The biggest problem with this is the choppy story telling.
In the first episode I couldn't keep up with all the characters and who the kids were. It went backwards and forwards sewing in old film with interviews from 2009, 2012 and 2021. People's looks changed and it was difficult to follow. Even stories of the same event and time period altered depending on who was being interviewed.
I had to put on the subtitles as they rambled, mumbled and the heavy accents were difficult to hear, especially with an intrusive and unnecessary sound track.
The story is basic enough, man fakes his own death, asks God what should he do and ends up smuggling (and over using) drugs. Pretty sure that wasn't God's plan. Then he returns and he and the wife and kids disappear for a new life but wind up back where they started. Intertwine Reagan, the war on drugs and the Iran Contra era and it gets messy. The main character is a pure narcissist. The whole family looked like they were stoned during the documentary, especially mum. This was the very meaning of looking at their life through rose coloured glasses. Oh what fun we had, smuggling drugs, meeting Pablo Escobar (a great dude according to this guy), living in the nude, dropping acid, buying drugs off dad while he was in prison, mum giving dad ecstasy while he was in prison! And having sex with anyone.
This documentary glorified drugs to a sickening level and then when he got caught, well we need to blame someone, I know it's the governments fault. F.. ém (that was a constant remark from them all). So off to congress and testify against the CIA and Oliver North et al... No one goes to jail, he doesn't get a reduced sentence which is horrifying for all.
The best part of this is the last 20 minutes. This when you get to see them today. Dad is 80 and gets stoned everyday, lives with his ex-MIL and needs to get out. Son crawls out of the back of a van with a bong (where he presumably lives) to yell for his mom and mom? Well she stoned somewhere.
This could have been a good story handled correctly. Instead it is told through interviews where the interviewee constantly regales us with stories of how great everything was, including drugs. There is no constant flow, the timeline is messy and uncoordinated. To be fair, these people were a speck in the 80s who think they were something. Dad said it best when he said he as a coward, a rare moment of honesty. It needed a narrator to tie it together.
It's a 5 for the promise it had but lack of clarity and uneven story telling.
In the first episode I couldn't keep up with all the characters and who the kids were. It went backwards and forwards sewing in old film with interviews from 2009, 2012 and 2021. People's looks changed and it was difficult to follow. Even stories of the same event and time period altered depending on who was being interviewed.
I had to put on the subtitles as they rambled, mumbled and the heavy accents were difficult to hear, especially with an intrusive and unnecessary sound track.
The story is basic enough, man fakes his own death, asks God what should he do and ends up smuggling (and over using) drugs. Pretty sure that wasn't God's plan. Then he returns and he and the wife and kids disappear for a new life but wind up back where they started. Intertwine Reagan, the war on drugs and the Iran Contra era and it gets messy. The main character is a pure narcissist. The whole family looked like they were stoned during the documentary, especially mum. This was the very meaning of looking at their life through rose coloured glasses. Oh what fun we had, smuggling drugs, meeting Pablo Escobar (a great dude according to this guy), living in the nude, dropping acid, buying drugs off dad while he was in prison, mum giving dad ecstasy while he was in prison! And having sex with anyone.
This documentary glorified drugs to a sickening level and then when he got caught, well we need to blame someone, I know it's the governments fault. F.. ém (that was a constant remark from them all). So off to congress and testify against the CIA and Oliver North et al... No one goes to jail, he doesn't get a reduced sentence which is horrifying for all.
The best part of this is the last 20 minutes. This when you get to see them today. Dad is 80 and gets stoned everyday, lives with his ex-MIL and needs to get out. Son crawls out of the back of a van with a bong (where he presumably lives) to yell for his mom and mom? Well she stoned somewhere.
This could have been a good story handled correctly. Instead it is told through interviews where the interviewee constantly regales us with stories of how great everything was, including drugs. There is no constant flow, the timeline is messy and uncoordinated. To be fair, these people were a speck in the 80s who think they were something. Dad said it best when he said he as a coward, a rare moment of honesty. It needed a narrator to tie it together.
It's a 5 for the promise it had but lack of clarity and uneven story telling.