The Shards (2026) is the FX/Hulu limited series Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis built from Ellis’s 2023 novel—the same writer who gave us Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, The Informers, and Glamorama. Set in 1981 Los Angeles, it follows a fictionalized teenage Bret (Igby Rigney) and his Buckley prep-school circle—Kaia Gerber, Homer Gere, Hayes Warner, Graham Campbell—while a serial killer called the Trawler and a Manson-adjacent cult chew through the city’s rich kids. It streams on FX and Hulu (and Disney+ depending on the bundle). The Film Buff episode treats it as more than another glossy Murphy period piece. It is Ellis’s world on television: wealth, vacancy, 80s needle drops, pool parties, and a season of murder that is supposed to destroy them all. This review tracks why the show feels like Less Than Zero with a slasher in the driveway, how fast the book-to-screen jump was, and why the credits, the look, and the cult texture make it a full recommendation even when the plot overloads.

Exploring Bret Easton Ellis’s The Shards and Its Cultural Impact

Summary

This video dives into The Shards, a 2026 FX mini-series based on Bret Easton Ellis’s recent novel, highlighting the show’s transformative nature and its place in contemporary media. The host enthusiastically connects The Shards to Ellis’s broader body of work which includes seminal novels like Less Than Zero, American Psycho, The Informers, and Glamorama. The discussion weaves through Ellis’s unique depiction of wealth, youth, and cultural decay, and how The Shards serves as both a homage and a fresh addition to these themes.

The presenter recounts personal experiences discovering Ellis’s work, including quotes from his podcast, and his thoughtful immersion into Ellis’s influences, such as Joan Didion and Eva Babitz, which further enrich the understanding of The Shards. The mini-series is applauded for its distinctive 80s aesthetic, cult themes, and its emotionally charged storytelling that encapsulates the satanic scare and the dark underbelly of privileged youth — themes reminiscent of the Charles Manson murders and films like Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Beyond the focus on Ellis, the video briefly covers the host’s schedule for reviewing films, creators, cartoons, and documentaries, emphasizing a commitment to education and self-directed learning. The overarching tone is celebratory of The Shards as a must-see cultural piece and of Bret Easton Ellis as an underrated author and podcaster.

Highlights

• 🎬 The Shards (2026 FX mini-series) is a transformative adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s literature.
• 📚 Ellis’s bibliography spans landmark novels like Less Than Zero, American Psycho, and Glamorama, each exploring themes of youth, affluence, and moral decay.
• 🎧 Ellis’s podcast and conversations offer profound insights, influencing the host’s approach to film and narrative critique.
• 🌊 The Shards features a striking 80s aesthetic with cult and satanic scare elements, resonating with true crime and pop culture.
• 🎥 The series delivers emotionally rich storytelling scenes, including iconic dance-off episodes and evocative end credits music.
• 📖 The host cites how discovering authors like Ava Babitz and Joan Didion deepened his appreciation for Ellis’s interconnected literary universe.
• 🎞️ The video outlines a structured weekly content release schedule covering films, creators, cartoons, and creative documentaries.

Key Insights

• 📺 Adaptation Timing and Impact: The Shards showcases a swift adaptation from book to screen (similar to Less Than Zero), indicating Ellis’s growing cultural influence and the appetite for his narrative style in audiovisual form. This quick turnaround highlights the contemporary relevance of Ellis’s themes about privilege and societal malaise.
• 🎭 Ellis’s Thematic Continuity: Ellis’s persistent focus on the disillusionment of rich youth, emotional detachment, and pervasive nihilism remains central. The Shards extends this narrative, underscoring a toxic environment saturated with violence and psychological complexity, reminiscent of real historical events linked to cults and satanic panics.
• 🎤 Podcast as a Lens into the Author: Ellis’s podcasts enrich understanding of his work by revealing his candid, intellectual discourse on culture, books, and personal reflections. The podcast format humanizes Ellis beyond his novels, offering fans and critics a deeper, more nuanced perception of his creative process.
• 🎨 Intertextuality and Influences Matter: The host’s journey from Ellis to discovering Eva Babitz and Joan Didion illustrates the layered intertextuality that shapes The Shards. This web of influences enhances the narrative’s emotional and cultural texture, making it a more immersive experience.
• 🕰️ 1980s Aesthetic as Nostalgia and Critique: The show’s 80s visual and musical design is more than a stylistic choice—it’s a thematic device that nostalgically invokes a decade of excess while critiquing its dark consequences. This stems from Ellis’s original stylings in Less Than Zero and expands the portrayal of that era’s lost innocence and looming violence.
• 🎬 Complementarity with Contemporary Media: The comparison with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood positions The Shards within a larger cultural dialogue on how media re-examines dark historical chapters, blending fiction and reality to provoke new reflections on trauma and media sensationalism.
• 📅 Consistent Content Engagement: The host’s detailed content schedule — mixing film retrospectives, creator spotlights, cartoons, and documentaries — reflects an intentional educational framework aimed at developing a deeper appreciation of film and media history among viewers, emphasizing lifelong learning and autodidactism.

00:00:01
Quiet on the set. >> Camera speed, sound production, take one. >> Action. >> What is happening? We’re talking Brad Neely Sanel today, my fellow film buffers. Here’s the thing. Brad Neely Sanel. He is the guy. There is a lot to cover in this episode, but what’s bringing us here buh buh buh buh buh is The Shards. It’s 2026, Hulu, f- uh Fox FX and or Fox XX. It’s on FX. I don’t I I don’t even know what network or what cable channel it’s coming from. I just know it’s available

00:00:46
on Disney Plus based on my subscription package. I I think I have the maximum Disney Plus. I think if my Disney Plus subscription got any more maxed out, I would be streaming every single show from the Magic Kingdom itself. What is The Shards? Who is Brad Neely Sanel? We got We got to cover both of this. If you can’t tell by my tone, this show I think it’s transformative. It’s a full recommendation. Why is it transformative? Cuz it reminds us of a movie. And I had no idea this existed until I

00:01:28
randomly again a time a tale as old as time. You hear this so much from this podcast. I randomly put something on. I liked the image of this show. You know, like sometimes they do those publicity photos and you know, like stuff for uh events or nowadays you can almost say it’s it’s for street art because you know, street crews are still I mean even here in Philly, they’re still relevant. They’re still all over the place. But, they’re they’ll plaster a wall with an image of a upcoming show.

00:02:02
And this one had the the four title characters uh in bathing suits underneath water looking like they’re all part of the same family. Wearing similar I think they’re all wearing red or blue. Looks a little cultish, right? And then the logo. The logo is like a brushed logo. So, it looks a little like sketchy or violent, but very 80s. So, I put this show on. And I’m not far into it. And I say I say to myself I don’t say it out loud. Sometimes like you wish you say it cuz like you like you want someone else to

00:02:46
know you were right. But, internally I say to myself, “This is just like Bret Easton Ellis. This is like This is like a Bret Easton Ellis world.” Less Than Zero, 1987. This is really might be Robert Downey Jr.’s best performance in any film. Also, Andrew McCarthy’s best performance. The ending of Less Than Zero that is tragically not available anywhere to stream. I I think you can get A lot of times when films fall out of streaming, they instantly become available on YouTube. I

00:03:28
think you can YouTube this. And sometimes they’re foreign versions. Like they might have Turkish subtitles or something, but you can watch the movie just fine. Like it’s in English, but with Turkish subtitles. And then the credits roll. And we get these, you know, like 80s pop music throughout the the episode. But, I I like shows. And I give Alien Earth so much credit cuz I love those end credits. Like cool music, like yeah. I I don’t think the end credits are working too well for some of

00:04:03
the James Gunn stuff. Like Creature Commandos, the the end credit music selection just didn’t quite hit for me. Maybe for you, like it’s different if you’re into that style of music, but The Shards has it’s just a feeling there’s like a moment when those credits hit. And that’s the intent. Like it’s it’s a designed experience for the audience. And then I see the name Bret Easton Ellis, based on Bret Easton Ellis. And the wild thing is I thought I had every single book

00:04:37
by Bret Easton Ellis. So, if you haven’t guessed, Bret Easton Ellis is the author of The Shards. He’s also the author of Less Than Zero. Do we need to go through his bibliography real quick? Let’s do it. bibliography Less Than Zero comes out 1985. Two years later, they have one the greatest teen drama movies in existence. Less Than Zero was 1987. The book was 1985. 1987 the year of the release of his movie. We would later get I believe another movie masterpiece from this guy. Rules of Attraction, James Van Der Beek.

00:05:28
I wanted to do something about it with with the passing of James Van Der Beek, but I love James James Van Der Beek so much and I love this movie so much. I just feel you know, it’s just it doesn’t feel right. And also, it’s written and directed by Roger Avary, the co-creator, co-writer of Pulp Fiction, but also now absolute Joe Rogan like conspiracist. Like this guy’s like all over the place. Uh he’s he’s a Epstein Island. Uh he’s like, you know, everything’s linked through Epstein Island for him.

00:06:07
1991, the third Bret Easton Ellis masterpiece, a film that I did not understand when I first saw it, and I have uh I feel like I’m spending my adulthood repenting my first thoughts on American Psycho 1991. 1994, 3 years later. Here the wild thing is, I had no idea that the Informers, which later becomes a movie, was so early in his bibliography. I thought the Informers was much later. Great book. Uh Informers as a read might be my second favorite. Because his next book is my favorite of his books, Glamorama.

00:07:01
Glamorama. Sorry. Glamorama 1998. I believe Glamorama Shoutout to Kat Martinell, who introduced me to this. 1998 is Bret Easton Ellis’s masterpiece. 2005, Lunar Park. 2010, Imperial Bedrooms. This is This completes my bookshelf. But now, in 2023, he wrote The Shards. Quick for adaptation. The The the level of publication to adaptation is probably equal to less than zero. I love how it like 2 years later, 3 years later, like you get this boom, like it lands and it’s just like rocking and

00:07:53
rolling. When years ago, we’re talking long time ago, I became single. And it was there’s so many I think positions I’ve taken internally with the the end of this relationship where uh it’s almost like I I I think I feel like I I gaslit myself to be upset. And I think that was like a part of like manipulation, but uh the end of that relationship was was good for like everyone. It really was. I I’ll know, yeah. Like I some sometimes you you do get upset, you get sad during the the end of things, at the course of

00:08:44
things, and reality kind of sketches itself out in front of you, and you got to face it. So, during this time, when I was recently single, I was accelerating my gym membership. I was going two to three times a day. I was leaving work early to stretch, cuz I would hit the gym on the way home, and come back at night. I think the gym closed at 11:00, so you could get there like at 10:00, 10:30. And I just viewed this time as I was just like on this pilgrimage of working out in the morning, in the middle of the day,

00:09:27
and late at night. And during this, there were three podcasts that I discovered. Now, here’s the crazy thing. One of these individuals I saw I I don’t I really don’t care when I see celebrities or people you know, of note in in in public. I just don’t really I I I don’t care to talk to them. It’s like I don’t care I don’t want a picture with you. I just I just don’t. You do your thing like I’ll I’ll do mine. But I ran into Asa Akira in a old city thrift shop.

00:10:07
Uh she was there with her two children and a couple couple other individuals. Uh and she she has posted from Philly like within the last like year or two. But Asa Akira on the Pornhub podcast just changed the way that I viewed how conversation should go. Now, to accompany that Chris Jericho, his podcast and this is right like I believe this is before his return to WWE and later like you know, he leaves WWE with some blessing and goes to AEW. But he had like a little bit of a of of this like downturn where it was mostly

00:10:51
music. He has a band called Fozzy. And he had this podcast. And he would he would have like not just wrestling people on. Like he has this fantastic conversation with Paul Stanley. And then the third, if you haven’t guessed, is Bret Easton Ellis, his podcast. Really and you will hear me if you go back to the earlier episodes of the Film Buff when it was called Dream Warriors. I’m sitting down with Mark. Mark the Mouth. He he was a you know, he he him and I we did a lot of stuff during this time. Cuz like I

00:11:28
said like I I was single just had single guys over like most most of the time, other than women. And he was he was available for some YouTube stuff, uh couple podcast episodes, and he loves talking about movies. He’s really good at talking about movies, Brett. And there’s one episode that I try might be the first episode I sat down with him. I and I said, “I have to do like let me get through this intro. Let me do an intro.” And I never quite got into the intro. But in my mind back then, and and we’re

00:12:03
going back maybe like 8 years. I wanted to do an intro for that podcast episode as Brett Easton Ellis has his intros. His intros and the way how he sets up the episode, the tone, the guest, and where he is as a we’ll say presenter, it’s maybe the best I’ve ever heard. Those are the three major influences of a lot what you guys get on regular basis here. Brett Easton Ellis has had some of the best recorded conversations. He has an episode, if you want to cycle back to James James Van Der Beek,

00:12:47
where James Van Der Beek just seems like he should be doing everything. This guy so talented. And you know, like even when you hit Dawson’s Creek and doesn’t quite doesn’t quite get over the hump though, but you’ve done as an actor what so many people uh tried their entire life to right like it’s just he like even with his success, not quite he has one with um Rainn Wilson, Dwight from The Office. And and and he would hate it that I address this I address or label him as Dwight from The Office. It It’s Rainn

00:13:26
Wilson, but it and and you feel for him in being typecast. And you hear about all the work that he does not to be typecast as Dwight. And there’s other there’s more. And same with Asa Akira and same with Chris Jericho. I’m just giving you what I remember off the top of my head this early morning. When it comes to Bret Easton Ellis, his writing I mean through his podcast I discovered Ava Babbitt’s. Uh fast fast days and slow mornings, I believe or or uh slow days and fast company.

00:14:09
He talked about that book. I bought it. I’ve been reading reading Ava Babbitt’s ever since. And because of Ava Babbitt’s, I read Joan Didion, who both of these individuals highly referenced in The Shards. Reading Less Than Zero, transformative experience. Glamorama is one of the best books you can absorb. Now, I haven’t gotten into American Psycho, but I love Rules of Attraction. Rules of Attraction is such a downhill race. And what is Bret Easton Ellis? What’s the aesthetic? What was I able to

00:14:57
identify as his within watching a few minutes of The Shards? I thought they were emulating Bret Easton Ellis. Bret Easton Ellis introduced the world to the rich kid LA hopes and dreams no talent individuals corrupted by the money around them. Film producers, music producers, TV shows. I mean, there there is a TV There is a dance-off episode on this show that is just there. It’s so it and it it is a wave of emotion. It’s bloody There’s a cult aspect. Bret Easton Ellis is leaning into the

00:15:45
satanic scare. A lot of the Charles Manson stuff. I view this as a little bit of a complimentary piece of how Quentin Tarantino views the view the the Sharon Tate murders in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I think these that movie and this show very complimentary. I think The Shards is the best thing you can watch right now. I think Bret Easton Ellis is the best personality, author, podcaster that you can discover right now. And when I’m done with this, I’m going to have a Bret Easton Ellis

00:16:24
book. I I’ll I’ll pick out one from the library. I’m traveling soon. I’m debating on having a Bret Easton Ellis book with me. I I’ll be in Tennessee in Nashville Nashville for uh almost like 10 days in September. And it’s two separate trips. Cuz you got to go hard. Yeah, AKA Potters. I’ll have Bret Easton Ellis or Eva Babitz with me during my travels. The Shards, I think, is the show. We don’t miss it. I think the the might have been three episodes dropped in initially, which I I

00:17:02
love I love like a block. I don’t know. Like I don’t I don’t know the science behind some of these uh dropping a full season or like Netflix seems to be the only one I can get away with dropping a full season. But watching episodes 1, 2, and 3 back-to-back-to-back and since then, my fiance and I have we just wait for Thursday to come around. We will have to watch the show as we get uh both both of the the last 2 weeks I and this past week was homecoming. It was a double episode, part 1 part 2.

