Ryan Murphy Wants to Make a #MeToo Anthology Series About Stories of Abuse
In a recent, lengthy profile in the New Yorker, Ryan Murphy discusses the numerous projects he has in the works. Some are fully in production, while others seem to just be in the idea stage. One of those ideas, and one that I don’t think we’d ever heard him mention before, is an anthology series based on stories related to the #MeToo movement.
Emily Nussbaum writes, “The show would be called Consent—potentially, a new American Crime Story. It would follow a Black Mirror model: every episode would explore a different story, starting with an insidery account of the Weinstein Company. There would be an episode about Kevin Spacey, one about an ambiguous he-said-she-said encounter. Each episode could have a different creator.”
There’s a lot to unpack there and a lot that gives some immediate pause. First of all, hopefully, all of those potential creators will be women (or at least the creator of every episode that tells a woman’s story, as Murphy has spoken about his own #MeToo stories, and some of these episodes are likely to focus on men suffering abuse). Otherwise, I really don’t see the point of even making it.
Beyond that, obviously, this is subject matter that needs to be treated extremely sensitively. When I think of Murphy’s work, I immediately picture the sensationalism aesthetic of American Horror Story and Scream Queens. But this is also the man who made The People vs. OJ Simpson, and treated those characters with such respect.
However, there is a line from the same profile that’s worrisome as an indication of how Murphy views some of this subject. In reaction to an article about the “complicity machine” that allowed Harvey Weinstein to allegedly exercise such horrific abuse for so long–an article that maned Murphy’s own agent in that machine–his response was, “simply, ‘I’m loyal to my friends,’ then added that he didn’t believe that any of his agents would facilitate abuse.”
That doesn’t sound like the person who needs to be making a #MeToo series right now.
Murphy has been open about his own failings, like in regard to the once embarrassingly low number of women employed on his shows, and he’s worked hard to remedy that. He decided not to pursue a Monica Lewinsky-based American Crime Story when he reportedly realized it would only be exploitative without her full participation. He retooled his plan for an ACS season based on Hurricane Katrina, hopefully in response, at least in part, to the criticism over the lack of any major black characters in his original announcement. He also insists that his upcoming show Pose is “authentic, inclusive, nonexploitative,” with more than 100 LGBTQ cast and crew members. “Television as advocacy,” he calls it.
I admire Murphy’s willingness to listen to criticism and admit mistakes. And he does listen, telling Nussbaum, “You can’t underestimate the power of social media to shame a business.”
If shame is what it takes to create respectful, inclusive art, then sure, shame away.
(via New Yorker, image: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for GLAAD)
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