‘The Prom’ Is the Perfect Curtain Call for Ryan Murphy’s Spectacular Year

Not many people can call 2020 a great year, but as usual, Ryan Murphy isn’t most people. This year alone the super producer has rewritten Hollywood as an inclusive utopia, melted critics hearts with an acclaimed documentary, set a Netflix record for the year, made Gwyneth Paltrow president, and has brought not one but two Broadway plays to the small screen. It’s safe to say that Netflix’s $300 million bet on this unstoppable tour de force has paid off.

Though The Politician was the first of Murphy’s series to become a Netflix exclusive, it was never part of Netflix’s multimillion dollar deal with the super producer. Before the 2018 deal, the series was snatched by the streaming giant after a bidding war that involved both Hulu and Amazon. In many ways this year has been the first to show off the fruits of Murphy’s partnership with Netflix, and those fruits have been bountiful. Just this year alone Murphy has produced, written, and/or directed:

• A Secret Love, a heart-breaking documentary from director Chris Bolan about Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, two women who have kept their lesbian relationship a secret from their friends and families for seven decades.
• Hollywood, a star-studded and beautifully shot celebration of classic Hollywood from Murphy and Ian Brennan starring Darren Criss, Jim Parsons, Dylan McDermott, Samara Weaving, Patti LuPone, and more. Not only is the seven-episode series a gorgeous ode to classic 1940s star power but it also reimagined the racism, sexism, and homophobia of that era to show that the world would have been a better place without this bigotry.
• The Politician Season 2, Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s absolutely ridiculous new installment that saw Ben Platt go head-to-head with Judith Light and Bette Midler in an undeclared battle of divas.
• Ratched, Evan Romansky’s prequel to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring the incomparable Sarah Paulson. As slick and devilishly pretty as the thriller was, it also managed to find some time to question how forcing someone into otherness can make them a monster.
• The Boys in the Band, the Joe Mantello-directed adaptation of Mart Crowley’s esteemed play. Starring such openly gay stars as Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, and Andrew Rannells, the film stood as an unapologetic celebration of the complexities of queerness.
• And The Prom, Murphy, Chad Beguelin, and Bob Martin’s flashy feel-good musical about a group of egotistical celebrities who show up to help a high school student take her girlfriend to prom. Along with bringing this sadly under-appreciated musical to life, the film also heightened its mass appeal by adding stars like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, and Andrew Rannells to its cast.

That’s without mentioning Murphy’s continuing projects on other networks. This year also saw eight new episodes of Fox’s hyper-dramatic and always delightfully head-scratching 9-1-1 as well as the premiere of its Texas-centered spinoff series, 9-1-1: Lone Star. By the way, both of those series are set to release new seasons in 2021. It also seems likely that next year will bring us another season of FX’s American Horror Story as well as the long-awaited third season of American Crime Story, which will revolve around former President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Typically, if a creator has two or three major projects released in a year they’re labelled an industry superstar. Murphy has released five series and three films in 2020 while juggling the futures of American Horror Story, the newly announced spinoff American Horror Stories, American Crime Story, Pose, Ratched, 9-1-1, and 9-1-1: Lone Star. Don’t forget to add Murphy’s upcoming new projects to the mix, which include a Haleston series, the upcoming show Consent, an untitled Billie Lourd project, and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story just to name a few. That’s an insane amount of content from a single production company, let alone a single person. And it’s not as if these shows and movies have been flashes in the pan. More often than not they have shaped the entertainment industry during this precarious year.

The stunning A Secret Love set the tone in April, charming critics with its story of one extraordinary couple. The documentary still holds a critical rating of 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and was even listed as one of Decider’s best films of the year. Then there was Hollywood. Say what people will about how unrealistic and exaggerated the miniseries may be, the series earned 12 nominations at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, including acting nods for Pope, Taylor, McDermott, and Parsons. The lovely and awe-inspiring series even won two of those Emmys, one for Outstanding Period and/or Character Hairstyling and another for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.

Then there was Ratched. In October, roughly a month after the series’ premiere, Netflix announced that it was the streaming service’s biggest original series of 2020. Based on Netflix’s metrics over 48 million subscribers tuned into Ratched during its first 28 days. Even The Boys in the Band got its due in the wake of Ratched’s tidal wave, earning an 82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

And how does Murphy end this truly remarkable year? With The Prom, a movie embodiment of a party packed with an all-star cast, musical numbers that would make the cast of Glee swoon, and Meryl freaking Streep belting out notes like the goddess we know her to be. The movie has already dominated Netflix’s list of the top 10 most watched shows and movies in the United States, and in the coming weeks it will likely continue to do so.

Of course, this being Ryan Murphy, this jaw-dropping laundry list of projects hasn’t come without controversy. Hollywood earned middling reviews from critics due to its convoluted story. Ratched earned similar reviews for its cartoonish characters and glorification of violence. And most recently The Prom has earned the ire of critics thanks to James Corden’s rendition of Barry Glickman, a performance that has been dismissed as “gayface.”

All of those criticisms are valid. They’re also almost identical to the criticisms Murphy has faced when it comes to Glee or American Horror Story or Scream Queens or a million other projects the creator has produced throughout his illustrious career. Which is to say: all that criticism? It doesn’t really matter. Ryan Murphy is one of those rare creative geniuses who understands exactly what the average household wants to watch and can add some broccoli into the cake without sacrificing its flavor. He’s a creator who can plunge into serious emotional depth with as much ease as convoluted silliness. To pigeonhole him is a grave mistake, a lesson that his critics have been forced to relearn time and time again.

This year we’ve had the privilege of seeing what happens when you match Murphy’s never-ending stream of ideas with a tech giant’s equally limitless budget. We’re seeing what Ryan Murphy looks like without the limitations of network schedules, pricey shoots, and TV-MA ratings. And it’s been absolutely glorious for everyone involved — Netflix, fans, casual viewers, and the man of the year himself. Consider this a glass raised to one of the hardest working, most ambitious, and truly brilliant minds in Hollywood. Here’s to plenty more in 2021.

Watch The Prom on Netflix