Cheap Seats: Thoughts on the Mr. McMahon Netflix Docuseries
For quite some time now the wrestling community has sat on edge waiting to see what what this new Netflix docuseries, Mr. McMahon, had to say. I got home from work on Wednesday with the intention of watching an episode or two to check it out. Six hours later and way past the time I should have been asleep for work the next day, and the show came to a conclusion. So, what are my thoughts?
Entertaining: It’s a very entertaining documentary. For someone who loves wrestling it’s an entertaining watch as it goes through the rise of Vince McMahon, the ups and down, the lawsuits, the drive of competition. This same storytelling device in the documentary also serves what I’m sure the purpose of this was when Netflix purchased it; to give insight into the rise of Vince and WWE as they make the move to Netflix.
Therein lies the problem. The series played it safe on both sides. They gave just enough for both sides, but never really explored more. It danced around the fringes. Under normal circumstances, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but with the current events surrounding Vince, I feel that at the very least, they needed one more episode to really explore in detail these most recent allegations and present both sides of that argument.
Maybe it’s the fault of the IWC that I feel this way. There’s been so much talk of how this series was going to go, so much “dirt” on Vince that I think there was such a high expectation set that this would be that “aha” moment and it came out flat in that regard. But once that expectation is removed, it’s a good watch. Again, however, that expectation was set.
What I found the most interesting about this docuseries, however, is both the story of the rise of Vince McMahon and his reaction under pressure and business acumen, mixed in with what I felt was the message behind this docuseries.
What was that message? That if you play a character long enough and hide who you really are to protect yourself and your business, eventually those lines can be blurred. Is that an excuse into what Vince has been accused of doing? Absolutely not, there is no excuse, but I do feel it gave a good view into that theory. There was a good job to show that distinction of that father figure he was to many legends, the claims from himself he wasn’t his character, and claims from others that he was his character. My takeaway was that he lost himself in his character until he became his character and started to live out his darkest desires.
Look at Heath Ledger. A method actor who lost himself into a chaotic role that won him an Academy Award, but it put him in a dark place he never rebounded from.
Did this do anything to change my opinions on Vince? Not really. As much as it might upset a few and might not be a popular thing to say, I have an immense amount of respect for Vince. But do I hate the human being that he is? Yes, what he has done, if true, is reprehensible. Nothing about this documentary did anything to sway me one or the other. I think that was the purpose behind this. I doubt it started off that way, but by the time this documentary actually saw the light of day it was designed to draw in both the wrestling viewer, and those who love the docuseries formula on Netflix in order to get buzz going about WWE before it’s debut on Netflix. Given that, Netflix wasn’t going to allow it to go too far into the vileness of Vince McMahon to turn away viewers, but they also couldn’t ignore it because it’s out there and a fluff piece might turn away people in a critical time to position WWE to succeed on Netflix. So, while I did enjoy it, I felt that ultimately it was a six-hour promo to bridge the gap until Raw hits Netflix designed to pique interest.
What are your thoughts?
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