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Cynthia Erivo provides the requisite vocals yet is otherwise an empty version of the legendary singer in a shallow new series
The first season of National Geographic’s anthology series Genius centered around Albert Einstein. The second, Pablo Picasso. For the most part, these past iterations were formulaic melodramas anchored by magnetic leads (Geoffrey Rush and Antonio Banderas, respectively). The newest Aretha Franklin installment, starring Cynthia Erivo, isn’t terribly different in this regard. It’s essentially a soap opera masquerading as something vaguely more sophisticated due to the import of its subject and the pedigree of its cast. But it’s not a particularly good soap opera either, suffocated as it is by clunky, oversimplified attempts to capture the complexities of Franklin’s life and character. Its failures, given the singer’s recent death in 2018 and criticisms lodged against the show by members of her family, therefore feel particularly vexing.
Related: 'A legend in her own right': Carolyn Franklin, Aretha's forgotten sister Continue reading...