FX's 10-Episode The Shards Clashes With Sterling Point as 2 Teen Dramas Split on Blood and First Love
Updated
Updated · Los Angeles Times · Aug 5
FX's 10-Episode The Shards Clashes With Sterling Point as 2 Teen Dramas Split on Blood and First Love
2 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · Aug 5
Summary
Wednesday brings two late-teen coming-of-age premieres that share familiar rites of passage but diverge sharply in tone, with FX’s “The Shards” turning 1981 Los Angeles into a glossy murder-haunted thriller and Prime Video’s “Sterling Point” opting for a quieter Canadian summer mystery.
“The Shards,” adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 novel, follows Buckley School students as a magnetic new classmate arrives alongside a serial killer dubbed the Trawler, mixing wealth, drugs and obsession across 10 episodes.
Nine of those 10 episodes leave the killer’s identity unresolved, while the review says Ryan Murphy’s version leans into melodrama, period detail and sensational excess that will strongly divide viewers.
“Sterling Point” centers on 17-year-old Annie, who heads from New York to Ontario’s Muskoka Lakes after learning her late grandfather left her family an island and a clue to “find her.”
That series is judged the warmer and more successful of the two, using conversation, identity, longing and first love—rather than violence—to build an unhurried teen drama with broader emotional appeal.