Paul T. Goldman

What if Werner Herzog and Nathan Fielder had a child?

They would have named him Paul T. Goldman.

The line between real and fiction is a thin and blurry one, often crossing and blending together in various forms of media. In literature, for example, authors often take inspiration from real-life events and people, but then add their own imagination and creative twists to create a fictional story. In film and television, real-life events and people are often depicted in a fictionalized manner, blurring the line between fact and fiction even further. Thanks ChatGPT for providing 400 characters needed it to publish this review.

I love the premise that a non-actor played the lead role about a story that actually happened to him in real life.

I do understand that It was probably a bit frustrating for the actors and the entire crew to work with someone with no acting experience. But, hey, who better to play the part than this quirky, gullible and real man? I found it refreshing!

The way the movie was put together is quite rare and I love rarities in life and in movies.

I have done some writing about things that have happened to me and if there isn't some sort of embellishment of a true story you might not grab the audience's attention as well. And, in my eyes, and my words, there is nothing wrong in embellishing.

Kudos to all the non-actors. Actors, director, and the rest of the entire crew for presenting something so quirky, unique and out of the ordinary!!

I'm not sure how much the titular character is aware of what's happening, and it's hard to have sympathy for he comes across as quite an unlikeable egomaniac. For fans of obscure B-movies, he is essentially a Neil Breen type character, who is caught in the writers' and director's web. He thinks they are making an emmy-level documenatry while they essentially parody the recent spate of cheap Netflix true crime documentaries (e.g The Tinder Swindler). By largely allowing Paul T. Goldman to tell the story, and leaning into the more asburd elements of the story (e.g a psychic medium), they beging to reveal the embellishments and question if any of this really happened. In turn, this makes it much more honest than other so-called true crimes. Your enjoyment of the show will depend on whether you can tolerate the strange title character, and enjoy seeing a well-loved genre be torn apart.

This is original and highly entertaining. The creators manage to balance out the self indulgent nature of Goldman, as well as the tragi-comédie of his life story. Despite this naive protagonist being horribly duped and taken advantage of, this is by and large a comedy. Am quite surprised by the relatively low rating here (I think many are taking it too seriously) and think it deserves more credit for a really enjoyable spin on true crime storytelling. While one can't help but laugh at the goofy Finkelman/Goldman throughout, he is certainly lovable enough to garner the necessary sympathy to convince the viewer to root for him. I found this far more entertaining than almost anything else on the major networks.

Wow! And I say that for a reason! This show is just so much different from anything that I have ever seen. Anything?! Yes, ANYTHING!

When watching the first episode, I was completely caught. And it was not only the story - which by the way is pretty interesting in itself - but more so on the way that this story is brought to film. It is namely shot in a very professional way - studio included - but with the real person as the main actor. And this is exactly what makes it special! Because the guy has totally no acting experience and he can't keep himself from smiling. It's like watching Seinfeld's Kramer playing Marlon Brando's role of Godfather!

So yes, it is in my opinion pretty amusing to the point of hilarious.

That a company like ComCast - with its valuable Peacock brand - is willing to experiment with content of this kind, deserves a thumbs up. But who in his right mind would have ever expected this to be so good. I mean... just watching the guy explaining how he is being screwed - literally actually - is an awesome experience to see.

And I hope that the actual mr. Goldman reads my review, because I want to give him credits for the most innovative tv format in a long time!

And the score? A well deserved 8.1/10, which results in an IMDb score of 8 stars!