Halston Review: All Glitz and Glamour With Little Substance
Ryan Murphy has never been one to produce a bland-looking TV show. From the oftentimes vibrant cinematography to the intricate costumes, Murphy’s projects have a signature style all their own. Halston, Murphy’s latest Netflix outing, definitely ticks off the producer’s standard boxes in that regard.
Halston is a flurry of enviable, time-period-centric outfits and lavish costumes. But is there anything brewing beneath the surface?
The short answer? No.
As is Murphy’s modus operandi, Halston is all glitz and glamour with little substance. That’s not to say that the series doesn’t attempt to peel back the layers of its titular subject matter. However, star Ewan McGregor is doing most of the heavy lifting here.
McGregor, as per his usual, delivers the goods as Halston. He’s sublime. McGregor fully inhabits the character and is nigh on unrecognizable, at least in comparison to his usual roles. There are moments wherein he mines for gold and he almost finds it.
But he’s hampered by a lackluster script.
Halston wants us to fall head over heels for a fashion designer that spends most of his time being an insufferable jerk to everyone around him. While we do get glimpses of his rough childhood and a taste of his abandonment issues, the show doesn’t give us enough reason to truly love him.
Perhaps that’s due in part to an immensely short season. It’s a limited series with only five episodes. Of course, this means that the writers have less time to flesh out a proper story. This also means that more time is spent on plot points and not the characters that catalyze those plot points.
I would have preferred delving deeper into Halston’s fear of losing everyone (including himself) and the impact of his mother’s death over his struggles to launch a perfume line or his refusal to sell jeans. We don’t get enough time with Halston as a person, which hinders our perception of him and isolates us just as much as he’s isolated on the show. Maybe that’s intentional.
Another highlight of Halston is the inimitable Krysta Rodriguez, who utterly transforms into Liza Minnelli. Her rendition of “Say Liza (Liza With a Z)” is to die for. What an impeccable performance of a rather difficult piece. She manages to seamlessly mimic Minnelli’s vocal inflections and sleek dance moves.
Not to mention, Rodriguez’s chemistry with McGregor is sensational. Halston may have been the center of this story, but Minnelli’s role is vital to said story.
Halston‘s cinematography is quite the departure from your typical Ryan Murphy fare. His last show, Ratched, was a vividly, boldly colorful affair, whereas this series embraces muted colors and darker tones.
I like to think that it conveys Halston’s dark mental state and the isolation he creates for himself. That feeling of loneliness that’s pervasive throughout.
Overall, Halston is aesthetically pleasing with knockout performances from Ewan McGregor and Krysta Rodriguez. McGregor tries his best to swim beneath the surface to unearth the famed designer’s inner truth but is hindered by shallow writing.
If fawning over decadent costumes and watching affluent folks party it up at Studio 54 is your thing, then give this series a go.
What did you think of Halston? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Halston is now streaming on Netflix.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Melody McCune
Melody loves TV. Maybe too much. Besides being a Senior Writer for Tell-Tale TV, she's the Managing Editor for Geek Girl Authority, an Independent Contractor for Sideshow Collectibles, and a Senior Writer for Eulalie Magazine. Additionally, she has bylines in Culturess, Widget, and inkMend on Medium. To top it all off, she's a critic for Rotten Tomatoes and CherryPicks.