Ryan Murphy Has a Strange Definition of Camp
The lawyers of All's Fair return on November 4, but Ryan Murphy has an argument to settle first. Asked about the show's negative reviews in an October 5 Vanity Fair interview, he said:
I don't want an apology for television being excessive. Someone climbing onto a conference table is a perfectly good reason to stop scrolling. An actor can make an entrance absurdly grand and still persuade you that the character means every second of it. That's a pleasure worth defending.
But I don't buy awareness as a disqualification from camp. Knowing that a gesture is ridiculous needn't drain it of feeling. You can laugh at the extravagance while caring about the person performing it. The fun comes partly from holding those reactions together.
That doesn't make camp an excuse for everything. A dull scene stays dull however deliberately it was made. If an insult fails to land, a viewer doesn't have to admire the effort. Intentions can make an interview interesting; they cannot make the next hour of television entertaining.
Give the argument to the characters
Disney's season-two setup puts the women's law firm under threat, with shifting loyalties testing the friendships behind it. That gives All's Fair something useful to do with its confrontations: make a betrayal change a relationship.
A furious speech can be funny in the moment. Its aftermath can make us want another episode. Who still trusts whom? Who has to swallow an insult because they need the person who delivered it? Those are reasons to return that don't require anyone to agree on a definition of camp.
I'd rather see the show risk looking ridiculous than become embarrassed by its own appetite for excess. The test is whether the women can win us over while behaving outrageously. The audience can decide what to call the experience afterward.
The first three new episodes arrive November 4 on Hulu in the US, with Hulu on Disney+ access for eligible bundle subscribers. If you're new to All's Fair, start with season one's opening episode. Don't begin with the controversy.
Returning viewers can try the new premiere and ask whether they're curious about what these women will do next. That's the reason to keep watching. Nobody needs to finish a season to prove they understood the joke.
