Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Angelyne’ On Peacock, Where Emmy Rossum Plays L.A.’s Billboard Queen

Long before Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian made an industry out of being famous, there was Angelyne, The Billboard Queen. In the early ’80s, her naked ambition was on display all over Los Angeles. Her efforts to become famous, and hold onto that fame, are fictionalized in a new miniseries about the blonde bombshell, who ran in the most recent gubernatorial recall election in California.

ANGELYNE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A blonde woman lying on a bed of red satin sheets, telling herself, “I’m not a woman. I’m an icon.”

The Gist: Most people know Angelyne (Emmy Rossum) as “The Billboard Queen”; in the early 1980s billboards with her picture on them went up all over Los Angeles, mystifying anyone who saw it. In 2019, the close-to-70-year-old celebrity, complete with a bad boob job and plastic surgery that makes her look much younger than her age, is profiled by Jeff Glaser (Alex Karpovsky) from The Hollywood Reporter. Her manager, Rick Krause (Hamish Linklater), reads the article to her to reassure her.

There’s some dispute as to how Angelyne was “discovered.” Cory Hunt (Philip Ettinger) claims to have discovered her in a bar his band, Baby Blue, was playing in back in 1977 (ish), asking her to join when they started a relationship. Angelyne, for her part, at first claims that Cory is dead. But then she starts telling her version, where Baby Blue was an unpopular and ragtag group, and she made them better and more popular when she agreed to be their lead singer.

She forces them to get a keyboardist, and her sexy, come-hither singing style seems to clash with the band’s punk-ish style; the drummer, Bud Griffin (Antjuan Tobias), is especially resentful of her presence, and wants Cory to fire her. But just as he’s about to do that, she gets the band a coveted gig at the famous Whiskey a Go Go club. But, as Cory puts it, it all comes crashing down in 1981 when he achieved a minor hit. Of course, Angelyne has her own version of how they broke up, which might be closer to the truth.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Angelyne is a bit of a drama/mockumentary hybrid, as if the interviews from a show like Abbott Elementary are paired with a campy show about ’70s and ’80s Hollywood a la ‘.

Our Take: There’s a story to be told about Angelyne, who was born Ronia Tamar Goldberg, and how she forced her way to fame through the sheer force of her own personality, well before Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton led the “famous for being famous” revolution of the ’00s to now. And Rossum’s transformation into Angelyne is quite remarkable. But we’re not a big fan of how the miniseries Angelyne tells that story, which is based on Gary Baum’s profile of her for THR.

Showrunner Allison Miller (Rossum and Sam Esmail are also among the executive producers) frequently jumps around from 2019 back to the ’70s and ’80s, contrasting how Angelyne took control of her career when she was young to how she just seems like a campy punchline now. But the scenes from the relative present are in both narrative and mockumentary interview form. It’s not necessarily confusing, but it does make for a disjointed story, especially when events are told by someone else’s perspective, like Cory’s.

What Rossum does with Angelyne, though, is infuse her with a confidence and righteousness that tells us just how Angelyne accomplished whatever fame she achieved. When she talks about why she wants a Corvette, why she wants Baby Blue to go to the next level, or why she doesn’t want to depend on a man to achieve what she wants, Rossum shines.

We hope there’s more of that in the next four episodes of the series, mixed with Angelyne’s penchant for Marilyn Monroe worship and quirky affirmations, and less of the mashed-up storytelling that seems to kill any momentum in the first episode.

Sex and Skin: Surprisingly very little. Though Rossum does sport an expert set of prosthetic breasts, especially when she waltzes in on Cory in rehab, her newly-expanded chest on full display.

Parting Shot: Krause tells Glaser that she can shut down the interview at any time. “Angelyna is always in charge.”

Sleeper Star: We’re curious to see Linklater and Karpovsky play off each other, given that their characters are in opposing camps. Glaser is trying to dig deep on Angelyne’s life and career, and Krause is there to protect her.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m too much,” Angelyne tells the camera. “I’m like uncut heroin.”

Our Call: STREAM IT, but only for Rossum’s performance as Angelyne. The storytelling of Angelyne leaves a lot to be desired, but Rossum’s performance cuts through the script gymnastics, making us curious about what parts of Angelyne’s life the series will explore.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.