Hollywood, Netflix’s limited series and the latest from Ryan Murphy, asks, “What if things were different?” But doesn’t dig deep enough to deliver a satisfying answer to the question.

Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan know how to make something beautiful.

If Hollywood were set just a few years prior and debuted as a silent production, every single shot would be worthy of printing out and decorating any room with the stills. That could be said for several productions from the duo, and in some cases, they might have benefitted from the script being lost to a fire.

While you will not be spared from some expected dialogue from a 1940s period piece about making it big — “Believe it or not, you got it. Picture potential,” Jim Parson’s Henry Willson utters in a meeting — Hollywood largely works because it leans in, all the way in, to what you would expect if you walked onto a studio lot.

But, it also plays so well against the current backdrop of the Los Angeles we know from headlines and tell-alls today, that you wonder, if change did arrive in the 40s, where would we be today?

You’re not going to get an answer to that as Hollywood prefers to leave you diving into the pool with a cut-to-black wondering — did the series actually make the jump it intended to?

‘Hollywood’ Netflix review

Race relations, homosexuality, sexual harassment, and all the red tape that comes with getting a picture greenlit are on display in the first episode of Netflix’s Hollywood.

Naturally, as a tried, tired, and true Murphy viewer, I expected the worst possible outcome: a series building up to epic speeches that had no other sturdy plot to hold it up. And while the latter of that does prove to be true, the former doesn’t give this series enough of a pass for me to enjoy the seven-episode limited run.

Hollywood does not bubble the stories up to a tipping point, there are not grand speeches or storming out of set moments.

It favors rallying people together behind closed doors, over even-tempered discussion, diluting the drama just enough to keep the episodes focused on the work can be done by meaningful stares as screen tests are watched, as lines are rehearsed, or as unwanted approaches are made in silence.

The subtly of Hollywood is not what I was not expecting. Sure, there are the moments where a character spews dialogue like, “You’ll never make it without me!” or “I had a dream once too, you know!”

But running underneath all the perfect hair, polished nails, and ruby red lips, was a vulnerability in each and every character that you were able to tease out rather than be told it was there.

Our entry point to the series is through Jack Castello (David Corenswet), a soldier recently home from serving in WWII with a pregnant wife and stars in his eyes.

Though he has a few walk on roles as a background actor, his resume is empty with no reliable income until an opportunity at the Golden Tip — a bit of a on the nose name for a service station masking as a brothel — comes along.

His looks may not get him any favors in “The Business,” but they serve Ernie’s (Dylan McDermott) operation just fine.

The series spirals from there into the dealings that take place in backrooms, hotels, alleyways, bars, and on the studio lot.

We get to meet the more ancillary players such as the studio executives whose desires to break from the norm, suffer from age and reputation, and are played brilliantly by Joe Mantello and Holland Taylor.

We meet Rock Hudson (Jake Picking) and learn about his relationship with agent Willson. Picking and Parsons both play with history, as it’s clear this story picks and chooses what it wants to show to keep this retelling on track.

I can’t say that a single character or episode made me want to dive into a Wikipedia worm-hole because it likely would have made the story being told on screen feel “less than” the people they were skimming the surface of. That said, actor Jeremey Pope did a bang up job, as did screenwriter Archie Coleman.

There is a moment early in episode 2, where the direction of the series finally clicked. Archie is in a meeting with director Raymond Ainsley (Darren Criss) discussing his script that is at the top of the pile for the studio to greenlight.

He wants to tell the story of Peg Entwistle, the famed actress, who in 1932, took her life by jumping off of the “H” in the Hollywood sign. “I understand her rage, I see myself in her. Time ticked by while she watched, that crushes me, writing her story that’s how I can finally break [her] into this business.”

It’s not told in some rousing speech, but over a drink at a bar. It’s also not being laid upon that he cannot go to the studio as a gay, black man and expect to see his story picked up, bought, and made. He’s not even sure that he can get this picture made as a closeted black writer.

Every person in the cast has this urge to live their truth in spite of shame cast on them by “The Business” and the general public.

Archie understands the obstacles in his way, but is also not writing about a white woman taking her life to get around them. Instead, he is hurdling them by telling a story he wants to see regardless of the topic.

Pope is exquisite not only this scene, but in nearly every single one he appears. There is softness to his anger, the way he can diffuse an incoming argument that he can see from a mile away that it will not end well.

In one particular scene in episode 2, he and Pickling diffuse an otherwise tense moment and ease into a scene rehearsal that will likely be one of the most romantic of the series.

Unlike the casting calls in Hollywood, this is an area where Murphy has never experienced any trouble. Patti LuPone arrives to play a role, dare I say it, she was built to play.

Parsons delivers a deliciously cringe-worthy turn as Willson keeps you hating him until the final moment and does not do something that could have been easily achieved in this fantasy picture — make you want to forgive him.

Leslie Jordan was right to start the Dylan McDermott fan club on Instagram, you’ll love him as Ernie the keeper of Dreamland.

And finally, David Corenswet, who after his role in The Politician, I believe was actually made in a Ryan Murphy factory, is the epitome of a “looker.” He is arguably the star of the series, but he is also not the focal point.

The screen time seems to be pretty divided amongst quite a few leads, making me wonder if awards season will see a few Best Actor in a Leading Role nods from a single series.

While the messaging doesn’t do anything but serve as messaging, the series will hold your attention from start to finish and make you wonder, “What if?” Just don’t try to pick it apart.

Hollywood premieres on Netflix Friday, May 1.