|
| HBO | Season Premiere Date: June 2, 2024 |
Summary:
The general manager, a former elephant trainer and a kettle-corn vendor are some of the people aiming to take over the Texas Renaissance Festival from its 86-year-old founder when he retires in the three-part documentary series from director Lance Oppenheim.
Creator:
Lance Oppenheim
Genre(s):
Movie/Mini-Series, Documentary
Season 1 Episodes
-
S1:E3. We're Done!
Air Date: June 9, 2024
-
S1:E2. Make Big Choices
Air Date: June 9, 2024
-
S1:E1. Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got The Will?
Air Date: June 2, 2024
Jun 3, 2024
Ren Faire, HBO’s perceptive and surprisingly thrilling three-part portrait of the Texas Renaissance Festival as it approaches its 50th anniversary, is not that kind of story [offbeat, warmhearted nonfiction films about nerdy subcultures]. It’s Succession, but with corsets and chainmail.
Read full review
The Mercury News
Jun 5, 2024
If Netflix’s “Tiger King” made your jaw drop, get ready for it to fall to the ground while watching Lance Oppenheim’s wild three-part HBO series. It addictively covers the house-of-cards succession plans being hashed out for the Texas Renaissance Festival. Oppenheim melds documentary vérité for a fascinating depiction of 86-year-old King George’s (George Coulam) pursuit to pick a “suitable” successor.
Read full review
May 31, 2024
It’s a study in excess that I don’t necessarily recommend watching as a three-hour binge, but one that I absolutely recommend watching. Ren Faire has real breakout potential, with its juicy, borderline unbelievable story, its cast of larger-than-life character featured in those larger-than-life close-ups and its absolute cacophony of quirkiness.
Read full review
Jun 3, 2024
“Ren Faire” does a lose a little steam in its final third, as the characters — now including a third contender, Darla Smith, appointed co-manager with Jeff — continue to go ‘round in circles. You may share their frustration. But as time spent in a different sort of place — different even from the one the characters imagine inhabiting — it’s a quite rewarding, even refreshing, not-overlong watch. And the ending is, in its way, happy.
Read full review
RogerEbert.com
May 31, 2024
Oppenheim latches onto the “Game of Thrones” aspect of this business almost to a fault. There’s a version of “Ren Faire” that grounds its drama in a world that feels less exaggerated merely by presenting a few more of the “normal” people around George and his successors. .... However, the insulated, tight POV in “Ren Faire” is intentional in that it makes us feel as crazy as George and keeps the series engaging in George's unpredictable immediacy.
Read full review
Jun 6, 2024
Director Lance Oppenheim (whose credits include the recent Hulu documentary “Spermworld”) takes a stylized approach, giving the documentary an untrustworthy and manipulated feel that suggests a number of moments were staged. But it also seems likely that Coulam is too peculiar and stubborn — too lacking in self-awareness — to be anyone other than who he is, whether a camera is there or not.
Read full review
More From Metacritic
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
Seasons & Episodes
- Series Overview
-
Season 1
-
-
Season 1 Overview
Air Date: June 2, 2024
-
S1:E3. We're Done!
Air Date: June 9, 2024
-
S1:E2. Make Big Choices
Air Date: June 9, 2024
-
S1:E1. Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got The Will?
Air Date: June 2, 2024
-
Season 1 Overview