The trailer of Man in his entirety (see below), Netflix's new drama series, has launched and it looks like it could fill that Succession-shaped hole. The show is based on the best-selling novel by Tom Wolfe, who in film is perhaps best known as the author of The bonfire of the vanities – a failed adaptation of a powerful book.
In this novel and this new Netflix show, a real estate magnate (Jeff Daniels) faces financial and political disaster as he tries to defend his empire from his many enemies. Daniel's character, Charlie Croker, isn't exactly sympathetic: he's rude, rude and irrepressible, but he's not going to go into that good night gently.
The cast also includes Diane Lane as Martha Croker, Charlie's ex and a woman who should never be underestimated, and Lucy Liu as Joyce Newman, a successful businesswoman whose crisis of confidence threatens both business and friendships. And Tom Pelphrey plays the wonderfully named Raymond Peepgrass, a humble loan officer with a chaotic life and a desire to be a much bigger business, no matter what that costs.
An entire man is on the watch list?
We haven't seen the show yet (all six episodes won't air until May), but if it's as good as the book, then it will be very good. A man in his entirety It's an ambitious novel that's part satire, part state of the nation address, and it's powerful stuff.
The New York Times reviewed Wolfe's novel and said that the author “plays with human fears and anxieties the way a mischievous child might play with a new chemistry game” and while “the book is as fun as any Wolfe has ever written is at once profoundly and strangely moving.
Publishers Weekly called it “a dazzling performance, offering a panoramic view of late 20th-century America that encompasses our economic, political, and racial complexes with deceptive ease while maintaining a brisk narrative pace.” . And to the Washington Post, “A man in his entirety “It is an expansive, energetic, ambitious, and presumptuous book, with the same defects as its predecessor, but great too… it recalls the work of Dickens and the other great Victorians, and embraces the whole striking whole of human society.”
A man in his entirety premieres on Netflix on May 2, 2024.
