There are series that are bad, and then there are All those required by law (All's fair), on Disney+. A melodrama about lawyers so grotesque that it grabs your attention in the opening scenes. Then it leaves you indifferent. It's a new production by Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee, American Horror Story...), which takes its brand to the extreme, to the point of excess. Kim Kardashian's involvement as an executive producer, in addition to being one of the lead actresses, may be related to this vulgar excess. The series features stars like Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Teyana Taylor, and Sarah Paulson, which might be misleading when considering the show, but the only thing that justifies their presence in this overblown drama is that they were paid an obscene amount of money and deemed it worthwhile.
The story is as simplistic as it is saturated with bad taste. A group of female lawyers working at a powerful Los Angeles firm led by chauvinistic and diabolical men decide to break away and start their own divorce practice. These lawyers will reclaim their power, fiercely defending their clients and fighting for justice against a toxic masculinity that tries to belittle them. But the firm's split will lead to a series of highly contrived confrontations and rivalries, designed solely to elicit over-the-top and ridiculous performances.
The most pathetic thing about the series is that false feminist discourse that falls into all the clichés about women: materialistic, hysterical, frivolous, objectified, hypersexual, evil, complicated and ambitious. All those required by law It attempts to reclaim female power from the most sexist perspective possible. All the actresses express themselves with unsettling rigidity and artificiality, as if they've lost their souls. They seem created by an artificial intelligence with a flawed algorithm. The narrative and setting connect with Ryan Murphy's universe, but the result feels like a cheap imitation. The narrative is excessive and so emotionally intense that it becomes a parody. The dialogue is contrived and bombastic. The lines are always very short, as if the filmmakers doubted the actresses' ability to memorize the script. While the lawyers are ferrets, their clients are naive and ignorant. The story seems woven together with every possible cliché. The sets are blatantly virtual, and therefore, the opulence becomes sham. Unintentionally, All those required by law It devolves into an absurd comedy because its pretensions of sophistication and drama are actually a pathetic, clumsy caricature. The production is completely unaware of its own mediocrity. The series is so bad it doesn't even hold up as a guilty pleasure. In fact, it doesn't even survive the hate-watching, the morbid consumption by rejection, because it does not even have the capacity to scandalize.
