This is a beautiful limited series and I loved reading it for that reason alone. The story itself was a little lacking in my opinion. It’s definitely formulaic and you can see the twists coming if you are familiar at all with the genre. Brubaker also plucked storylines and characterization based of off real life actors from the golden age of Hollywood. There was a strong beginning but I feel like the ending lay a little flat. That being said, I love this time period of Los Angeles and Hollywood, Sean Phillip’s work really brought the city of the 40s to life.

 I’m into old Hollywood so I loved that aspect, “the Fade Out” captured the feeling of the McCarthy era well. The story is an alright mystery that centers on a starlet that was about to have her big break. The studio says she killed herself, but PTSD-suffering, alcoholic writer Charlie Parish has his doubts. If only he could remember what happened last time he saw her... It has twists and turns that keeps your interest, but there isn’t anything new or unexpected happening here. It plays out pretty much exactly as you imagine a noir-type mystery set in Hollywood in the 40’s would.

The biggest problem however is the Sean Phillips’ art, whilst not awful, it’s kinda ugly, people’s faces just doesn’t look right, they all - including the stunning starlets and leading men - look better with their faces partially hidden. Thankfully there’s a lot of shadows.