Kim Kardashian’s new legal series All’s Fair has premiered its first three episodes, and reviews are scathing, to say the least. Backed by TV mogul Ryan Murphy, the Hulu series follows Kardashian’s Allura Grant, a divorce lawyer making it big in a law firm alongside other powerful women. Despite its outstanding cast, the series’ reception is beyond terrible, and now director Anthony Hemingway has come out to defend the show and plead for a re-evaluation.
Hemingway talked to The Hollywood Reporter following the show’s release, showing his gratitude for the opportunity to return to the Murphy-verse. He has worked on several shows by the producer, including Glee and American Horror Story. “There’s so much opportunity to do what I love, which is creating and imagining,” the director said. “It’s always connected to some form of humanity. Through [Ryan’s] brand, he’s able to tap into pop culture and the zeitgeist with real human stories.”
Having directed four episodes in the series (Murphy directed the pilot), Hemingway feels the show is already apt for re-evaluation after being butchered by everyone. He’s also aware that they were not going to please everybody with such a commercial spin on a typically serious subgenre:
“You’re not going to please everybody. You may have certain criticisms, while there are a million others who love it. I think the show holds a mirror up to each person who watches it. It’s just about: Can you connect to it or relate to it, and see yourself? It may be out of your league, it may not be anything you can connect to, and I think that goes for anything that gets presented on screen.
“It’s entertainment, it’s a comedy, and it’s a matter of finding ways to tap into real conversations and real human dynamics in a different way. Every time you meet any sort of difference, it takes a minute to either develop a taste for it or not. It may not be for you, and that’s OK, but I personally enjoy the show. I had a lot of fun relating to it in my own way. Not everything is for everybody, and you can’t also expect one person to define something and for that be the totality of what it is — I don’t agree with that.”
‘All’s Fair’ Is a Different Kind of Legal Drama
Despite an all-star cast that includes Oscar nominees Naomi Watts and Glenn Close, All’s Fair still hasn’t recovered from the reactive initial blow. Upon its premiere, the show received a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and although it now sits at 6%, it’s struggling to resurface from its single-digit rating. It is not looking good for Kardashian’s foray into scripted drama territory.
Hemingway believes that the poor rating is largely because of a misconception most had about All’s Fair. It is not the legal drama that it was marketed as. Instead, it intends to spark conversations with a “different palette,” as the director explained:
“Unfortunately, there are expectations for the show that are being defied or not met, because it’s not what they expected it to be. When you put the word ‘legal’ and use the word ‘drama’ lightly in certain things, that strikes a certain expectation, and [that expectation] is not fully what the show was meant to be. There’s a lot of wish fulfillment in this show that was by design, and it’s coming at a time where people want an escape and to fantasize. There are elements of this show that effectively do that, where it’s not taking itself so serious. It wouldn’t be a comedy if it was trying to be that.
“Here you have this show that can connect to real conversations, but with a different palette… I think that it ultimately delivers. I do. I believe it. Hopefully, opinions will change. But if they don’t, then they don’t. What we are all doing excites us, and we stand by it. Also, [I would say to audiences]: Don’t come at it with such a critical or literal frame of mind. It strikes a different tone, and it will evolve over time; it will get more human.”
- Release Date
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November 4, 2025
- Network
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Hulu
