Bessie

:

Season 1
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: May 16, 2015
User Score
6.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 20 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 20
  3. Negative: 7 out of 20

Review this tv show

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling

User Reviews

view
per page
  1. CheysMama
    May 17, 2015
    8
    Awesome performances by the entire cast! Would have liked for the ending to at least, elude to the tragic accident surrounding her death or a prologue describing the performers she influenced.
  2. DMH
    May 19, 2015
    3
    With such a great cast, I was truly disappointed with the script. The editing appeared to have been done by an amateur. There was no real flow of time passing. The scenes were quick and let you dangling.
    What a shame to see such a waste of talent. Queen and Mo'nique, the rest of the cast, were really terrific.
    Further, the abrupt ending made it worse.
  3. SportinJoe
    May 26, 2015
    1
    My God this is such a bad movie it stuns! The director couldn't quite make up her mind about whether Bessie Smith was a wild child, tortured by her childhood or a nice girl who just wanted to sit in a cotton field on a sunny day and listen to the birds sing. Whether she was a gritty down in the dirt blues singer or a warbling Broadway wannabe. Whether she wanted to drink and party allMy God this is such a bad movie it stuns! The director couldn't quite make up her mind about whether Bessie Smith was a wild child, tortured by her childhood or a nice girl who just wanted to sit in a cotton field on a sunny day and listen to the birds sing. Whether she was a gritty down in the dirt blues singer or a warbling Broadway wannabe. Whether she wanted to drink and party all night or if she wanted to be a mama to an orphan boy (gag me with a Dickens). This monstrosity is so full of cliches, both in the storytelling and the visually over blown assaults on our senses one can only assume that the director and writer were sampling the bootleggers wares themselves. Add to it the disjointed narrative that jumps forward in apparently unrelated ways and leaves out major things like the drug abuse and...well you feel drunk throughout this clunker. Worst of all, however, is Queen L and the 'music'. Janis Joplin channeled Bessie Smith in the 60's and there are a few black blues singers around today who really can do it but Queeny ain't one of em. Modern recording rescues her barely adequate voice but nothing can save her inability to feel the blues. Listen to Bessie then Janis then this screecher to hear the difference. And where the heck is 'St. Louis Blues" with Louis Armstrong at? How could they omit that from this movie? That song was the first crossover hit to white audiences by black artists about the black experience and really changed American music forever but you wouldn't know Bessie's role in that seminal piece of music from this dishrag bio pic! QL couldn't handle the vocals would be my guess. Add to that the paper cutter portrayal of all white people, even John Hammond, and you will find yourself wondering how they got this horrible thing made. HBO must have lost a bet on the dog races.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

62
#62 Best TV Season of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Dorothy Rabinowitz
    May 21, 2015
    90
    Out of all of this, including the aforementioned excesses--which are, it should be said, carried off with style--there emerges a brawling, crowded and unfailingly compelling film.
    Read full review
  2. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alex McCown
    May 18, 2015
    75
    One of the greatest blues singers of all time, Smith may simply be too big for the movie to contain. Luckily, Latifah’s towering portrayal gives her the magnetic and indelible portrait she deserves.
    Read full review
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Lloyd
    May 18, 2015
    80
    It does bear the compromises and conventions that routinely afflict biographical dramas.... But it's no worse in this respect than most such films and better than many — rarely cornball and, indeed, conceivably less melodramatic than the life it portrays. And it's always well played.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »