Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Arnold’ On Netflix, A Docuseries Where Arnold Schwarzenegger Examines His Life

In the three-part docuseries Arnold, Arnold Schwarzenegger examines his eventful, varied and high-achieving life. The hour-long episodes are roughly split among the three major phases of his adult life and career: “Athlete” is about his childhood and his time as a champion bodybuilder; “Actor” is about his decades-long career as an A-list action and comedy star; and “American” examines his political career, including his 2003-2011 tenure as governor of California.

ARNOLD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A steamy shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger in an outdoor Jacuzzi, holding a cigar in his dripping-wet fingers.

The Gist: In the first episode, Arnold talks about his childhood in Thal, Austria, discussing the tough childhood he and his brother had under his father, who was a former police chief and joined the Nazi party during World War II. His father Gustav used to have Arnold compete with his older brother Meinhard for everything, often beat his kids — which Arnold ascribed to postwar PTSD — and told his sons “Whatever you do, be useful.” Once he got into his teens, Arnold learned about the world outside of Austria and felt that he belonged somewhere else — eventually, he realized that somewhere else was the United States.

He connected with weight training in the city with Graz, and after seeing Reg Park in a Hercules movie and on the cover of a muscle magazine, Arnold found that bodybuilding would be his ticket to America. After spending his teenage years in Austria and Germany training, entering contests and either winning or placing well, he did his obligatory service in the Austrian military, going AWOL to enter a contest. He eventually made his way to London, where he found that the bodybuilders there worked their lower bodies more than he saw in Austria.

In 1967, he gets a telegram from bodybuilding legend Joe Weider, inviting him to train with him in his Miami gym. Arnold didn’t even go back to Austria; he moved to Miami and never looked back, entering Mr. Universe contests in the U.S. and eventually a new contest created by Weider, Mr. Olympia, pitting Mr. Universe winners against each other.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The most recent example of a biographical documentary like Arnold, one that basically was narrated by the subject, was Michael J. Fox’s film Still.

Our Take: One of the things we learned while watching Arnold is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is not a person that wallows in self-reflection much. His recounting of his life is very businesslike, generally hitting the highlights and the good points and not dwelling too deeply on the negative parts.

Yes, the series is making headlines with Arnold’s discussions about the affair that eventually ended his marriage to Maria Shriver, and he responds to accusations of sexual assault that had been leveled at him over the years. But, judging by the first episode, it doesn’t seem like he’s going to be doing much in the way of reflection or offering mea culpas. It’ll more than likely be a situation where he’s matter-of-fact about what happened but not necessarily admit to anything or take any blame.

It’s the hazard of having Arnold mostly be the one telling his story — there are also interviews with some fellow bodybuilders, childhood friends, and his first serious girlfriend in the first episode. But it’s not a fatal flaw. Arnold’s matter-of-factness is very helpful during many parts of his story, as he’s clear-eyed in his telling of it.

The first part of Arnold’s life, especially his adult life, didn’t have a ton of major setbacks, so perhaps we’ll see a bit more of that as we examine his Hollywood and political careers. But, there were only some brief moments (see below) where Arnold’s all-business manner made us roll our eyes.

Sex and Skin: Lots of scenes of oiled up men, especially when scenes from the classic documentary about Arnold, Pumping Iron, are shown.

Parting Shot: Setting up the next episode, James Cameron recounts a conversation where Arnold tells him that “I don’t want to be an actor, I want to be a star.”

Sleeper Star: It was interesting to get the perspective of Barbara Baker, Arnold’s first girlfriend, who met the bodybuilder shortly after he came to the U.S. at 20, not knowing much English.

Most Pilot-y Line: When talking about the death of his older brother Mienhard, who died in a drunk-driving accident in 1971, he called his brother “fragile” more than once. He says, “When you’re a person who always has a goal, who always has a mission, the less time you have to think, ‘How do I feel today? Am I depressed today? Do I feel sorry for myself? Have I become a victim? Oh my god, I feel so bad about myself.’ I don’t have time for this crap. A lot of times, it’s people who don’t work enough. When you’re busy all the time, you don’t have time to think about this stuff.”

One might argue, though, that Arnold keeps himself busy so he doesn’t have to think about this stuff, even though thinking about it and addressing it is a healthy thing to do.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite the fact that Schwarzenegger isn’t exactly the most introspective person in the world, Arnold is still a fascinating portrait of a person who has was determined to be a success in the United States and has achieved in mostly every field he entered.

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.