HBO's Being Serena docuseries isn't afraid to show Serena Williams' moments of weakness

Los Angeles Times

"Superficially, this is familiar territory — a celebrity turns her real life into television — though in most respects, it is something quite out of the ordinary, beginning, of course, with the subject, who does not need a TV series to validate her power," says Robert Lloyd of the tennis superstar's docuseries, premiering tonight on HBO. "It's high-toned and visually sumptuous, and when it's sentimental, it is sentimental almost in spite of itself, with the result that it is often authentically moving. And though the project originated with Williams and often has the approving, not to say, hagiographic flavor of the authorized biography, as vanity projects go, its subject does not seem to be very vain at all."

ALSO:

• It's still a handsome, well-considered vanity production that gives apparent full access to its subject
• Be aware that the docuseries is made in collaboration with Williams' talent agency