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Opinion Tea

Is ‘The Prom’ Emblematic of Netflix’s Ryan Murphy Problem?

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When Ryan Murphy and Netflix announced their partnership three years ago it seemed to be a no-brainer. Netflix had acquired one of Hollywood’s most bankable talents in the biggest deal for a TV creator in history.

But now with their latest collaboration The Prom released it’s looking like a colossal mistake. Or as Vulture reports, “with millions in hand and more power than ever, the work Murphy has made at Netflix so far has been curiously tedious.”

According to Vulture: “There’s a personal story at stake in The Prom for Murphy. He has told journalists that his father beat him for his sexuality and that he was unable to bring the date he would have wanted to his own Indiana prom. The film version of the musical adds a redemption arc for James Corden’s Barry, in which the character reconciles with his estranged mother, though his estranged father isn’t quite ready. It cannot help but read like Murphy giving himself his own happy ending. “When you’re an artist, sometimes you’re repeating a narrative that you, yourself, are trying to figure out,” Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview about the film. “A lot of it, it’s my childhood. The thing that I wanted.” The Prom might work as an exercise in wish fulfillment. But it also offers a tidy summary of Murphy’s output at Netflix so far: big, expensive, saccharine.”

It’s possible the problem is Netflix, not Murphy. In order to lure big names, the streaming service gives producers both cash and independence; reporting on Murphy’s deal, The Hollywood Reporter noted that “Fox couldn’t match the creative latitude being offered by Netflix,” including the power to green-light many of his own projects. That kind of freedom can enable showrunners’ more indulgent tendencies. We can see that with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris’s series #BlackAF, an ego trip in which Barris plays a lightly fictionalized version of himself, griping.

Ultimately,  “the most exciting part of a Ryan Murphy project tends to be the announcement, a list of stars hooked on to a potentially grabby idea. What Murphy has less reliably delivered is the inversions that used to keep his stories interesting — the possibility that marginalized characters might overthrow higher-status ones, or that good taste might fly out the window for the sake of a joke about something real. Murphy’s Netflix worlds feel like window dressing, jewel-toned, inert, and wildly expensive. He has too much at stake to risk upsetting the tableau.”

Sadly what’s lost in the shuffle is the true story that inspired The Prom. Newsweek reported, “[The Prom] is based on the true story of Constance McMillen of Mississippi.In 2010, McMillen was not allowed to bring her girlfriend to the Itawamba County Agricultural High School prom, in a case that ignited media attention across the world.”

Her story of discrimination also had a happy ending, but a different one from in The Prom. While the Netflix movie sees the Broadway actors set up their own inclusive prom, the real McMillen got something much more important, but less suitable for the ending of a glitzy musical—legal justice and compensation.

After her case was taken on by the ACLU, a federal court found in McMillen’s favor and she was awarded a payment of $35,000 from the school district, which also agreed to a non-discrimination policy.

The Prom, like Murphy, presents the veneer of a happy ending, cynically relying on history to smooth over the problematic parts, and ultimately rings hollow.

 

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