cmikeolsen After I started watching this documentary I realized that I've had the completely wrong perception of Playboy my whole life, i.e. if I'm to believe everything depicted in this documentary. I've only browsed through Playboy magazine a few times in my life, and I never read any of the articles in it ;-) Though I've always been fascinated by the life of Hugh Hefner, though from a purely sexual perspective. After watching the first 4 episodes of this series though, I'm even more fascinated and impressed by this man as I had no idea he was such a visionary and innovative entrepreneur and that he had such a nag for surrounding himself with talented people. Further, the documentary gives the distinct impression that he was anti-establishment, an equal opportunity employer, had an open door policy, was a great boss, was surprisingly respectful of women (even though at the same time he was obviously exploiting them too), was color blind and, even though indirectly and possibly unintended, he supported for the civil rights of blacks by ignoring the fact that the southern states didn't want to air his Playboy Penthouse TV show because he had a lot of black entertainers on this show. It's almost too good to be true. And as mentioned I have only seen 4 episodes so far, but I kind of doubt the tone is going to sway again Hefner. Lastly, I liked the acting and the occasional switching back to real Hefner footage.

robl-7 So far I've watched 8 out of 10 episodes. For anyone who wants to know about Hugh and how the Playboy empire was built, it is quite interesting. Unfortunately, it seems like they missed the mark on a number of things. For one thing Janet Pilgrim in the movie has a beauty mark on her upper lip, the real Janet Pilgrim didn't seem to have that nor does the actress actually playing her. It was quite distracting. The other actors and actresses appeared to be miscast as well. The actor playing Hef while having a nominal resemblance was not the correct body type as someone mentioned in a previous review and Victor also looked nothing like the archive footage. I know nothing can be perfect, but in some ways it appears they didn't try.Aside from those flaws, I noticed that parts of the story line seemed completely out of order. We are in the 70's, then back in the 60's etc. As other reviewers have noted, they also spent too much time talking about political issues when lets face it, that isn't what people are watching the movie for. Hef lived in the Chicago mansion for over 10 years, a mansion arguable cooler than the Los Angeles mansion, yet all you really saw was his bed and living room. I think anyone who is watching wanted to know more about the parties going on there which is completely left out. The playboy clubs they talked about a few of them, but considering that was a major part of playboy, there should have been more about that and less about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The London club opened in 1965, yet in this story they have it opening in the 70's or maybe 1969, hard to tell from the story line. The Arnstein story line was carried out reasonably well.Basically, its an interesting mini series and you will learn some things you likely didn't know before, but if like most people, you want to know about the playboy clubs and the wild parties, that is sorely missing from this.

stuartburson I got bored one night and was looking through Amazon Prime when I found this. I thought it was going to be a straight-on documentary, but it mixes actual interviews with Hefner and others, and dramatizations of the events in Playboy history. If you want to know the history of how one man created an empire, this will entertain and inform you.

Asif Sheikh Playboy is that iconic brand that has always remained in my mind synonymous with porn. I have never read the magazine nor was it ever available at my home, I only had exposure to the brand through the internet and that too very rarely. So, I was surprised to find such an inspiring story of the life of Huge Hefner. I have to say that this series/documentary was an eye opener and well made, not revolutionary but still intriguing. Worth a watch just to understand the cultural impact playboy has had on society.