- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 24, 2024
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Dirty Pop smartly ties its year-by-year timestamps to songs, like Backstreet’s “I Want It That Way” and “We’ve Got It Goin’ On,” or NSYNC with “It’s Gonna be Me,” which allows us to follow how huge the 90s boy band phenomenon really got, and wonder how those groups allowed themselves to be swindled for so long. .... The AI thing is a weird outlier in contrast to how any of the other footage in Dirty Pop is used. The docuseries readily admits the footage was manipulated. But it gives off a reek of also manipulating the viewing audience.
-
Looking at how he did it may be terribly unsavory, in terms of those suckered into “investing.” But some sucker had to put up the money to buy a “million dollar bus” and hire bodyguards for totally anonymous nobodies for their unknown “band” tour of Germany. That’s humbug even P.T. Barnum would appreciate.
-
The intersection of business, greed, and pop culture is a fascinating place, but it’s also perhaps too ethically complex for a flashy Netflix docuseries. How can something so beloved also be so painful to so many? Pearlman isn’t here to really answer that question, and the series can’t quite get there, even with their version of his own words.
-
In the age of post-truth and deepfakes, sticking AI into a pop documentary feels like a slippery slope. And in a show about scams, too.