Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere's teen horror The Shards is branded 'monotonous' and 'predictable satire' in mixed reviews as they say the series is 'full of nepo babies and tedious 80s nostalgia'

Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere's new teen horror has received a savaging from critics, with mixed reviews branding the show a 'monotonous, predictable satire'.

The FX and Disney+ series, which is based on the novel by American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis, is a violent and sexually charged story about a serial killer who stalks a group of privileged high schoolers in 1980s Los Angeles.

Kaia and Homer have no doubt been the focus of the show's promotion, and attended the glitzy premiere in LA on Wednesday.

But critics have given a mixed response to the show, with reviews quick to note its reliance on 'nepobabies and tedious 80s nostalgia'.

The Telegraph's Anita Singh was particularly savage, awarding the show just one star in a scathing review.

She wrote: 'Bret Easton Ellis is 62, but can't say goodbye to his teenage years. 

'In The Shards (Disney+), a semi-autobiographical adaptation of his 2022 novel, we're back yet again in the world of privileged Los Angeles high schoolers whose days and nights are a monotonous rota of mall visits and coke-fuelled pool parties, accessorised with Mercedes convertibles and Rive Gauche by Yves Saint Laurent. 

'He and series co-creator Ryan Murphy throw in a horror plot about a serial killer stalking these young people, but the ennui is catching: honestly, who cares?'

Writing in The Irish Independent, Ann Marie Hourihane said: 'Who are these teen dramas for, really? Are they propaganda for California? For the US in general? Or are they a cheap thrill for voyeuristic adults?

'Although Elle had its charms, most of them are so monotonous that they might as well be pornography.'

Daniel Fienberg wrote in The Hollywood Reporter: 'The Shards is a series made for (and probably by) people who can't always distinguish among kitsch, camp, ironic detachment and affectionate nostalgia, and, frankly, don't care...

'The mood is eerie, but never really scary; it's a bloodless series despite the Trawler's mauled victims. 

'You won't really like anybody - Bret's genuine warmth for Ryan, key to building reader empathy in the book, is mostly absent here - because nobody is really human.'

In a more positive review for RogerEbert.com, Kaiya Shunyata gave the show three out of four stars, and she said: 'The series is as magnetic as it is trite, and somehow, despite certain narrative setbacks and flaws in particular performances, the show shakes out to be one of the most entertaining shows of the summer. 

'This is a series that knows exactly what it is, and what audience it was made for, and while some swings feel like they were created with the purpose of alienating the audience, they're also so bold that you can't help but admire their audacity. 

'If you're looking to this new series to quench your thirst for some serious prestige television, you're sorely mistaken.'

Helen Daly echoed this sentiment, with a four-star review in The Radio Times.

She said: 'Murphy finds a way to ease us into this very particular life before using classic horror tropes to create tension...

'That carefully cultivated atmosphere falls apart in the fifth episode, (though thankfully, only for this episode), when the novel's plot is deviated from in favour of a bizarre dance competition that, for some reason, all the teens need to take part in.

'This episode undoes everything that's been crafted up to this point to establish the right tone and feeling of the book and acts as a disservice to the hazy, teenage dream/nightmare Murphy had previously created...

'The series manages to redeem itself for its second half, returning to a neat landing in episodes six to nine.'

The New York Times' James Poniewozik said: 'Given the provenance, you can bet that The Shards is not the nostalgic '80s of Stranger Things. It's raw, mean and cut-glass sharp, with a soundtrack of chilly, sleek New Wave.

'This character study, however, gets thrown into a blender with a grisly murder story, and as the nine-episode season goes on, the grotesque and exaggerated elements start to dominate the concoction. 

'The adult characters are cartoonish (although Jordan Roth has a Bowie-like alien allure as Terry's refined, frustrated assistant). And the story, self-contained in Ellis's novel, feels overextended as it sets up for a multi-season run.'

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, John Anderson said: 'The Shards is more problematic: Mr. Ellis has been recycling his depraved teen angels long enough that the show, a collaboration with Ryan Murphy, becomes parody, even comedy. It’s cast with some of the more attractive young people available.

'These kids have a lot of expenses—books, school uniforms, cocktails, a rail of coke the length of the Pacific Coast Highway. If you were their parents, you wouldn’t come home either.'

Robert Lloyd wrote in The LA Times: 'To be perfectly honest, if one set out to create a show I would be constitutionally disposed not to care for, this is it, though I allow that this is also exactly a show some people would be born to love. 

'It’s often absurd and always melodramatic — not in itself a criticism — but if you’re in the market for a slick miniseries about cocaine-sniffing kids (and adults), murder, animal mutilation, sex and sports cars in New Wave L.A., with cameos from Hamburger Hamlet and Orange Julius and an excellent selection of period songs on the soundtrack, you can’t do better than this.'

Roxana Hadadi wrote in Vulture: 'The series promised by The Shards’s first two episodes — well-paced hours that build tension and fear through a sprawling depiction of Los Angeles as a playground for rich teens and the serial killers stalking them — is not the one ultimately provided.

'The ambiguity and nuance of the book disappear, and The Shards shrinks from a story about how coming of age as a closeted boy is analogous to a streak of catastrophic violence to a stuttering mixtape of needle drops and story lines recycled from Euphoria and Glee.'

The Shards is a fictionalised version of author Bret's adolescence and many of the characters are based on real life people.

According to the show's official logline, 'Igby Rigney stars as Bret, an aspiring writer and keenly observant teenager whose reality begins to unravel with the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic new student, Robert Mallory (played by Homer).

'Transferring in just before his senior year, Robert’s appearance coincides with the growing terror of The Trawler, a serial killer targeting teenagers across the city,' it continues.

'Alongside Bret is his elite social circle, which includes Susan Reynolds (played by Kaia), Debbie Schaffer (Hayes Warner) and Thom Wright (Graham Campbell), a glamorous and deeply entangled group drawn into a life of wealth, beauty, parties and excess.

'The promise of their youth is contrasted with the dark and cynical world of the adults surrounding them: Terry Schaffer (Wes Bentley), Liz Schaffer (Evan Rachel Wood) and Steven Reinhardt (Jordan Roth).'

The Shards TV series was originally being developed by Oscar-winner Luca Guadagnino for HBO, but the project fell through before being revived by Murphy and FX.

With all the buzz around the series, it's likely that the racy series will further catapult Kaia and Homer to Hollywood stardom.

Kaia is already a big name in the modelling world, with the brunette beauty winning Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards back in 2018.

She's also graced the cover of Vogue magazine multiple times. As an actress, Kaia is best known for her recurring role in Palm Royale and the Anne Hathaway film Mother Mary.