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I will watch anything that Ryan Murphy puts on television. That's sort of a problem, because every other week the television creator seems to have a new show on the air. This week, it's Pose an FX series that features the largest transgender cast ever to exist on TV. But for every way that Pose is breaking new ground, it's doing so within Murphy's very established style.
It started with Popular in 1999, the short-lived high school dramedy that, following its cancelation, became a beloved cult series. One decade later, after Murphy gave the world plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck (the most bonkers medical show ever conceived, with its very own serial killer) Murphy birthed Glee. The musical high school dramedy teetered between an after-school special on acid and a heartwarming celebration of the underdog. (I watched every single episode... haters be damned.)
All of this was before Murphy gave the world anthology series American Horror Story, which Murphy could use as a playground for all of his most Murphy-isms. Fellow anthology series American Crime Story and Feud followed, with Fox's Scream Queens (a hybrid of Glee, Popular, and, oddly, AHS) also thrown into the timeline.
If we are living in Murphy's world, what makes it Murphy's world? You might be surprised to find the common threads in the producer's many works — threads that we are sure to see a lot more of, given Murphy's new, $300 million dollar deal with Netflix. Here are things you'll find in most, if not every, show that Murphy puts his name on.
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