Stream It Or Skip It: ‘100% Julian Edelman’ on Showtime, a Glowing Profile of the NFL Star, Executive-Produced by Julian Edelman

In Showtime’s 100% Julian Edelman, executive producer Julian Edelman enjoys unprecedented access to Julian Edelman. The New England Patriots’ star wide receiver and Super Bowl LIII MVP is launching a media company, Coast Productions, and its first property is this film, about how Julian Edelman became the New England Patriots’ star wide receiver and Super Bowl LIII MVP. It’s not your typical sports documentary, but is that necessarily a good thing?

100% JULIAN EDELMAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: 100% Julian Edelman opens with Mark Wahlberg reading a teleprompter, crosscut with a Julian Edelman highlight reel, all set to a thumping Black Keys song. “AN ASSAF SWISSA & JULIAN EDELMAN FILM” blares a title card (note: Swissa is Julian Edelman’s business partner). Wahlberg cusses, Julian Edelman does shirtless crunches, narrator Michael Rapaport jokingly quips, “God, I hate the Pats.” Message: THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER’S SPORTS DOCUMENTARY. It’s much more hagiographic than that!

Julian Edelman hails from Redwood City, Calif., the son of Angie and Frank Edelman. Frank is an auto mechanic, football coach and total hardass who drilled into Julian Edelman a work ethic as tireless and eternal as the moon itself. It defines Julian Edelman, who was undersized, unrecruited by colleges and barely drafted by the New England Patriots. Now, he’s an NFL superstar, the primary target of all-time-great quarterback/pseudoscientist Tom Brady and statistically one of the best postseason receivers in history.

The film follows roughly two years in Julian Edelman’s life, with biographical tidbits and talking-head commentary cut in. Julian Edelman’s work ethic was tested in 2017, after Julian Edelman tore Julian Edelman’s anterior cruciate ligament during a preseason game. Common knowledge dictates that athletes never, ever come back 100 percent from ACL injuries, if at all — especially for a player in his 30s, like Julian Edelman. But Julian Edelman fought through moments of depression and rehabbed and rehabbed and rehabbed, sometimes getting to the rehab facility before the sun even came up.

Julian Edelman was ready to come back for the 2018 season, but was suspended for four games for taking a performance enhancing drug (PED). When Julian Edelman finally got back on the field, Julian Edelman helped turn around an until-then lackluster Patriots season, and scampered all the way to an MVP trophy during one of the most boring, low-scoring Super Bowls ever. From the agony of a terrible injury to the thrill of a Super Bowl victory, Julian Edelman’s comeback is now complete. Cue the victory-parade footage!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: 100% Julian Edelman is an episode of A Football Life crossed with a music video crossed with that ESPN promo where John Clayton wears a Slayer T-shirt.

Performance Worth Watching: Admittedly, Snoop Dogg reading Julian Edelman’s NFL disciplinary letter is a funny, inspired bit.

Memorable Dialogue: Frank Edelman, commenting on how he pushed Julian Edelman to the brink of sanity while coaching and training him: “He used to get so mad at me. We’d fight.” Pause. “It was abusive.”

Sex and Skin: See aforementioned best shot.

Our Take: Fans of Julian Edelman will enjoy the sheer amount of Julian Edelman worship happening here. The movie is jammed with Julian Edelman’s celebrity fans and friends saying how great and dedicated Julian Edelman is: Pats fan and former rapper Wahlberg, comedian Bill Burr, Fox sideline reporter Erin Andrews, current and former NFL stars Deion Sanders and Michael Strahan, Our Lord Almighty Tom Brady, etc. If you ever wanted to hear Guy Fieri explain what an ACL tear is, this f—ing movie is for you.

However, NFL diehards (like myself) may be disappointed by the lack of true insight into the life of a pro football player who’s among the league’s elite. It’s slickly produced, lively in tone and so obviously executive-produced by Julian Edelman, it’s ridiculous.

It features numerous closeup shots of trainers massaging Julian Edelman’s damaged knee, but is short on compelling detail. It glances over the PED dustup — NFL rules forbid revealing what substance he took, but there’s no explanation as to why, just a brief admission that Julian Edelman made a mistake; a subplot about a dustup between Julian Edelman and Frank about the suspension seems like a diversionary tactic. Further cementing the not-really-insider subjectivity of the movie, it features adorable scenes of Edelman playing with his toddler daughter, who apparently just appeared on the planet one day, because the girl’s mother, Swedish model Emma Rose, and the paternity suit she filed are never mentioned. This is the kind of stuff that makes 100% Julian Edelman feel more like 73% Julian Edelman.

Our Call: SKIP IT, and I risk sounding like a bitter lifelong Detroit Lions fan by saying that. I can’t in good conscience downplay how he overcame a debilitating injury like an ACL tear, which is an extraordinary achievement. But the NFL Network is stacked with glowing player-profile docs that are more insightful and watchable because they’re not so obviously driven by their subjects’ egos. This is for Julian Edelman fans only, who won’t mind abundant instances of Julian Edelman promoting the Julian Edelman brand and Julian Edelman’s non-football projects and all other things related to Julian Edelman.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream 100% Julian Edelman on Showtime