Ryan Murphy’s new thriller The Shards takes place in 1981 – but it’s about the present

Disney+ The Shards follows a fictionalised version of novelist Bret Easton Ellis during his final year of high school. Based on Ellis’ 2023 book of the same name, it’s September 1981, and the elite world of a wealthy prep school unravels as a serial killer known as “the Trawler” starts targeting students. Between trying to maintain his active social life and writing his debut novel, Bret (Igby Rigney) becomes convinced the new boy at school, Robert (Homer Gere), is linked to the various…