The Shards follows a fictionalised version of novelist Bret Easton Ellis during his final year of high school. Based on Ellis’ 2023 book of the same name, it’s September 1981, and the elite world of a wealthy prep school unravels as a serial killer known as “the Trawler” starts targeting students.

Between trying to maintain his active social life and writing his debut novel, Bret (Igby Rigney) becomes convinced the new boy at school, Robert (Homer Gere), is linked to the various disappearances and ritualistic killings happening around a glamorous Los Angeles.

With sweeping shots of Mulholland Drive set to the tune of a vibrant early-‘80s soundtrack, The Shards’ vivid atmosphere is also intensely paranoid.

Reliving the ‘glory days’

With direction from Ryan Murphy, known for American Horror Story (2011–), and Ellis, best known as the author of American Psycho (1991), we might expect The Shards to be a gory slasher. However, the show is much more psychological, reflecting Bret’s angst through a fragmented coming-of-age narrative.

The Shards presents contrasting perspectives on the 1980s.

Bret, his girlfriend Debbie (Hayes Warner) and his best friends Thom (Graham Campbell) and Susan (Kaia Gerber) are the most popular kids at school. But Bret faces the threat of his world being dismantled by cult members, serial killers and Robert.

The small screen is seeing an ‘80s........

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