X
- 2017
- TV-MA
- Amazon Prime
- 2017
- TV-MA
- Amazon Prime
Summary The docuseries features interviews, archival footage and dramatizations to tell the story of Hugh Hefner's magazine.
- 2017
- TV-MA
- Amazon Prime
- 2017
- TV-MA
- Amazon Prime
American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story
Season 1 Premiere: Apr 7, 2017
43
4.3
Where to Watch
Summary The docuseries features interviews, archival footage and dramatizations to tell the story of Hugh Hefner's magazine.
Where to Watch
All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
43
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
75% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
25% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
43
0% Positive
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
75% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
25% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[A] sniggering white-wash.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
4.3
47% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
7% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
47% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
4.3
47% Positive
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
7% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
47% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company:
- Alta Loma Entertainment
- Amazon Studios
- Solid Brothers Films
- Stephen David Entertainment
Initial Release Date: Apr 7, 2017
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-MA
Genres:
Awards
New Zealand Cinematographers Society
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
