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Whenever I see a stand-up comedy special, movie, series or docuseries (Don't F**k this up) with Kevin Hart in it I'm always excited for reasons I cannot particularly explain. Sometimes I think it's because of his humble Philly beginnings or maybe it's because his looks, gestures and even his mannerism reminds me of @belemo. For these reasons I've always been predisposed to like and enjoy any project he is on. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to tell myself in all honesty that I completely appreciated the Netflix series True Story, and the main reason for that was best said by Brian Tallerico of rogerebert.com.
this drama doesn't have enough meat on its bone to last seven episodes
Source
Plot
Kid(Kevin Hart) is a successful stand-up comedian who also has a movie about to make a billion dollars in the box office. He returns home to Philly where he meets up with his troubled older brother Carlton(Wesley Snipes) who in my opinion did the heavy lifting in most of the seven and a half episodes (since the pilot episode was double length) of this series. Carlton and Kid despite the issues they might have had in the past especially with money, seem to be getting along just fine and even party hard together after Kid's successful show inspite of Kid's plea to have a quiet family evening that would also help him not fall off his sobriety wagon. All of his pleas fall on deaf ears as Carlton convinces him to have a great time with him. Heavy drinking ensued and so many pretty ladies in the VVIP room with them, one thing led to another and Kid wakes up in his hotel room with a dead woman lying next to him.
Source
Carlton being the big brother has vowed to take care of his little brother and feeling obligated to clean this up eventually comes up with a plan. He calls a fixer Ari(Billy Zane) to help them make it disappear, but nothing goes completely as planned leading to a series of track covering events. Ari's sociopathic brothers doesnt help their cause and so does a fan who also gets mixed up in the quagmire. What makes it worse for Kid is he can't speak to anyone else about what he he is going through but Carlton which leaves his everyday support group in Todd(Paul Adelstein) his manager, Herscel(William Catlett) his bodyguard and Billie(Tawny Newsome) his writer completely in the dark.
My Take
The performance of Kevin Hart in this drama is compelling especially as it is miles away from is comfort zone that is comedy. Wesley Snipes also turned back the years and showed why he was and is still considered an amazing actor. Nonetheless, True Story lacked depth and seemed too much like Kevin Hart projecting to the viewers the everyday life of a celebrity like himself especially when you know he just had a scandal about a close friend betraying him in 2019 and also the Oscar host debacle.
I would like to reiterate the fact that the performance of Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes was amazing, but the the story they had to play around was a little too basic and somewhat obvious. Hopefully Kevin would have chances in the future with more competent writers to show much of a good actor he is.
True Story still serves as very good entertainment if you want to watch something that you can almost to a T guess the end from the beginning, and I would encourage everyone to see it on Netflix.
Trailer
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