Written by Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan
Directed by Ryan Murphy
Jack (to Avis):"Every time I leave the picture show, I feel better than I did walking in,"
In these strange times, we could all do with a bit of escapism, a bit of glamour and in their latest offering for Netflix, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan deciding that Hollywood could do with a bit of a rewrite. Actually maybe more than just a bit.
Kicking off this seven part miniseries off in style, former war veteran Jack Castello (David Corenswet) has aspirations to be an actor but between casting directors being uninterested in him, a pregnant wife, Henrietta (Maude Apatow), the cost of living and so on, things just aren't going in Jack's general favour.
Then there's Ernie West (Dylan McDermott) - a gas station owner who has another more lucrative service on the side that Jack initially has no desire to indulge until the pressure gets to him and he's soon servicing clients like Avis Amberg (Patti LuPone) before this episode took a somewhat predictable cliff hanger ending with Jack getting arrested for solicitation. Let's just say that "Dreamland" comes with a price.
Although this show was billed as an ensemble piece and no doubt will be as it goes along, this first episode largely belonged to David Corenswet (who has a producer role on this miniseries) and with The Politician and now this, it's easy to see why this guy's star will be on the rise in no time.
Jack has enough going for him as a character to make for an engaging protagonist and he's one of several stories about the aspirations of fame here. This episode threw some hints about Ernie and Avis's brushes with fame, but aside from Jack, two other prominent members appeared here.
We had Jack heading into the gay underground scene to recruit aspiring writer/gigolo Archie Coleman (Jeremy Pope) to Ernie's business, which Jack succeeded in doing. I'll admit that Archie's story with a certain someone will be a big draw for me with this miniseries.
The someone in question being Roy Fitzgerald aka Rock Hudson (Jake Picking). Rock will be one of a few real life people whose story will get an alternative version in this fantasy filled take on Classic Hollywood and right here, there's a focus on him being a closeted gay man as well as he beginnings of a complicated love story between him and Archie. They didn't have a lot of scenes in this episode but what they did have was the highlight nonetheless.
- Seeing as this is a two part pilot, we'll no doubt meet Raymond, Camilla and Claire in the next part along with the title sequence. Archie also wrote a script about Peg Entwhistle whose death serves as an influence for this miniseries.
- Ernie is based on real life pimp Scotty Bowers. Meanwhile Alison Wright who previously appeared in Feud: Bette And Joan played a casting director for Ace Studios in this one.
- Standout music: Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star, Peggy Lee's It's A Good Day and The Pied Pipers Embraceacle You.
- Chronology: Post World War 2, so late 1940s for now.
Hollywood certainly kicked off to an interesting start with some creative licencing, discussions of aspirations, dreams, sex, race and gender, the casting couch and what seems like a fair chunk of artistic licencing and elements of wish fulfillment as well. I think it's mostly comparable to Feud: Bette And Joan and possibly both American Horror Story and American Crime Story with how it'll tackle real life people, which will make or break this miniseries as a whole.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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