Not one to be deterred by public controversy and pronounced backlash, Ryan Murphy will return with a new show this week. His four most recent releases have been a mixed bag, and in many ways, they represent the entire spectrum of the Murphy experience. All’s Fair, which premiered in November on Hulu, holds a 6% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Murphy’s first new show of 2026, the sci-fi horror title The Beauty, has effectively been canceled after a single season that drew mixed reviews. His second release of 2026, Love Story, on the other hand, was received warmly by critics and audiences, and it ended up turning Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly into overnight stars. Murphy’s third new show of the year, The Shards, set the clock back with divisive reviews. And now, he’s about to release the fourth season of arguably his most popular streaming series.
Murphy signed a lucrative deal with Netflix, but his output under the deal turned out to be just as uneven as the rest of his career. While some shows — Halston, Hollywood, and Ratched, to name three — didn’t create the sort of buzz that they could have, others were far more successful. At the top of Murphy’s list of Netflix originals is Monster, an anthology series that has drawn massive audiences, but has also received brickbats for its perceived spotlighting of abhorrent crimes. The anthology series centers on serial killers who have become pop-culture oddities over the years — Season 1 focused on Jeffrey Dahmer, Season 2 focused on the Menendez brothers, and Season 3 revolved around Ed Gein.
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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
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Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
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Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
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How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
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What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
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How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
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What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
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When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
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The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
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🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
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Here’s When Ryan Murphy’s Controversial Netflix Series Returns
This week, the fourth installment of Monster — Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story — will mark the anthology’s first time focusing on a female protagonist. This could open a new can of worms, given how divisive the response to earlier seasons has been. Monster holds an overall 42% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with the Ed Gein series sitting at a franchise-low 22% score. In her review, Collider’s Therese Lacson wrote, “It’s 2025, Ryan Murphy, Please Stop Making These Serial Killer Sob Stories.” The upcoming season stars Ella Beatty, Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, and Vicky Krieps. Murphy regular Sarah Paulson appears as the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, perhaps teasing where the fifth season is heading. The show debuts on September 17 on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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