Spoilers ahead for the Season 1 finales of The Shards and The Beauty.
Ryan Murphy is a prolific creator of TV shows, including acclaimed projects like American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and Monster (the latter of which is streaming with a Netflix subscription). His latest venture is the book-to-screen adaptation The Shards, named after Bret Easton Ellis' novel of the same name. The Season 1 finale recently aired, and I'm getting some PTSD flashbacks of another series from Murphy: The Beauty's finale.
Both The Shards and The Beauty came out this year on FX and streaming with a Hulu subscription. They both contained stunning actors and Murphy's signature tone, as well as a wild cliffhanger. And if they both don't get renewed for Season 2, I'm going to lose it.
Just Like The Beauty, The Shards Ended With A Cliffhanger And No Resolution
Earlier in the summer, The Beauty was put on pause. This was a huge bummer for fans of the show like me, especially since Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger. Namely, when a de-aged Cooper (previously played by Evan Peters) takes a new form of the drug. The rest of the cast looks shocked when he emerges from his cocoon, but we weren't treated to any answers or looks at his transformation. And now that the show is on pause, it's more than possible that we'll never get them.
At the time of writing this story, The Shards has not yet been renewed for Season 2 on FX. After watching the Season 1 finale and its various cliffhangers, I'm worried that it might follow The Beauty by offering no resolution to the fans after a cancellation.
In the finale of The Shards, we saw Wes Bentley's Terry Schaffer pushed off his balcony by an unknown attacker. The opening narration showed this event, but the episode came and went without revealing whodunnit. The cliffhanger got even worse in the episode's final moments, where two police officers assemble the rest of the main cast and say they have evidence that one of them is responsible for the killings and kidnapping seemingly perpetrated by The Trawler. The episode ends, however, without that big reveal, leaving the identity of the show's mysterious killer up in the air.
This would have been a frustrating ending even if the show was already renewed, but now I'm worried that all of the lingering questions for The Shards won't be answered. If Season 2 doesn't happen, then we'll never find out who The Trawler is. That is, unless you read the source material. So I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that a renewal happens. Otherwise, this is going to be another Murphy show that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Both The Shards and The Beauty are streaming now on Hulu as part of the 2026 TV schedule. For now, fans of Ryan Murphy can look forward to the Season 13 premiere of American Horror Story on September 24th.
