Kim Kardashian's All's Fair performance is indeed shocking – but the show's biggest problem lies elsewhere

*Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first 3 episodes of All's Fair, which are now available to stream on Disney Plus.*

You may be sat wondering if all the negative reviews, the fanfare and the resulting memes are all true.

Is All's Fair really that bad? It is – let's get that out of the way first and foremost – but nothing can quite prepare any viewer for the overwhelming onslaught of just how bad it is, that will leave many cringing for their favourite actresses.

A lot of the reaction has, rightfully, been pointing its finger at reality star and businesswoman Kim Kardashian, who has been part of the cultural zeitgeist for decades now. Having had various small-time cameos in films nobody talks about over the years, her big acting break came in 2023 by way of American Horror Story and its series creator, Ryan Murphy.

At the time of that show's release, reception to Kardashian's acting was a mixed bag. Some thought her lack of acting prowess left the general performance feeling flat, while others thought that Kardashian only dialled up the camp factor of the show. Some would take heed of that feedback and perhaps not initiate Kardashian into leading lady stardom – but not Ryan Murphy, oh no.

Instead, he's put her front and centre in All's Fair as successful legal partner Allura Grant.

We're introduced to her new life almost like an episode of The Kardashians or MTV Cribs, getting a walkthrough of her luxury wardrobe, her staff, and house that anybody would be envious of. However, by the end of the first episode, we quickly find out that not everything is a bed of roses in Allura's life, as her younger husband Chase (Matthew Noszka) admits to having an affair and wants a divorce.

Heartbreaking stuff, right? Expect you wouldn't quite know it, as the archetypal girls debrief chat that we're thrown into after Chase's admission sees Kardashian looking as polished and straight-faced as ever, changing into a fur coat and kitten heels as her unlikely comfort outfit of choice.

Why isn't she wearing a tracksuit and eating a tub of ice cream? You may ask. All's Fair seemingly doesn't have room for tired, unglamorous clichés, thank you very much.

And you know what – as much as the show is painfully bad in every facet of what makes a TV show good, at least it doubles down on its ridiculousness. As a lead of any series, it's the job of that actor to prop up the series and embody the kind of performance you can't quite look away from. So, I understand why many are taking the opportunity to moan about Kardashian's execution.

However, a bad workman always blames his tools, and while the buck could be passed to Kardashian, I think the biggest problem with All's Fair are the writers behind it: Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken.

How the three of them have bandied together to create such awful dialogue that makes the likes of Sarah Paulson, Teyana Taylor and Glenn Close feel cringe-worthy is a complete and utter travesty.

Murphy has certainly shown storytelling chops over the years with the likes of Pose, American Horror Story and even Eat, Pray, Love. Perhaps those titles are why the short-term memory starts to kick in for those who agree to work with him. But all you have to do is look at his recent controversial Netflix anthology series, Monster, to realise that crafting nuanced characters isn't exactly his specialty.

We can't laugh out loud at the lines that are being delivered by the star-studded cast without also thinking of just how Murphy, Baitz and Baken crafted these women on the page. I'm not saying three men can't come up with a female-led series, but when their dialogue is full of sentences that sound like they've been ripped straight from the internet or someone's idea of how women would speak, it really does beg the question of why they didn't seek some help.

There are multiple lines throughout the episodes that are so bad, they're like getting literal whiplash multiples times over. It's almost as though between them, these writers have never even known a woman, let alone written one.

"Ten years ago today, we stepped away from the patriarchy and towards something of our own," Niecy Nash-Betts says in the premiere episode. You can almost hear the script writers shouting 'Girl Power!' when they came up with that one.

"Pin your wig down Allura, because this might blow it back," is another especially memorable line delivered by Nash-Betts, while Paulson has been reduced to an angry enemy who dishes out insults referencing Ozempic, "fat, treacherous lawn chairs" and "c**t burgers".

Even in somewhat reduced roles in the outset of the series, both Paulson and Taylor at least try to bring their skills to the table. They're natural scene-stealers in their own right, after all, but it's almost heartbreaking to think of someone like Taylor going from the heady heights of standout 2025 film One Battle After Another, to this.

Wading through the mud of such clunky and genuinely mind-numbing dialogue is a job in its own respect, but it's one that none of these actresses seem to have come out of having achieved, sadly.

The episodic legal cases that are supposed to keep everything moving forward and feeling procedural also just feel lazy and half-hearted. Judith Light's Sheila Baskin screams that she only slept with an unattractive man because he used to look at her the way her husband did all those years ago. Oh, how poetic! Another woman jumps from their legal office headquarters – and let's not forget Jessica Simpson, whose mildly sympathetic arc turns into an acid-throwing nightmare.

In the midst of haphazard storytelling, no emotional buy-in to any of the characters, and various plots chucked onto one another that may leave you with a headache, it also seems that it was one step too far to ask for Nash-Betts's character to not be reduced to a stereotype.

While being a partner at the firm is a big win for Nash-Betts's Emerald Greene, Murphy should've perhaps taken a lesson from the TV drama world of Shonda Rhimes's Scandal or How to Get Away with Murder if he needed to learn how to craft a Black woman with nuance – and not just a single mother who is regularly depicted as either shouting at her children or being 'sassy'.

But it's abundantly clear that I'm not just asking for the impossible when it comes to All's Fair as a series, but also of this writing team in general. If they put nearly as much thought and consideration into the craftsmanship of the scripts as they did into the (admittedly excellent) wardrobe, perhaps we wouldn't all be complaining that it's currently the worst thing on TV.

Episodes 1-3 of All's Fair are available to stream on Disney Plus in the UK now, with episodes being released weekly. You can sign up to Disney Plus from £4.99 a month now.

Add All's Fair to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.