Ryan Murphy was “shocked” at how emotional he was working on The Shards. The Shards also tackles the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the subject matter leaving Ryan “emotional” . Ryan added that he had to make the decision to go back to therapy once The Shards “unearthed” some memories that had left him traumatised. Of course, this show was set before people really talked about [the HIV/AIDS epidemic]. Like [making ‘The Shards’] unearthed a lot of joyous and hard feelings, and but it was fun to make at the same time.