Titans: The Rise of Hollywood

As others have commented, the history itself is the star of this show. The presentation is subpar - especially when considering the subject. I tried to research if it was AI generated and could not get a definitive yes or no. I'm leaning toward a yes. There's something OFF about it, but the history presented is edifying.

While packed with enough Hollywood history to make even the most avid movie goer salivate, this series falls short in almost all other categories. The acting is wooden and shallow. Why they decided to use a narrator who sounds like Peter Falk is unanswerable. If you close your eyes, you'll swear you're watching the Princess Bride. Overall, it plays like an 8th grade attempt at docudrama. Watch for the history or don't bother.

There were four Warner brothers, not three. Co-founder Albert is nowhere to be found or even mentioned. It's as if he didn't exist. Albert Warner headed all of Warner Bros. Distribution in New York with my grandfather Samuel Schneider (who was vice president and treasurer on the board). Albert and Sam were the first of the brothers to get into the movie business, before Harry and Jack joined them. A major mistake in this series.

United Artists was founded by four movie icons, not three. In addition to Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin, all shown in the series, they entirely left out D. W. Griffith. His career, impact, and legacy are completely gone. No "Birth of a Nation" or "Intolerance." None of his legendary work with Lillian Gish (who is also conspicuously absent). But to spend a good amount of time on the forming of United Artists and not even mention Griffith's name isn't just an error, it's revisionist history. It's just plain wrong.

The budget is low, except apparently for purchasing cartons of cigarettes. The younger actor playing Adolph Zukor was never without a cigarette in any shot or scene. EVER. It went beyond a chain-smoking vice or character trait into completely distracting and amateurish, like a bad joke or exaggerated nervous tick.

I appreciate the effort, and it's a story worth telling, so I'm glad this series exists. Many fascinating people, tales, and details are presented, but with some huge, glaring errors (mentioned above), it makes me doubt and question the truth in all of it.

Clearly the inspiration for this was "Movies and Money" by David Putnam, a book which I heartily recommend for anyone interested in the subject.

I heartily loved this show. Even though I'm no fan of the French I do have to say however it's pretty cruel to not acknowledge that it was the Lumiere Brothers who invented the projector to Eddisons "viewing box".

Proper "features" also needed funding and it was Credit Suisse who made the first. But when it gets into the story of Carl Laemmle I became hooked.

It is also ultimately very uplifting as it shows what entrepreneurs and imagination and energy can achieve. Really loved this.

As a life long cinephile I will watch anything related to the history of the movies.

For the most part, I enjoyed this, particularly the stuff with Carl Lemmle and Universal, but to not mention D. W. Griffith even once, (not even as of the four creators of United Artist) is just weird. Not to mention paring down the Warner Brothers from 4 to only 3.

I'm also not sure how "Tess of the Storm Country" (1922) could ever be considered the first feature film, when "Les Miserables", "Cabiria", and of Course, "Birth of A Nation" (1915) all precede it by many years.

But overall there is more good than bad and still worth a watch for film buffs.