Entertainment pretending to be historical is a minefield. Movies about George Washington, for example, cannot move too far from myths surrounding his real life without outraging public sentiment and failing at the box office. Facts get in the way of colorful lies, or, in the present instance, misrepresentations of events from seventy-odd years ago remembered personally by still living viewers, fictional copies which carry no value or purpose except to satiate the lusts of a paying and ignorant 2020 audience. The notion of "willing suspension of disbelief" is an impossible stretch. Memories are often too painful. One era of hypocrisy has been replaced by another, a countervailing successor made up of equal parts gratuitous vulgarity and political correctness. Not a pretty sight.
Quick summary of this short series called, unoriginally, Hollywood. (Spoiler Alert) First off, fictional caricatures (I do not call them characters) are interspersed in a field of real historical persons with little regard for how they fit together given what is already known about the latter. The series begins with a few fictional main caricatures who remain with the story throughout all seven episodes, inviting the viewer to identify with this one or that one. Because this series is to be a happy experience all the good guys will measure up to adversity and win in the end. But it will be a rocky road. Come to think of it, this faux drama could actually make a great musical! The bad guys are lawyers and cops, and what seem to be bad guys at the beginning turn out to be sweethearts at the end.
Along the way, real names of stars are dropped all over the place, and one in particular...Rock Hudson...is actually brought into the fictional melange as a marginally clueless gay neophyte who acts as a foil for both worthy and unworthy accomplices of two (or three) different racial backgrounds. Instead of becoming a big star, however, he just gets the 1947 version of a dental implant and grins his way to the end.
One of the few decent acting jobs is that of Rob Reiner, who does a great studio boss. His role in my estimation might even win him a real Oscar. Another standout is Joe Mantello as one of the studio executives. Jim Parsons is excellent as a sleazy agent right up to episode 7, where he undergoes a less than convincing transformation into a wuss.
What renders this series a complete flop is its reliance on two weak and illogical story lines involving race and sex. In the first of these, the Oscars of 1947 are made out to be a breakthrough for racial minorities, which amounts to a complete canard. The other failure is its dependence on sexual activity in a leering, panting way to advance the authenticity of a weak and scattered plot.
Minor comments: Why are museum-quality cars used in so many period films like this one? For someone of my generation (80+) it would make sense to throw in some real Model A's and 5-window coupes most of which were black and dented...even in Hollywood. One more gripe: I was a teenager in that decade and never, ever, heard so much gutter language in the presence of working people...even though I lived on the other side of L.A. in what was then white, middle class Alhambra. If I want to relive the 40's, there are dozens of documentaries on the internet that do a way better job of it for me. And finally, I knew at least two people who were fairly high up the food chain in Hollywood at the time, who, together with many other hangers-on of that type, would cringe at this glossy pastiche masquerading as an original step forward in cinematic art.
Quick summary of this short series called, unoriginally, Hollywood. (Spoiler Alert) First off, fictional caricatures (I do not call them characters) are interspersed in a field of real historical persons with little regard for how they fit together given what is already known about the latter. The series begins with a few fictional main caricatures who remain with the story throughout all seven episodes, inviting the viewer to identify with this one or that one. Because this series is to be a happy experience all the good guys will measure up to adversity and win in the end. But it will be a rocky road. Come to think of it, this faux drama could actually make a great musical! The bad guys are lawyers and cops, and what seem to be bad guys at the beginning turn out to be sweethearts at the end.
Along the way, real names of stars are dropped all over the place, and one in particular...Rock Hudson...is actually brought into the fictional melange as a marginally clueless gay neophyte who acts as a foil for both worthy and unworthy accomplices of two (or three) different racial backgrounds. Instead of becoming a big star, however, he just gets the 1947 version of a dental implant and grins his way to the end.
One of the few decent acting jobs is that of Rob Reiner, who does a great studio boss. His role in my estimation might even win him a real Oscar. Another standout is Joe Mantello as one of the studio executives. Jim Parsons is excellent as a sleazy agent right up to episode 7, where he undergoes a less than convincing transformation into a wuss.
What renders this series a complete flop is its reliance on two weak and illogical story lines involving race and sex. In the first of these, the Oscars of 1947 are made out to be a breakthrough for racial minorities, which amounts to a complete canard. The other failure is its dependence on sexual activity in a leering, panting way to advance the authenticity of a weak and scattered plot.
Minor comments: Why are museum-quality cars used in so many period films like this one? For someone of my generation (80+) it would make sense to throw in some real Model A's and 5-window coupes most of which were black and dented...even in Hollywood. One more gripe: I was a teenager in that decade and never, ever, heard so much gutter language in the presence of working people...even though I lived on the other side of L.A. in what was then white, middle class Alhambra. If I want to relive the 40's, there are dozens of documentaries on the internet that do a way better job of it for me. And finally, I knew at least two people who were fairly high up the food chain in Hollywood at the time, who, together with many other hangers-on of that type, would cringe at this glossy pastiche masquerading as an original step forward in cinematic art.