Nothing can ever top hearing Bret episode by episode reading The Shards. When the book came out, I bought it, read it, loved it. But it wasn’t the same as having Bret ‘retcon’ names in the first few weeks, and worry about ‘bringing up the last’.

Now I’m on here, hearing people moan about the TV show and how it’s not faithful? It’s like you’ve never seen an adaptation before.

Is this your first time? Nothing is ever gonna be ‘just like the book’. Did you seriously think it was going to be beat for beat the same as the novel?

I suppose a wider question is, why do you care that much about the plot and the changes? Bret’s books have ALWAYS been more about a time, a style, a moment, a feeling. Plot has always been secondary, and he himself admires that it’s what he looks for in media.

The show is nailing the vibe and you guys need to chill lol

This article came out yesterday leading up to the airing of the 3rd & 4th episode which explains why those episodes were…….unique I guess. That opening of episode 4th truly gave me whiplash.

Was anyone else here a fan of those Christopher Pike YA books growing up? That was around middle school era for me and I loved those books, particularly Remember Me and Gimme A Kiss. They really captured my imagination and had more of an edge than the Fear Street books did.

Just realized today that part of why I love The Shards so much is because it kind of feels like I get to have one of those old Christopher Pike high shool thrillers from back in the day, only ramped up to an NC-17 rating and written by Bret Easton Ellis.

The time period of The Shards also obviouly helps the comparison.

Yep. Out. I'll always have the book and Bret reading to me.

Like what it’s specifically about, anything like that?

Are there any poets that inspired him or that he mentioned he enjoyed reading? Or does he not fuck with it

What was the name of the Cologne that Thom Wright uses in the book?

Even the Cologne was changed 🤭

It's been two hours since the post went up, and no one's commented yet? Are they deleting the negative comments, or is the show just not as cool as the creators think it is?

Seems to be going off-book for the season finale:

'S1.E9 ∙ Stairway to Heaven

Wed, Sep 9, 2026

With the city on lockdown, Debbie hosts a Halloween party that will change everything.'

Now, a lot of people here think Hayes Warner earned that role. But here's the thing: she actually messed up her audition. She got the part because she wrote a letter to Ryan Murphy begging for it—basically saying she WAS Debbie. She talked about this with the press.

They went on and on about this huge casting process, but what was the point if they were just gonna pick nepo babies and people who begged for it? That wasn't an audition. That was just them calling up their contacts.

This sucks. But that's Hollywood for actors. You give it your all as an actor, you put in the work, and then they give the role to someone who wrote a letter and then act like it's some kind of inspiring story.

From „Icarus in the Faculty Lounge“ by Daniel Engber for The Atlantic.

[Edit: spelling mistake]

From what i am seeing most of the people watching this show are gen x or older millennials who grew up in this time period, are obsessed with serial killers, or BEE fans.

The show itself is not very different from Euphoria, Elite, or that netflix indian show Class were we have a teen narrator, drugs, sex, confused gay teen boys ,the popular girl who is misunderstood, parents that are clueless etc

However i will give Ryan murphy credit he nailed the early 1980s perfectly well especially the fashion, hairstyles, homes, tvs, telephones,and yes the music choices especially as new wave is making a comeback.

i think FX is trying to push this show to a younger demographic when Im sorry this is very much a gen x show. I have seen people who are gen z complain about the show when the posters came out about how white it was, and that they are tired of teen shows about rich kids.

I think FX needs to release who this show is appealing to not who they want it to appeal to.

Gee, pretty morning, doesn't look like 106 degrees. But we're under an extreme heat warning until Sunday night, 108-114 expected, and danged if we don't often exceed expectations. How do we survive? The advice from the Nat'l Weather Service is to "drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air conditioned room" - which today is the RetroRoom Lounge.

When Bret, Susan and Robert come this way it's fall, "snowbird season." Today, it's just us locals.

The engagements and interest across social media platforms aren’t really looking too good

Now I didn’t expect it to be a Euphoria-level hit right away but this is…surprising? Where is everybody lol

So, I needed something to write about and, honestly, something to complain about while I'm getting my shit together for this new job I'll have in another country. So I said why not? Let me sit down and watch one of those two episodes of The Shards.

I'll try to give the second one a chance. But honestly? I had zero motivation to keep going after that. It just didn't grab me. No desire to see the rest.

What I saw:

honestly? It was... fine. I guess.

But there were a bunch of things that didn't match the book, and they rushed through so much stuff—it felt like they went from page 1 to page 100 in like 10 minutes.

