forward as it is patting itself on the back for the progress that's already been made.
The exact degree of ironic self-awareness here is hard to reckon, but "Hollywood," for all its exaggerations, feels sincere... Yet it's this very sincerity, even generosity - its best features, really - that keep the series from being lifelike.
Obviously well intentioned but the dramatization is stiff and not seamlessly fused into the narrative. Is it a TV show or a Wikipedia page re-enactment?
With its turn in favor of a happy-ending vibe, "Hollywood" ultimately takes its cues from optimistic films of the era rather than the morally conflicted muddle we so often see in series today.
It just feels like [Murphy] got caught up in his own vision here, seduced by the lights of Hollywood into creating something with no consistent tone or vision.
