A Man in Full is highly entertaining, which should be no surprise. The series is an adaptation from David E. Kelley, the brilliant mind behind Ally McBeal, Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, and HBO’s Big Little Lies (and my favorite, the long-forgotten Picket Fences). Kelley has been in the thick of television since the days of Doogie Howser, M.D.
Kelley brings his signature brand of strong characters, a blend of genres, and sharp dialogue that you need to figure out just how deep the cut goes. The bench of actors is deep (and the likes of directors Regina King and Thomas Schlamme) with stars Jeff Daniels and Bill Camp, who turn the whip-smart and clever wordplay into instantly memorable lines that stay with the viewer long after the episode is over.
You wish A Man in Full had taken the time to develop the highly ambitious source material into something that better reflects modern societal dilemmas. This is a shame, considering the racial tensions in the background utilized in Tom Wolfe’s novel. The result is a final product that is always compelling, utterly overindulgent, and very sardonic at times.
Netflix’s A Man in Full Season 1 Review and Synopsis
A Man in Full follows Atlanta real estate mogul Charlie Croker (Daniels), who is about to be blindsided by his former protégé, Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphrey). Croker arrives at a meeting with the moneymen to go over his bank loans. Led by the head of the bank’s real estate asset management department, Harry Zale (Bill Camp), who is about to demand their money back.
The scene between Daniels and Camp is like Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, except Camp’s Zale is the giant white whale who is about to pop Croker’s balloon of hubris. It’s a terrific scene, with excellent actors firing off barbs at will, with Pelphrey’s Peepgrass holding his laughter while sitting on the sidelines. That’s what happens when you owe an institution over one billion dollars and never expect them to collect.
The passing comes at the expense of Croker’s lovely wife, Serena (Sarah Jones), whom the businessman brought along for some reason. The rest of the series is a chess match between Croker and Zale, where the players blink first, with Croker’s financial survival on the line. While Peepgrass is pulling the strings behind the scenes, his real motivation remains unclear.
A Man in Full is an adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel of the same name. Wolfe was a polarizing figure in the 1980s when Brian De Palma made his best-selling The Bonfire of the Vanities into a film that became one of the biggest box office bombs in Hollywood history. Wolfe’s novels are notoriously hard to translate to the screen because of their sprawling narrative, length, pacing, style, and language.
The series abandons a subplot about race riots and replaces it with the arrest of a young black man, Conrad Hensley (Jon Michael Hill), who is represented by Croker’s lawyer, Roger White (Aml Ameen). The issue here is Croker’s attempts to stay afloat and White’s defending Conrad is meant to connect both stories and spark conversation about segregation, redlining, and unequal access.
In Kelley’s version, this is wholly abandoned. We can only assume this was cut because of its original length. However, so much time was given to Conrad and Roger’s subplot that you wish more effort were made to connect both worlds. The result is a spinoff, with two stories being pushed together that do not quite fit.
Is Netflix’s A Man in Full Worth Watching?
A Man in Full is ultimately worth watching for the entertaining friction and tension between Daniels, Camp, and Pelphrey’s “Big Red Dog” Peepgrass because of the arrogance of big business, the hypocrisy of big banks, and big pompous egos. Daniels is darkly comic here, and the role is a stretch for him but is often one note. Diane Lane does what she can in a reduced role, like a juicier in the novel.
Camp’s “bull in a china shop” character spits off lines like, “Time to take a Clydesdale piss on that man’s head,” which steals every scene he is in. Frankly, Camp is Emmy-worthy in the role, but the actor blends so well into the background in every movie or series he is in that I am sure his turn will be forgotten during an awards run. Camp’s Zale is a commanding presence on screen.
Many will be split on A Man in Full. The ending is especially brazen and bold. You can’t help but be taken with it. While we can quibble about the stories not meshing—I almost think this was meant to consider a possible spinoff for Aml Ameen—the writing and performances are so entertaining, and the Netflix series works as a one-off that’s divisive, which is a bold choice in television nowadays.
You can watch the limited series A Man in Full only on Netflix.
6/10
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