Hollywood Is a Retro Fantasy That Asks Us to Dream Different

By Dino-Ray Ramos, Amanda N'Duka

Working on the Netflix show “Hollywood” was a tearjerking experience for actress Michelle Krusiec.

By Dino-Ray Ramos, Amanda N'Duka

Darren Criss says the original script for Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” series had him on edge.

Ryan Murphy’s latest series,, features an ensemble packed full of stars. Despite all the celebrated performances, there’s no overlooking Jim Parsons’ villainous turn as agent Henry Willson, one of the many real-life people in this revisionist take on history. His portrayal in Netflix's limited drama marks his first on-screen performance since saying goodbye to his longtime role as the highly idiosyncratic yet lovable physicist Sheldon Cooper on, which ended in 2019. 

[This story contains spoilers from Hollywood.] Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's new Netflix limited series Hollywood reimagines how the entertainment industry may have evolved differently if a woman were in charge and people took bold steps to dismantle the biases against race, gender and sexuality back in the 1940s.

Ryan Murphy’s new series “Hollywood” is coming at the perfect time, with most of the world under lockdown with the coronavirus pandemic. For producer and star Darren Criss, there’s a connection to be made between what we’re all experiencing now and the show’s post-WWII setting.

Ryan Murphy is rewriting history with a little help from his friends. Netflix’s Hollywood imagines a post–World War II Tinseltown in which systemic racism, gender bias and homophobia don’t exist — and puts on a flashy show at the same time! “The 1940s are just so ripe with their own mythology,” star Darren Criss, who also executive produces, exclusively says in the latest issue of Us Weekly.

Patti LuPone has been entertaining audiences for nearly five decades, so why would she stop during a global pandemic? Prior to Broadway's shutdown in response to the coronavirus, LuPone was poised to have quite a spring, both on stage and off.

By Marc Malkin

Netflix and prolific TV producer Ryan Murphy are each making a $100,000 donation to an entertainment industry charity ahead of the release of the Hollywood TV series.

What would you do to climb the ladder in Hollywood? Would you help someone out or climb over them? What do the characters do in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood? See for yourself in the first look at the opening credits for the new Netflix limited series.