Love & Murder: Atlanta Playboy

I loved this. I had never heard of Lance Herndon and the mystery of his death was almost Agatha Christie-like. In addition, though it is 4 hours I was never bored. The casting is perfect and the acting is top-notch by every single character, big and small.

But, if I was a member of Lance Herndon's family, I would be very upset by the soap opera style telling of his murder.

The tone made me think of Nicole Kidman's "To Die For", which was a satire based on the Pamela Smart case. But this was the real Herndon story; It would've have been more appropriate to base this on his story instead of using his name and making it be so comedic.

For fans of true crime, Lance Herndon is an interesting piece not just for facts of the case, but the way his story has been told, reshaped in the years since. You can watch videos that nail the details into his murder but some also plant a heavy tone that it was his own fault. I say this as 'Love & Murder: Atlanta Playboy' continues this trend, but dials up the dramatic cheese to 11. Surface level only verging on trashy reality tv vibes. You can't shake the notion that Taye Diggs is slumming it too.

Two failed marriages and on his third, Lance Herndon (Diggs) can't keep his member in his pants. He battles keeping his wife, landing business contracts and breaking off on his own while being his worst enemy then in comes Khloe (Nicole Lyn). Spots her at a party, but she rebuffs him. After months of gifts, lavishing money & finally getting freaky does he find out she's just as much of a player as him and won't be tossed aside so easily. When he's killed the wheels shift to who did it, why and trial.

Coming from the BET network, I hoped they'd flesh Herndon out and I'd see how he made his money, became successful with finer detail. Very quickly I came to realize this was naive. An opening montage of black ladies showered in glitz and glamour flew across my screen told me what I needed to know. Who their main viewing audience was and it was gonna cater to them maximally. The cut to Diggs in front of a green screen and fourth wall breaking solidified this poor omen.

Later comes side plots about disgruntled business partners, those red herrings by the boatload. However it's pointless and silly when you know who killed him. You get a bunch of sexy times, but alas no nudity means little heat. Title cards for the women in his life, repeated lines about giving up his Playboy ways that you know isn't going to happen.

The whole thing rates at the maturity level of a soap opera. Rich man screws around with dubious females and ends up getting just desserts. I never felt like I was seeing the real Lance, the women in his life, a real taste of Atlanta or did I ever feel emotionally invested.

'Love & Murder: Atlanta Playboy' chooses to focus on the juicy sexual elements at play, but a semi-comedic tone and some overacting does it no favors. Hard to ignore victim blaming a dead man too. I doubt you'd see this go down if genders were reversed, but c'est la vie. Not a slice of true crime this two part tv movie also doesn't rate high on fun.

I was completely confused at the tone of this movie. I thought it was going to hit the high points and stay on task but no. This seemed silly and way less than what I was expecting. It was more of a comedy than Suspense or drama. Yall did Lance Herndon wrong on this one.

This has 2 reviews on BET and 4.5 stars which is so confusing to me. If this is going to be a series of short tales about murders of Black citizens then maybe I would watch it but this thing here being 2 extremely long parts with so much filler and unnecessary dialog and information was a bust. Im still shaking my head. Dang.

I remember this murder in Atlanta during this time. Lance Herndon's Murder was a huge case. The writers made a mockery of his life and the people in his life. The way it was written, all the characters are comedic characters. They made fun of the relationships. Every actor played their part as if they were a caricature in an animated show. They didn't take the man's life seriously. They told his life story as a joke. Since they were going to do that, the writers should have created their own and leave Lance Herndon's life out of it. Not impressed with the writing or exaggerated acting from the actors..

I thoroughly enjoyed this 2-part drama. It was great with very good casting. However, upon realizing that they were using the actual name of the victim, whose real murder inspired the movie, I was a bit torn. On one hand, I love movies that reflect real occurrences and I'm typically attracted to them for that reason. So when I saw that it was based on a true story, as part 1 began, I was even more inclined to watch it. By part 2, I decided to look up the main character's name and realized it was indeed the real name of the man whose life it depicted. Then I began to have some mixed feelings because this was indeed a very tragic and senseless occurrence that Mr. Herndon nor his family deserved, particularly his mother. The drama seemed to trivialize it a bit due to its comedic nature. Had it not been based on real life events, I would have enjoyed the comedic nature of it. But I also felt it was a tad bit disrespectful considering. I would love to hear the director/producer share why they chose to do so.