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National Geographic tackles Aretha Franklin in this latest iteration of its Genius series. Set to run over eight episodes, it features some thrilling musical performances alongside standard biopic setups.
GENIUS: ARETHA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “Chicago, 1967,” a title tells us, and Aretha Franklin (Cynthia Erivo) appears on stage, tearing through “Chain of Fools” as a sweeping camera captures her sashaying, backup singing sisters and a swinging band.
The Gist: National Geographic’s Genius series moves on from dramatizing the lives of Picasso and Einstein in favor of a more contemporary legend in singer, songwriter and performer Aretha Franklin. Cynthia Erivo plays Aretha with a contained sense of verve, Courtney B. Vance is in rich form as her preacher father C.L., and in this first episode of eight, David Cross appears as record producer Jerry Wexler. It’s 1967, and Aretha Franklin has left Columbia Records for Atlantic and the shepherding of Wexler, who has recently made Wilson Pickett a star. Franklin and her hotheaded husband Ted (Malcom Barrett) are in Alabama to record with the famously funky Muscle Shoals rhythm section, only to be shocked when they learn that all of the musicians are white. Still, Franklin settles in at the piano to hash out “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You),” and Erivo’s prodigious singing talent becomes evident. (Erivo took home a stack of awards for her work in the recent Broadway revival of The Color Purple.) Wexler knows he’s got a bead on a tremendous performer. “We’ve got the song, we’ve got the talent. We’ve just got to find the groove.” But the session falters when Ted goes off on a trumpet player, and the racial undercurrents swirl ominously.
As Franklin tries to map out her next career move with Wexler in 1967, Genius flashes back to her childhood in Detroit, singing in the choir of her father C.L.’s church, New Bethel Baptist. Vance portrays the gregarious elder Franklin with loquacious glee, leaning into his animated sermons full of scripture and outbreaks into song. Vance is equally great as the after hours Franklin, a man who in Ted’s words “loved Saturday night as much as Sunday morning.” During a party at his house, Art Tatum accompanies Dinah Washington on a ballad, and everyone is blown away by C.L.’s daughter’s beautiful singing voice and genius ability to interpret music. C.L.’s serial womanizing is a factor in forming his daughter’s outlook on life, but she also feels empowered by him as he encourages her to lead the choir and takes her to the studio where his recorded sermons are pressed onto vinyl.
With an angry Ted still trailing her, Franklin restarts the aborted Muscle Shoals sessions, this time in New York City. The recordings are a hit at pop radio, and Franklin’s career as a stirring soul singer with a knack for widespread stardom is born. The episode concludes with a performance in Chicago where Aretha brings down the house and is crowned “The Queen of Soul.” But it’s bittersweet, because her marriage to Ted is on the rocks. Is this the life a young Aretha dreamed of? Is every man in her life a volatile cocktail of supporter and villain? And how can a Black woman working in a white pop world ultimately gain the respect she deserves?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Genius: Aretha isn’t the only Franklin biography on the block. Respect is set to drop in August 2021 with Jennifer Hudson as Aretha and Forrest Whittaker as C.L. Also of note is Amazing Grace (2018), a concert film culled from Aretha Franklin’s 1972 performances that became the gospel album Amazing Grace. The film had a tortured history of canceled releases and lawsuits over licensing, and was ultimately released posthumously after Franklin’s 2018 death.
Our Take: Respect, the first episode of the eight-part Genius: Aretha is constructed elliptically, with the action shifting from 1967 and Franklin’s first run of chart success, to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and FAME Recording Studio, backwards in time to Detroit and a young Aretha singing in church, forward again to Little Re encountering racism while accompanying her father C.L. on one of his traveling preacher tours, and finally back to Chicago, where she’s crowned “Queen of Soul” even as her combative marriage to Ted White comes to blows. The format makes all of the elements at work in Aretha’s world — her undeniable talent and burgeoning success, the power trips and conflicting agendas of the men in her life, and formative experiences with performing, vice, and racial conflict — swirl around her in a manner that becomes disorienting. We understand that Ted sees Aretha mostly as his meal ticket, and we get that her upbringing informed her view of men’s faults. (“Watch out for them sumbitches, you hear?” Dinah Washington tells a young Aretha.) But there’s little attention given to Aretha’s own children, only a brief mention of her early work with Columbia Records, and no insight into how she came into the orbit of Atlantic Records and Jerry Wexler. “Respect,” Franklin’s signature song and a track that was recorded during the period portrayed here, is not among the episode’s musical numbers, is only mentioned in passing, and even then only as a lyrical sketch. Genius: Aretha wants us to understand how much all of the competing forces in her life exerted their will over the woman at its center, but its presentation is muddled.
Cynthia Erivo keeps tight hold of the passion for success and respect that burned within Franklin, and she lights up whenever she’s singing or sitting at the piano. It’s an interesting performance that should remain compelling as Genius plays out its eight-episode run. And for that matter, Vance’s entertaining scenery chewing should stay strong, as well.
Sex and Skin: Nothing direct, though there’s some seriously salacious dancing happening during a wild party at C.L.’s Detroit home.
Parting Shot: The episode culminates with Aretha telling an audience how she demands respect — “I get paid before I perform” — and walking offstage to encounter a raging Ted, waiting in the wings. As his knocks and protestations at her dressing room door go from cajoling to threatening, the camera takes in Aretha’s face as she gazes into her mirror. And she slowly removes her makeup to reveal the ugly shiner ringing one eye socket.
Sleeper Star: A young Aretha Franklin meets Dinah Washington during a party at her father’s house, and wows the legendary vocalist with her effortless singing. Later, as Washington lays some woman-to-woman advice on her about men and their foibles, and Stacey Sargeant plays it with a terrific mix of class, sass, and brusque told-ya-so.
Most Pilot-y Line: The press is crowding around Aretha Franklin, who was just crowned The Queen of Soul. “Does singing pop music mean you’re turning your back on the church?” She’s prepared for that gotcha question. “Well my voice is a gift from God, so how could I possibly do that?”
Our Call: STREAM IT. Genius: Aretha seems content to tell Franklin’s story through signal events in her life. Those broad strokes leave significant narrative gaps, but magnetic singing and acting from Cynthia Erivo goes a long way to keeping it on point.
Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges
