Netflix series Hollywood is a revisionist retelling of the classic showbiz story that could have been so much more

Set in the golden age of Hollywood soon after World War II, Hollywood has been co-created by Netflix regular Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan There’s an early scene in the first episode of Netflix miniseries Hollywood, involving one of the central characters – former soldier and aspiring actor, the Captain-America-handsome Jack Castello. Seven episodes later, though, the show ends up being a breezy, crowd-pleasing collection of mere moments, but dramatically nothing one hasn’t seen before even closer home, in Luck By Chance. Hollywood, the show, touches on all that and much more, altering tropes and fitting them for an audience that’s more ready, some would say even eager, for stories from varying perspectives, about those among us whose realities and fantasies are hidden away by the insecurities of those who hold the keys to power. Then, there are the crowd-pleasing redemptions in characters such as Dylan McDermott’s boisterous Ernie West, the gas station owner who had come to Hollywood years ago with the same dream as Jack Castello, but he was one of those who fate didn’t smile on; or Archie Coleman, the young, black, gay screenwriter who makes it big after an excruciating life of conformity for the comfort of the privileged.