Padfoot Parrish

The show initially has a great concept visually, it's beautiful and all the actors give incredible performances. It really does feel like you have time-travelled to the 40s...but you haven't. The show at times is realistic with the prejudice people would face but then it's also supposed to be an idealized, sugarcoated version of hollywood where oppressed people can easily get passed that all. So the show can't decide what it wanted to be, idealized or not, making it a bit of a mess. I think that throwing real people into the storyline amongst a ton of fictional characters made it more confusing because it messed with real history, using some real aspects of their lives and making up the rest. They could have named Rock Hudson anything else in this series and nobody would have known it was meant to be him, that's how far it strays from his real life and career. Again, an example of how the show couldn't decide if it wanted to be the real 40s or not. This could have been done as an alternate reality of the hollywood golden age entirely (which is what it feels like a lot of the time) and it would make more sense. In the end, I think if you don't consider the historic aspects, it's great (which is why I think putting real people of the 40s in was a mistake) and in the end, it's super enjoyable and I would still recommend it!