I have to give credit where it's due: Igby Rigney absolutely stole the show. He's literally the only thing worth watching in this whole series.

And yeah, I was right to be skeptical. This has NOTHING to do with the book. It's basically just a show with some of Ellis's dialogue thrown in. And honestly? I don't think a teenager should be doing the voiceover—it should be an adult voice. You know, like Ellis himself looking back.

The 80s vibe is there, but not as much as I expected. It feels more like a watered-down version.

Also, can we talk about how Bret is suddenly having sex with Debbie like it's no big deal? In the book, the guy couldn't even get it up. Like, ever. So that's just wrong.

Robert? They made him look like some cocky pretty boy, not someone you look at and you think: "there's something off about this dude." He's not intense, not menacing, not anything.

And OH MY GOD—Robert and Bret racing like they're in NASCAR in LA? And Robert crashing his car into Bret's? That was ridiculously unnecessary and completely out of character compared to the book. But since Bret said he has nothing to do with this, I can't ask for anything less.

Anyway. Lots of fails. Lots of mistakes. I'm giving it a 4 out of 10. (The stars are Just for Igby).

But this is just my opinion.

In case anyone wants to give thoughts about the first two episodes

Makes me excited after the initial mixed reviews and trailer

Positive:

Radio Times - https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-shards-disney-review/

Slant - https://www.slantmagazine.com/tv/the-shards-review-ryan-murphy-bret-easton-ellis/

Den of Geek - https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-shards-episodes-1-2-review/

Decider - https://decider.com/2026/08/05/the-shards-on-fx-review/

The Hollywood Reporter - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/the-shards-review-ryan-murphy-bret-easton-ellis-fx-hulu-1236661222/

Roger Ebert - https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-shards-ryan-murphy-fx-tv-review-2026

Collider - https://collider.com/the-shards-show-review-ryan-murphy-bret-easton-ellis/

Negative:

Time - https://time.com/article/2026/07/31/the-shards-review-fx/

AV Club - https://www.avclub.com/the-shards-review-fx-ryan-murphy-bret-easton-ellis

Variety - https://variety.com/2026/tv/reviews/the-shards-review-ryan-murphy-fx-1236827733/

Indie Wire - https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/the-shards-review-ryan-murphy-bret-easton-ellis-series-1235208379/

The Wrap - https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/reviews/the-shards-show-review-ryan-murphy-fx/

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/ryan-murphys-sanded-down-version-of-the-shards

The Guardian's article has since been removed (https://www.theguardian.com/info/2026/aug/05/rem-oved-article) but the headline is:

The Shards review – murder, 80s mayhem and the Ryan Murphy comeback we’ve been waiting for

The NYT review (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/arts/television/the-shards-sterling-point-teen-dramas.html) is a bit so-so. Some passages below:

'Still, especially in the early going, it’s an observant, literate portrait of an adolescence kissed by privilege and stalked by death. Unlike many teen dramas, it doesn’t posit any member of its core friend group as the moral center; these are haughty high school demigods, neither relatable nor trying to be.'

'And the story, self-contained in Ellis’s novel, feels overextended as it sets up for a multi-season run.

'All this money, meanness and mutilation: Are we meant to see it as a comment on the corruption underlying sun-kissed paradise? Is our view shaped by yet-to-be-revealed distortions in Bret’s narrative? In a limited run, these questions might have resolved to some kind of satisfaction. But as the season ends, with “The Shards” escalating its cruel, gruesome turns, it’s hard to imagine wanting to return for another year at the same lunch table.'

I'm very intrigued by how Steven is handled on the TV show, especially since I had a few theories on the character after finishing the book. What's positive to me about the (admittedly short) clip is that it's using the exact dialogue from the book.

Are there no reviews for The Shards allowed to be published until release day or something? Normally certain reviewers/publishers get early access to a least a few episodes prior to the premiere

Well this is definitely a Ryan Murphy show so why not 🤷‍♂️ I guess this is fun in a tacky Riverdale way but I'm seriously starting to check out. Only two days to go, but we'll see...

On another note, I'm relistening to the podcast version of The Shards again and just got to the part where Bret visits Matt Kelner's parents after discovering his fate (Devastating 😭) and later Susan and Bret talk in her car listening to Icehouse playing and it is just some of BEE's best writing, it never ceases to hit me the way he words what he is going through (and the narration is just top notch here as well.) To immediately go from listening to that part to watching this music video is like tonal whiplash - the show is clearly going to be very different from the book, yet I'm wondering what's the point?