Our Favorite Ryan Murphy Films and TV Shows, Ranked
Perhaps one of the most powerful men in contemporary television, superproducer Ryan Murphy has helmed some of the most popular network television series to date throughout his storied, decades-long career. Recipient of six Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony, and two Grammy nominations, Murphy’s singular impact on the entertainment industry is unable to be understated. Often credited with bringing marginalized stories to mainstream audiences, Murphy’s influence in network television has opened plenty of opportunities for queer actors, writers, and producers in the entertainment industry. Following the conclusion of the five-year, $300 million Netflix deal Murphy inked in 2018, Murphy is rumored to be returning to Disney, reuniting with longtime colleague and co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, Dana Walden.
Let's take a look back at the most engrossing worlds Murphy had a hand in creating with a full ranking of his best 22 films, TV shows, and miniseries to date.
American Crime Story
Structurally similar to its sister series American Horror Story, American Crime Story is a true crime anthology series wherein each season follows a particular crime featured prominently in American culture. After focusing its first season on the notorious O.J. Simpson murder trial, the show shifted its focus to the murder of Gianni Versace for its second season, and then finally to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal for its third season. Despite a season starring Annette Bening chronicling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina having been officially canceled, Murphy has since spoken about a potential fourth season focusing on the downfall of New York City’s iconic Studio 54.
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The Normal Heart
Directed by Murphy and written by playwright and activist Larry Kramer, The Normal Heart follows the proliferation of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York in the early '80s. Starring Mark Ruffalo as Ned Weeks, a struggling gay rights and public health activist largely based on Kramer, the film is a heartfelt and harrowing depiction of a tragic epidemic that was stigmatized and ignored in mainstream culture for far too long. Debuting on HBO in 2014, Murphy stated that he produced the film largely out of fear that the younger generation would not remember the unprecedented losses of the AIDS epidemic. Heart-wrenching, chilling, and teeming with passion, The Normal Heart was met with widespread critical acclaim, later taking home a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie alongside fifteen other nominations.
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POSE
An entirely singular show in every sense of the word, POSE is an FX drama series about New York City’s underground ball scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Starring Evan Peters, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson, the series explored the ravages of the early HIV/AIDs epidemic as well as gentrification's nascent expansion across NYC's boroughs. Heartfelt and unapologetically raw, POSE garnered widespread critical acclaim throughout its three-season run, arguably pushing it to become Murphy’s seminal work throughout his illustrious career. The perfect conduit for Murphy’s trademark eye-catching visuals and glamorous production design, Murphy’s commanding aesthetic seamlessly enmeshes itself into POSE’s narrative, enhancing rather than distracting from the central ethos of the show.
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American Horror Story
Simultaneously one of the greatest and most disappointing shows to come out of contemporary network television, American Horror Story remains Murphy’s most widely known, derided, and adored series to date. Created by Murphy and his Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story’s first few seasons were unprecedented both in its voracious popularity and through its exploration of subject matter historically deemed too taboo for network television. Varying wildly in both content and quality, each season’s introduction of new characters and plotlines gives Murphy’s recurring actors the unique opportunity to sometimes play multiple roles, even within the same season. The perfect microcosm of a potentially phenomenal show self-sabotaging by jumping the shark for years on end, what started as a subversive horror series pushing the limits of network television has seemingly now degraded to a tawdry slasher.
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Feud
Ostensibly an anthology series following the catatonic rivalries between embittered members of high society, Feud’s first season depicts the long-standing animosity between Hollywood legends Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, while the second follows the fallout between writer Truman Capote and his “Swans” (a menagerie of elegant wealthy women Capote collected) after he publishes a short story in Esquire revealing some untoward details of their personal and private lives. Through both iterations, Feud has explored the sexism, misogyny, and ageism that has and continues to plague our culture. Though a third season is yet to be confirmed, it seems likely Murphy would return to Hulu with a third installment in the series based on the series’ rave reviews.
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Nip/Tuck
Chronicling the debaucherous personal and professional lives of plastic surgeons Dr. Christian Troy and Dr. Sean McNamara, Murphy’s serialized medical drama marked his break into major network television. An ingenious blend of black comedy, cultural satire, and soapy melodrama—Nip/Tuck not only cemented Murphy as a TV power player but elevated the expectations of cable network dramas more broadly. Featuring recurring performances from names like Bradley Cooper, Rosie O’Donnell, and Peter Dinklage, and fronted by Dylan Walsh and Julian McMahon; Nip/Tuck’s lauded writing and evocative subject matter made it one of the many groundbreaking shows of the time giving artistic credence to a medium historically seconded to film in both quality and clout.
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Glee
At its best a brilliantly cringeworthy satire and at its worst a tone-deaf, moralizing musical, Glee is undeniably Murphy’s most culturally significant work to date. Created by Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, the musical comedy series became a pop culture phenomenon almost immediately after its first season premiered in 2009. Centering on a Midwestern high school’s show choir club, Glee’s strong tonal shifts often allowed for it to address serious social themes like race, sexuality, and self-identity while still managing to include laughably ludicrous plotlines like the unforgettable season two storyline where Finn sparks a mass crisis of faith at the school after seeing the face of Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich.
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Halston
Chronicling the mononymous fashion designer’s meteoric rise to fame, Halston is a 2021 Netflix miniseries based on author Steven Gaines's 1991 biography Simply Halston. Carried by Ewan McGregor’s Emmy Award-winning standout performance as the titular designer, the series did receive some fair criticism for its liberty with biographic detail and occasional prioritization of style over substance. Brandishing the standard Murphy trappings of exceptional sets and meticulous costuming, the miniseries offers a compelling but somewhat superficial examination of one of fashion’s most singularly influential figures.
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Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Another true crime anthology from Murphy, the Netflix series stars AHS actor Evan Peters as notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Quickly rising to become one of Netflix’s most popular shows of all time, shortly after the show’s first season was released Netflix announced they were ordering a second season of the show, this time focusing on the Menéndez brothers’ 1989 murder of their parents. Despite audience popularity, Dahmer was incredibly divisive amongst critics, some labeling it a gross exploitation of Dahmer’s victims while others praised it as a harrowing and nuanced examination of a violent criminal. Multiple family members of Dahmer’s victims spoke out against the series, criticizing Murphy’s sensationalist approach and clear incomprehension of the true crime genre’s dubious ethos.
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The Politician
Created by Ryan Murphy and his Glee co-creators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the Netflix series stars Ben Platt as Payton Hobart, a Machiavellian high achiever determined to win his posh Santa Barbara high school’s student body presidential election. Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Hobart’s wealthy bohemian mother, The Politician is a delightfully soapy satire of our modern political landscape complete with just as many cringe-inducing comments and career-killing gaffes as our own. After shifting the second season to focus on Hobart’s race for a seat in the New York State Senate, Murphy confirmed the series would be returning for a third and final season focused on the fruition of Hobart’s lifelong pursuit of the Oval Office.
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Running with Scissors
Based on Augusten Burroughs’ harrowing 2002 memoir of the same name, Running with Scissors follows Burroughs through his unorthodox childhood as a de facto adoptee of his absent mother’s laissez-faire psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. Starring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, and Gwyneth Paltrow, the 2006 dramedy flopped both commercially and critically, bringing in just $7 million at the box office and inviting universally lackluster reviews. Tonally fractured and lacking the dramaturgical flair of the memoir, Running With Scissors fell flat on its proverbial face in a rare miss from Murphy.
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Ratched
A prequel to the book and its famous film adaptation One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Netflix’s Ratched is a dramatic thriller following the notorious character Nurse Mildred Ratched. Starring longtime Murphy collaborator Sarah Paulson as Mildred, the series opens with Ratched conning her way into a nursing position at Lucia State Hospital with ulterior motives to free Edmund Tolleson, her foster brother who has been committed after murdering four priests. Stylistically compelling and brimming with impeccable production design, Ratched felt like all surface and no substance, its uneven storytelling and poor character development unable to be belied by Murphy’s compelling aesthetic eye.
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The Watcher
Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, Netflix’s The Watcher is a thriller series loosely based on an article by Reeves Wiederman for The Cut. Shortly after moving into their dream home in a posh New Jersey suburb, the Brannocks (played by Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale), begin to be harassed by a pseudonymous stalker calling themselves The Watcher. Despite its compelling premise and a phenomenal supporting cast featuring actresses like Richard Kind, Jennifer Coolidge, and Margo Martindale—Murphy’s thriller veers slightly too far into the ludicrous to deliver serious suspense. Despite lukewarm critical and audience reception and initial creation as a limited series, The Watcher was greenlit by Netflix for a second season just one month after it premiered on the streaming service in October 2022.
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American Horror Stories
A direct spinoff of, you guessed it, AHS, American Horror Stories differs from its progenitor by changing stories and characters each episode instead of season-to-season, except for one storyline that transpires over two episodes and an epilogue. Starring several American Horror Story alum, the series episodes tend to vary drastically in quality, some tapping into the claustrophobic sense of doom that permeated the early seasons of American Horror Story while others buckle under the weight of half-baked plots and an overreliance on visuals. Despite its shortcomings, American Horror Stories teems with standout performances from the central cast and gives Murphy the rare opportunity to explore taboo themes and sensationalized plots without the burden of stretching said theme into a season-long arc.
