SHOW:
Pretend It's a City
WHERE TO WATCH:
OUR RATING:
3/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
A documentary series that finds acclaimed filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, in conversation with Fran Liebowitz, the outspoken, idiosyncratic writer, public speaker, occasional actress and consummate New Yorker. Liebowitz gives a guided tour of New York and how it has changed since she came there from New Jersey fifty-odd years ago. Along the way, she freely offers her many, many opinions on everything from gentrification to sports to her life-long love of books.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Look, there's no getting past it, Pretend It's a City is a weird, weird series. Not in the way that, say, Twin Peaks is weird, but in the sense that it's the least likely idea for a fairly prestige Netflix series that I could possibly imagine. It has Martin Scorsese behind it, sure, but seven half-hour episodes of Scorsese interviewing a single person? And not even a particularly well-known person outside of New York, let alone America? How on earth did this even get past the pitch stage?
I'm actually fairly aware of who Fran Liebowitz is as I've seen her appear on various talk shows and do recall seeing her appear in small parts on both the big and small screens, but I hadn't really been aware of what she actually, you know... did. There's a reason for that, as it turns out. She wrote various things in the '70s and '80s, but she has had a self-proclaimed bout of writer's block for the past three decades or so. Since then, along with the odd small acting roles, she has mostly made a living by being Fran Leibowitz. Not in the way the Kardashians have made a living by being Kardashians but by being wildly outspoken, opinionated, and so quintessentially a New Yorker that when she speaks, it sounds like she's speaking on behalf of a whole city.
Which is why, despite the series revealing how it earned its name in the first couple of minutes of the first episode, it could just as easily be about Liebowitz herself. This is a series that seems to draw no distinction between exploring the mind of this highly intelligent, frequently funny woman and the city she has called home for the past half-century.
With this in mind, it starts to become clear why the series was greenlit and why, ultimately, it's actually a very engaging watch. Or at least it is if you're willing to buy what Liebowitz (and Scorsese) is selling.
I've never been to New York, but the city has certainly captured my imagination, and I may not be a seventy-year-old American, lesbian atheist, but it's not exactly surprising that the musings of a fast-talking, funny Jew would appeal to me. Others may well be rather less charmed. Fortunately, it's very, very easy to tell whether you'll enjoy Pretend It's a City: tune in to the first five minutes of the first episode.
If you find Fran to be funny, engaging, interesting and only slightly annoying, feel free to proceed with the rest of the series, which you'll probably get through pretty damn quickly. If not, you needn't waste another second of your time on it. Most of my favourite bits come later, but the whole seven-episode miniseries is exactly like those first five minutes.
Mind you, though the appeal of the series is listening to Fran Liebowitz talk (and talk and talk and talk), Scorsese – who has long ago proven himself to be an exceptional documentary filmmaker as well as feature-film director – brings real style and variety to the proceedings. And, being old friends with Liebowitz, adds a real personal touch as well.
As usual, the whole thing is accompanied by a killer soundtrack, but Scorsese also intercuts his conversations with Liebowitz with extracts from various films, shots of the two old friends walking (and talking, of course) around New York, and archival clips from interviews that Liebowitz did with Alec Baldwin, Conan O'Brien, Olivia Wilde and Spike Lee. Even their own conversation constantly shits from a Q&A in front of a live audience to a more intimate coffee shop to those all-important walk-and-talks, but perhaps the most striking is seeing Liebowitz offer her views of New York while literally towering over the city by filming her overlooking the miniature replica of the city ("The Panorama of the City of New York", as it is officially known) at Queen's Museum of Art.
All this helps to keep the series from feeling stale or overly repetitive, but they still don't overshadow the star of the show. You may laugh along with her opinions or laugh at them, but they're always at least pretty interesting, but perhaps the very best bits in the series are the stories of her interactions with some of the city's biggest stars. From hanging out with Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein at the same time to not getting along with Andy Warhol to being present at the first fight between Ali and Fraser despite absolutely hating sports and most especially boxing, this is the history of New York from the point of view of someone who lived smack in the thick of it. The episode that focuses on the cultural, musical and artistic scenes in New York through the second half of the 20th century is especially riveting and justifies the entire series all on its own.
I can't stress this enough, though: this isn't for everyone, and if those first few minutes don't work for you, nothing else in the series will.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: