Hollywood Season 1 Review

May 4, 2020 at 7:11pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a Netflix Original Series that follows a group of aspiring actors and behind the scenes filmmakers as they desperately fight to make their way in the place where the show is titled after. At the start this was a rather fascinating dive into the sleazy part of the history of the area, and industry. Once it progressed, things became ridiculously silly and so farfetched. This was basically just the idea of what people want Hollywood to be in modern times, yet set in the past and I was truly disappointed as they captured the setting so well.

From the glitz, to the style it was all so authentic as a time piece yet they just dropped the ball so hard. It becomes weirdly happy, and way too unrealistic in terms of the various themes present. I mean, this is Hollywood just after the Second World War, and this show feels so fake. At the start the concepts were so unique, and true to what this would have been for it to all get thrown out the window. A wasted opportunity, that’s for sure. It’s also very overly dramatic while not hitting those tones and hitting far too many themes that it couldn’t come close to aspiring to.

I liked the characters, just mostly not what they did with them. It shows a struggle, but then halfway through its all sunshine and rainbows for everyone’s wildest dreams with a light shadow in the backdrop. That’s not at all how things are initially pitched. I was hoping for a hard hitting historical piece, and this is just weird alternate history. Again, a wasted opportunity as I was really into this at the start since it was so intense. It was very adult in nature, the whole series that is and it depicted something that felt lively. You could see the issues the characters were facing, then that fell flat. I will note there are many mature tones, for the older audience for sure.

I suppose the acting was generally solid, with everyone embracing their roles well. I thought that David Corenswet’s Jack Castello was intriguing, and had an interesting journey being the central welcoming point for additional characters. Laura Harrier’s Camille that fought for that star roll was interesting and I enjoyed the wit of Joe Mantello’s character Dick.

I do wish that they would have used Claire (Samara Weaving) more, seemed like wasted potential not to have that character take a darker turn, or provide additional conflict. That again brings me to the point, it sets up all this drama and conflict, then sort of swooshes it away. There were still very dark points in it, don’t get me wrong.

I’m just saying it went all too smoothly for what could have, or perhaps should have happened. It was an insane shift in the narrative direction and with what was going on. It’s very dark early on, especially with what various characters have to do in order to get by and start to make their way in the town.

The Conclusion

Hollywood Season 1 starts out with an interesting premise, which soon becomes ridiculous and overly happy in terms of its tone. It starts out with a certain level of grittiness underneath a shining and bright world. It then becomes ridiculously over the top in terms of the content, and goes off the rails. I was very disappointed as it seemed so enticing initially.

To have all these varied characters dealing with the dirty parts of Hollywood at the time, and it just seemed like they wanted everyone to have a perfect continuation despite that not at all being plausible during the set era. It’s like the ideals of what people would like to happen, which isn’t something that at all comes across as realistic. The setting was primed for messed up things to take place, and while some did others overshadowed the more intense tones that were at play.

This ultimately muddled their message, and completely ruined the series for me. It’s nice that everything worked out oh so well, but in such a stupid way. There are so many directions they could have taken this, and I just became more soured to it as it progressed along. Lots of wasted potential on this one as I thought it was initially an excellent time and very enjoyable.

Hollywood Season 1 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 4.5