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Popular
Essentially a precursor to Murphy’s hit series Glee; Popular was a teenage dramedy series following two girls at opposing ends of the social hierarchy who are forced together by their single parents’ budding relationship. Airing on the now-defunct channel The WB from 1999 to 2001, Murphy’s ambitious first foray into television lasted just two seasons despite its relative critical popularity and fiercely devoted fan base. Murphy has previously spoken about homophobic remarks from studio executives he’d received when pitching the series, recounting being told the show was “too gay”. Despite Popular’s comparative brevity, it helped usher in a new era of broader representation in television and introduced audiences to sensitive topics like eating disorders, teenage sexuality, and blended families.
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Eat, Pray, Love
Murphy’s second time helming the adaptation of a best-selling memoir, Eat Pray Love is a 2010 romance film based on journalist Elizabeth Gilbert’s acclaimed book. Starring Julia Roberts as a recently divorced Gilbert, the film follows her journey of self-discovery through India, Italy, and Indonesia. Despite a largely negative critical reaction, Eat Pray Love was a huge commercial success, bringing in more than $200 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of just $60 million. Though primed with richly descriptive, popular source material—Eat Pray Love’s cinematic adaptation falls short of establishing the introspection its source material elicits.
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The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
A metafictional sequel to the 1976 Charles B. Pierce film of the same name, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a self-referential slasher based on the real-life Phantom Killer, a violent criminal responsible for four unsolved homicides throughout the Texarkana metropolitan area in 1946. Often leaning heavily on sleek visuals to compensate for its lacking script, the film falls victim to many of the tired tropes that plague the slasher sub-genre like ham-fisted acting, haphazard use of gore, and underdeveloped characters. By and large another rote slasher, The Town That Dreaded Sundown still has some moments of terror to make it enjoyable for a low-commitment movie night.
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Scream Queens
Featuring a hodgepodge cast that included Emma Roberts, Ariana Grande, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Jonas, John Stamos, Kirstie Alley, and Lea Michele, Scream Queens was Murphy’s mercifully short-lived slasher comedy that ran on FX from 2015-2016. A Frankenstein’s monster amalgamation of American Horror Story and a generic network teen comedy, Scream Queens is by fathoms Murphy’s most confoundingly bad series in his storied career. Often tonally torn between its black comedy and horror trappings, Scream Queens’ indecision and disjointed genre-bending was ultimately what led to the show’s swift cancellation after two seasons.
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The New Normal
Airing for just one season from late 2012 into early 2013, The New Normal is a comedy series following an affluent gay couple who invite their new surrogate mother to live with them while she’s expecting their child. Starring Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha as the central couple, the series seemed primed to tap into the same viewership that skyrocketed Modern Family to success, but The New Normal never seemed able to find itself tonally before being tossed aside like other forgettable, one-dimensional sitcoms. While no singular element in The New Normal sticks out as particularly egregious, the show’s inextricable forgettability and blasé writing ultimately sealed its fate.
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9-1-1
A fairly anachronistic addition to Murphy’s production catalog, 9-1-1 is a boilerplate procedural chronicling the lives of a group of first responders in the Los Angeles area. Starring Angela Bassett and Six Feet Under star Peter Krause, 9-1-1 manages to flesh out some characters and deliver solid performances despite sometimes falling victim to the rote melodrama procedurals often find themselves prone to. Though 9-1-1 is unlikely to garner the prestigious accolades typical of much of Murphy’s other work, the series offers an elevated dramatic take that’s sure to deliver for existing fans of the genre.
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9-1-1: Lone Star
A Southwestern spin-off of 9-1-1, Lone Star shifts the focus of the dramatic procedural to first responders in Austin, Texas. Starring Rob Lowe as Owen Marshal Strand, a firefighter and recent New York City transplant adapting to life in Texas with his son, Lone Star was announced just over a year after the first 9-1-1 series premiered in 2018. Buoyed by Lowe’s undeniable natural charm and a preexisting fanbase, the series gives the soapy melodrama of the original series a country twist that lends Lone Star a distinct atmosphere while maintaining central similarities to its parent series.
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The Prom
Adapted from the 2018 Broadway musical of the same name,a The Prom is a 2020 musical comedy following a troupe of downtrodden performers working to help a young queer high school student, Emma Nolan, after her conservative high school’s prom is canceled when Emma asks another girl to the dance. Starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells, James Corden, and Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma, The Prom is a feverish two hours and ten minutes of saccharine songs and glitzy dance numbers stretched over a gossamer-thin plot. Despite the film’s cloying themes and derivative plot points, the propulsive energy from musical performances by Broadway veterans like Andrew Rannells and Ariana DeBose lend the film a garish charm that offers a brief reprieve from an otherwise mediocre musical movie.
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