Halston TV Review

Last Updated on August 13, 2021

Plot: The limited series Halston follows the legendary fashion designer (Ewan McGregor), as he leverages his single, invented name into a worldwide fashion empire that’s synonymous with luxury, sex, status, and fame, literally defining the era he lives in, 1970’s and ‘80’s New York — until a hostile takeover forces him to battle for control of his most precious asset… the name Halston itself.

Review: I have long been a fan of Ryan Murphy’s brand of storytelling. Since making the shift from FX to Netflix, his projects have been underwhelming. The Politician, Hollywood, and Ratched have all felt like variations of his same formula. Each new series tried to tell a story we had not seen before, but thanks to Murphy, we have and many times over. With my bar set fairly low, I was not expecting Halston to be refreshingly unlike those aforementioned series. Maybe it was due to showrunner Sharr White or the impeccable talent of Ewan McGregor in the title role, but Halston is the least Murphy-esque series yet which allows it to tell a story very much worth telling without distraction.

Set over five, hour-long chapters, Halston chronicles the rise of the fashion designer from his creation of Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat in 1961 through his untimely death due to HIV in 1990. Like the Citizen Kane of fashion, this tale follows a man’s rise from humble beginnings to the height of success before it all comes crashing down around him in the most tragic manner possible. At the center is a man whose self-consciousness and fear of abandonment crumbles under the pressure of fame. It is a story that has been told in documentary form but this dramatization is still quite something to experience. This is a sad story with an even sadder ending. But, unlike the fictional Citizen Kane, this one is entirely true.

Ewan McGregor delivers one of his career-best performances as Halston whose thirst for success is directly tied to his downfall. This series is less a tale of redemption but rather of personal excess. If you are unfamiliar with the life of Halston, avoid reading about how his empire came crumbling down as watching it unfold on screen adds an intense punch to the proceedings. McGregor has always shined in every performance, but he brilliantly balances the outlandish personality of Halston with his many insecurities. It is a challenge to play a big personality, but in the quieter moments of each episode is where McGregor really adds an intangible element to the fragility of Halston’s psyche, something that makes this a character and not just an impersonation. You will sympathize with Halston while despising how he treats those around him. It is a stunning performance that will surely be recognized come awards season.

The production values in any series about fashion must be as exacting as the characters being portrayed and Halston is exacting in recreating these iconic designs. The series does not spend too much time in period references outside of those directly tied to the narrative. With Liza Minnelli (an excellent Krysta Rodriguez) as one of Halston’s closest friends as well as the late Joel Schumacher (Rory Culkin) as an early Halston employee, the series does include primarily real figures from Halston’s life story. There are multiple actors here who shine including David Pittu as Halston’s illustrator Joe Eula, Rebecca Davan as designer and muse Elsa Peretti, Bill Pullman as David Mahoney, and Gianfranco Rodriguez as Halston’s lover, Victory Hugo. There is also a nice if wasted turn by Vera Farmiga as a parfumier.

Scripted by Sharr White alongside Ryan Murphy and his longtime collaborator Ian Brennan, Halston is helmed by veteran TV director Daniel Minahan (Series 7: The Contenders, Deadwood: The Movie) who lends a cinematic scope that frames the creative process as a beautiful effort in one scene and an arduous process in the next. The second episode of the series focuses on the famous fashion show known as The Battle of Versailles that is the closest depiction of a runway show to an actual movie battle sequence. It seemed to be a massive effort from all involved to condense three decades of a man’s life and career into five episodes and that is ultimately the biggest problem I had with Halston.

The flow of time is a challenge in creating any sort of biographical film and Halston speeds up and slows down time all over the place. In the first episode alone, we shift from 1938 for a brief scene to speeding through most of the 1960s in less than an hour. From scene to scene, Halston’s hairstyle and appearance shift so rapidly you may have to reorient yourself to try and figure out if days, months, or years have gone by or if it is just the character’s look for that particular day. Other episodes stretch a few weeks to the duration of the entire episode. It is jarring and often I found myself wondering why we were spending so much time on a scene for it to never factor back into the story.

Halston ultimately succeeds on the strength of the performances, anchored by Ewan McGregor who is the best he has ever been. He plays Halston as a flawed but brilliant artist who learns the errors of his ways too late and loses his most precious commodity: his own name. This series plays like an extended film and gives an encompassing look at who Halston was. As someone unfamiliar with the world of fashion design, I still found this to be a dramatic and emotional look at a story I knew nothing about. This is a tale that seems almost too crazy to be true which made it even more shocking to watch. Despite some pacing issues, this is the most subdued effort to come from Ryan Murphy and one worth watching for McGregor’s performance alone.

Halston premieres on May 14th on Netflix.

Halston

GREAT

8