- Network: Amazon Prime , AMAZON
- Series Premiere Date: Apr 6, 2017
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Critic Reviews
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The series doesn’t go too deeply into several issues raised about Playboy over the years, like exploitation, objectification, and elitism. Instead, when it comes to controversy, American Playboy seems to focus primarily on the accusation that because it flaunted naked women, Playboy was obscene.
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Don’t expect “American Playboy” to stray beyond its message. It’s not exactly “Masters of Sex” in examining the nuances in sexual revolution, and there is little depth to its approach. Nevertheless, the docu-series is pretty watchable if for no other reason than to remind us how crazy those times could be.
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Based on the first two episodes available for preview, the biography, authorized by the 90-year-old Hugh Hefner, unfolds like a bland, hagiographic promotional tool or an affectionate eulogy for the magazine, it’s hard to tell which.
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As a narrator, assuming Hefner’s voice, [Matt] Whelan is effective enough; but, as is the case with most such fish-and-fowl documentaries, the dramatic scenes, often without dialogue, lack depth and as often as not come off as corny. The actual archival material, meanwhile, drawn from Hefner’s own archives is compelling.
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What’s missing, at least in the first two episodes, is a deeper conversation about Playboy’s cultural role. ... Otherwise, American Playboy is eminently watchable and generally informative, the kind of look at an enormous cultural icon that PBS might do if “American Masters” included naked women.
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An attempt at fusing those two approaches, the 10-part hybrid series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story weaves archival footage, new interviews, and dramatic re-enactments into a shoddy tapestry.
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Its examination of the events and of Hefner itself is so transparently revisionist and positive, at least in the two episodes given to critics to screen, that you don’t feel compelled to open your mind at all.
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[A] sniggering white-wash.