If you’ve been reading my daily “What did we watch?” comments, if you follow me on social media at all, or even if we’ve just otherwise happened to talk in the last couple of weeks, you probably have already heard me raving about Paul T. Goldman. It’s probably better if you skip the rest of this article and go in completely blind, but for those of you who don’t want to do that, let’s start with the trailer.
Paul T. Goldman is an ordinary guy– well, for certain definitions of “ordinary,” as we’ll see the more we get to know him. But his story starts with his second marriage, which he rushes into, and shortly thereafter concludes his wife is scamming him, cheating on him, and leading a double life. Paul digs deeper and concludes that she’s actually a madam of a large prostitution ring and that her pimp is involved in international sex trafficking.
In 2009, Paul wrote a book about his experiences called Duplicity, about what he discovered about his wife, how far down the rabbit hole he dug, and how the experience changed him, in his own words, “from wimp to warrior.” A few years later, he started tweeting at various film directors to get their attention in an attempt to put his story on the screen. Jason Woliner (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) was one of those people, and after reading Duplicity, he contacted Paul and offered to direct his story and help him get it made.
Paul T. Goldman is a project over a decade in the making– it started in 2012 and the final scenes were only filmed a few months ago. It’s almost impossible to describe: It’s in part a telling of Paul’s story, complete with reenactments; part a documentary about the process of making the show; part an investigative attempt by Woliner to get to the truth of Paul’s story, to figure out who Paul is and what motivates him, and what kind of catharsis or closure he’s seeking from getting the opportunity to make his story into a movie or show. (It’s also got a killer lineup of actors for the reenactments and scenes Paul has written; you’ll recognize people ranging from W. Earl Brown to Paul Ben-Victor to Dennis Haysbert to Frank Grillo. Paul, naturally, insists on playing himself.)
There’s a whole lot going on here, as the show seems to travel in and out of different layers of reality: Paul’s story, Woliner’s attempt to tell that story, the process of making that story, and the truth. Paul talks with the actors playing the people from his story in the reenactment, talks with Woliner about every aspect of the storytelling process, re-writes parts of the script on the fly, and more. Meanwhile, Woliner is trying to balance his goals of giving Paul the opportunity to tell his story, figuring out who Paul really is, and getting to the truth of Paul’s story and figuring out what’s real and what isn’t. The whole thing will, for large stretches, leave you wondering just how much of any of it is real, including Paul himself.
It’s a wild ride that’s better the less you know going in. One thing I will say after having seen the entire series, is that I don’t think Paul is a bad guy, just someone searching for meaning, and I don’t think Woliner is exploiting or making fun of him. The relationship that develops between Paul and Woliner is genuinely sweet, and I think in the end, Paul comes off better than one might expect him to given the nature of his story and where he’s taken it. It is, for my money, the first genuinely must-watch television show of 2023– funny, dramatic, captivating, and with the compelling central character and potential for the completely unexpected that might draw favorable conclusions to Nathan For You‘s “Finding Frances.” (That said, I think Paul is a significantly more compelling protagonist than Bill Heath.)
Melinda McGraw (Mad Men, The Dark Knight), who plays Paul’s ex-wife in the reenactments, concluded “There’s this archetype of the fool that’s wiser than everyone, and I think Paul has that quality.” Given that Paul got his whole story made into this genuinely captivating TV series– no matter how much of it is true and isn’t true, how much he’s correct about the facts vs. delusional about his conclusions, or how much he’s doing this out of genuine concern about issues like sex trafficking vs. doing it for his own need for meaning and catharsis– maybe she’s on to something.
All six episodes of Paul T. Goldman are now streaming on Peacock. Thanks to ZoeZ for letting me take this week’s “Film on the Internet” article.
