Why could “the worst TV drama ever” be a hit?

Created by superstar producer Ryan Murphy and with an all-star cast led by Kim Kardashian, the legal series All’s Fair has received brutal reviews. But viewers were celebrating her combination of high-end fashion and spotless interiors.

Since its debut on Hulu on Tuesday, the brilliant new legal drama All’s Fair has been slammed by critics. In the United Kingdom, The Times opined that it “may be the worst TV drama ever”, while The Guardian described it as “astonishing and existentially terrible”; Both newspapers gave it zero stars out of five. All’s Fair currently holds a rare 0% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating universally negative reviews. It’s definitely the most defining show of the year so far. So surely this nine-part series from Ryan Murphy, the Emmy-winning mastermind behind Glee and American Horror Story, is now dead on arrival?

Probably not, because All’s Fair is showing early signs of success, at least on social media. On The exceptionally terrible reviews combined with the show’s high-profile cast — Kim Kardashian, in her first leading role, is at the center of an ensemble that includes Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Nessie Nash-Pitts, Sarah Paulson, and Teyana Taylor — made it an instant object of fascination. It helps that the three episodes that premiered Tuesday contain plenty of outrageous standalone scenes begging to be shared on social media. One clip that has already gone viral shows Close’s character, Deena Standish, asking Paulson Carrington Lane about her mother’s decision to avoid birth control in shockingly vulgar terms. From an actor of Close’s stature — eight Academy Award nominations, three Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards — it’s high camp.

High camp is likely what creators Ryan Murphy, John Robin Baetz, and Joe Paquin were going for, at least in part. It’s supposedly no coincidence that Paulson’s character shares part of her name with Alexis Carrington Colby, the arch-villain played by Joan Collins from the cynical ’80s entertainment series Dynasty. All’s Fair has some of the feminine energy of the show, but adds a procedural element to the mix. It focuses on Grant, Ronson and Green, a fictional Los Angeles law firm founded by Kardashian’s Alura Grant, Watts’ Liberty Ronson, and Nash Bates’ Emerald Green (yes, that’s her character’s actual name). The company specializes in securing huge divorce settlements for wealthy, aggrieved women, but the founders are also locked in a constant battle with Paulson’s rival lawyer, Carrington Lane.

In the prologue of the first episode, set 10 years in the past, we see Lin spitting feathers when she is not asked to join their female company. This sets the scene, of sorts, for the frantic revenge she seeks today. So far, Lynn hasn’t been pushed into the lily pond, a fate that befell her and her “Dynasty” namesake, but she did hurl one particularly imaginary expletive at Kardashian’s character.

Paulson is one of 17 executive producers on the show, as well as Close, Kardashian, Nash Betts and Watts. Sometimes, it feels as if they’re all directing themselves too, because these central performances are rarely integrated. Close seems to be having fun and Nash Bates manages to sell some excruciating dialogue, but Watts never seems at ease, and Paulson is severely over-the-top. In fairness, when you’re asked to deliver a line that packs three F-bombs into five words, it’s best to stick with it completely.