00:17:37
There’s two more episodes left, by the way. So, you can catch up. We get our popcorn. We put the light down. Uh we just kind of like, you know, put ourselves in an environment to fall deeper into the show. Now, I don’t know how this ends. I don’t know. Do I care? No. Cuz this is a little bit of the streaming experience. We want to get to the destination. Not all the time does a destination pay off, but if it does pay off, the show might be the show of the year or the mini-series cuz I

00:18:14
believe it’s seven episodes. So, it’s so so so it’s I guess it’s a mini-series. It’s not a show. All right, AKA Patrons. I love you guys. Rock and roll. >> Rolling sound. Rolling sound production, take two. >> in. Sorry, AKA Patrons. I know it’s such a hot passionate episode, but I’m breaking I’m breaking the flow real quick. Just to remind you guys, if you want to support me, one of the best, easiest, and free ways to do it, leave a comment. Give me a like.

00:18:46
I know there’s someone out there that you know that loves film as much as I do, that love the film industry as much as I. Show this to them. Comments, likes, and reviews, positive or negative, it doesn’t matter. We need to increase our reach, and to do that requires you, your involvement in everything that I do. We’re we’re linked. We’re forever bound. You’re the membrane, I’m the muscle. So, guys, let’s just do it. One review. Do you have it in you? Okay, back to the show.

00:19:34

Rolling sound. >> Rolling >> Sound production, take two. >> Let’s take this time real quick, aka patters, my fellow film buffers, and let’s just go over the schedule. This is years in the making. This type of rollout I’ve I’ve been planning for for years, but we’re finally here. So, here we go. Early in the morning, that’s the new stuff. 8:00 a.m. Now, 8:00 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, these are movies maybe of something coming out like if there’s a Marvel

00:20:12
movie coming out and we want to do a retrospective on the that particular franchise or, you know, if Sylvester Stallone comes back and gives us Rocky part 18, we might want to use the later time slots for a week or two to go over all of the Rocky movies. Now, we have a lot of different threads on this podcast that’s explored 8:00 p.m. So, 8:00 a.m., 8:00 p.m. Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. This is our creator spotlight. We could do an episode on Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, someone in new guys, Spike Lee, even

00:20:50
composers, guys like John Williams. This brings us into the weekend. Saturday, Sunday morning. Again, we’re back at that 8:00 8:00 a.m. drop. We do cartoons because I want to emulate the times where you would wake up with a bowl of cereal and watch cartoons all day Saturday and all day Sunday and then eventually you would get to touch grass because you would have one of your friends knocking on your door to play in a touch football game or even some baseball basketball. The weekend nights. Let’s get into education. 8:00 p.m.

00:21:28
Again, all of our drops are either 8:00 a.m. or 8:00 p.m. But the weekend nights documentaries and I focus on creative documentaries because I feel like a part of this film buff movement that we’re all bathing in that I’m super grateful for is education. And some of this some of where we’re finding our facts some of the you know, general enjoyment cuz I love documentaries. All of this is explored at 8:00 p.m. And trust me, there is a lot there. There’s a lot out there that I even know

00:22:02
existed. And we we’re going to go beyond that, too. We’re going to get into some of the graphic arts, some of the special effects, some of the the makeup documentaries. There is a lot to learn and I’m so happy to bring you the 9:00 p.m. Because guys you guys know, I’m an autodidact. I am self-educated. Sure, I have some certifications. Sure, I spent time at the Art Institute of Philadelphia for animation. But in large I’m a self-educated self-made person. That’s connected to the weekend 8:00

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p.m. drops. My AKA Patters, my film buffers, I hope to see you there for all of it. I love you guys and rock and roll. >> Okay, THAT’S A WRAP. >> [applause] >> OKAY, THAT’S A WRAP. >> WOO!

The Shards works because it remembers what Ellis has always done: put beautiful, bored teenagers in a city that is already rotting and let the violence arrive like weather. Murphy’s excess and Ellis’s detachment should have canceled each other out. Instead you get 1981 L.A. as a designed experience—the bathing-suit publicity stills, the brushed logo, the end-credit songs that actually land, the dance-off episode that should not work and does. Critics split on whether the series keeps the novel’s dread or turns it into Euphoria with a curfew. The Film Buff take is simpler: if Less Than Zero is still one of the great teen dramas and American Psycho took years to understand, The Shards is the Ellis book that got the quick adaptation and the one that still feels like his voice. Watch it for the cast, the period, and the sense that the party was always going to end in a house you should not have entered. Then come back to the episode and say whether it is Ellis, Murphy, or both.

PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.