Paul T. Goldman review: A true-crime experiment with mixed results
About seven minutes into the first episode of Paul T. Goldman, Peacock's new "metafictional true crime docuseries" from director Jason Woliner (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), the titular protagonist makes a declaration: "Anybody who's lying — every line, every word, every syllable — they're going to say how honest they are!"
Paul is talking about his ex-wife, here played by Melinda McGraw (Mad Men), but it doesn't take long to realize that Woliner intends this to be a warning for the audience, too. The director began documenting Goldman's story about his divorce — and shooting scenes from the book and screenplay Goldman wrote about his divorce — after receiving a message from Goldman on Twitter in 2012. The result is Paul T. Goldman, a blend of fact, fiction, and farce starring Paul Goldman (née Finkelman) himself. The six-episode series starts as an imaginative twist on the overworked true crime genre, but it eventually devolves into a Threat Level Midnight-style endeavor that lands somewhere between enabling and exploitation.
Between the overreach of Peacock's "do not reveal" spoiler list and the convoluted nature of the story itself, explaining the plot of Paul T. Goldman is a challenge. But here's what we know for sure: Back in 2006, Goldman — a single dad living in Florida with his son, Johnny — began dating Audrey Munson, a woman he met online. After just a few months, he and Audrey were married. (Several names, including that of Goldman's now ex-wife, have been changed.) The relationship began to sour almost as quickly as it blossomed, and it wasn't long before Goldman discovered that Munson was maintaining an extramarital relationship and trying to defraud him financially. Eventually, Goldman hired a divorce attorney… and that's where things get messy. During the discovery process, Goldman pored through his wife's cell phone records and drew several shocking conclusions on his own — including that Munson and her boyfriend were involved in a widespread crime ring, the particulars of which Peacock has asked us not to reveal.
Evans Vestal Ward/Peacock Paul T. Goldman and Frank Grillo in 'Paul T. Goldman'
Goldman detailed these findings in his 2009 self-published book, Duplicity: A True Story of Crime and Deceit — and eventually began pitching a screenplay version to hundreds of filmmakers on Twitter. Woliner bit, and he spent the next decade recording hours of interviews with Goldman and others involved in his story, like his divorce attorney and his go-to psychic. During that same period, Woliner cast and shot several scripted scenes from the Duplicity screenplay, in which Goldman plays himself opposite several recognizable actors, including McGraw, Dennis Haysbert, Frank Grillo, and W. Earl Brown. Along the way, Woliner continued to prod Goldman with clarifying questions about his story, gently trying to tease out the bare facts from the balderdash. "Duplicity is 99 percent true," Goldman assures him in episode 2. "Embellishments had to happen on little things." By episode 3, the star has adjusted that figure down. "The story is true. The events are true," notes Goldman. "But not all of them — 97 percent, approximately."
As he reveals Goldman's sometimes shifty relationship with the truth, Woliner simultaneously crafts a portrait of an overly trusting nebbish. By Goldman's own admission, Munson wasn't the first person in his life to play him for a dupe — which adds a troubling new layer to the ethics of Paul T. Goldman itself. First off, should Woliner and Peacock be amplifying a story that makes damaging claims about living people without real proof? "We're shooting everything you wrote," Woliner assures Goldman, a decision that results in some laughably bad dialogue and amateurish action sequences. (It also likely contributed to the hall-of-fame hedge of a disclaimer that appears at the beginning of every episode: "Statements expressed by individuals in this series should be taken as speculation or opinion.")
Meanwhile, in episode 5, we learn that Goldman — a man described as "naïve and gullible" by the judge in his divorce case — signed a contract granting Woliner the rights to his life story. In a strategic bit of foreshadowing, the director follows that reveal with a preemptive strike aimed at his own perceived agenda. "I think people will have mixed feelings about Jason Woliner," muses Jake Regal, the actor hired to play Woliner in certain scenes. "Is he abusing the trust of this person, or is he going to honor his story in whatever way he can?" Both. Neither. Who can say? (Peacock did not make the finale available for review.) With Paul T. Goldman, the uncertainty is the problem and the point. Grade: B-
Paul T. Goldman premieres Jan. 1 on Peacock.
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