Paul T. Goldman

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.

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.

I've only watched 2 episodes so far, but I felt a need to see if anyone had similar feelings as I do. If you've ever seen the cult movie "The Room" written, directed and starring Tommy Wiseau, often referred to as the best, worst movie ever...this has that feel. This feels like everyone involved was highly aware of what the end product would end up being by having the title "character" Paul as the lead actor, if they kept this a straight series. They had the foresight to have a hybrid series/behind the scenes documentary, so the audience is in on the whole process of what this project is and how it came to be. I'm all here for it. They all look like they are having fun telling this crazy story and I can't look away for some reason. Kudos to all the actual actors in this.

Having watched three episodes it was entertaining, though the main character gets more annoting as time goes on - I can see why his wives left him! It is next to impossible to tell what is real or not - maybe the whole show is one big spoof in which case I will be rather annoyed at the end.

Still I will keep watching though with guarded reservations. Its also not clear whether the movie in a movie concept is real or just something for the show - e..g will it see the light of day separately.

If it turns out that the whole show is fake then the lead character Paul deserves an Oscar for playing someone so gormless so well.

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!