Wu-Tang: An American Saga feels more like The Wire than a typical music biopic

CNET

"It's Batman Begins for Wu-Tang, and it's a must-watch for Wu fans, pairing perfectly with Of Mics and Men, which features interviews with the Wu members as they reflect on their beginnings, success and disputes," Patrick Holland says of the eight-episode scripted Wu-Tang Clan TV series and the previously aired Showtime docuseries Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men. "What ties American Saga and Of Mice and Men together is the idea of making music to get to a better life. If you're unfamiliar with the Wu, now is the perfect time to learn about the group and its music." Holland adds: "Rather than use the characters' troubled backgrounds as a springboard toward fame like a regular music biopic, American Saga lets the story marinate in their struggles, and the result feels much deeper and more authentic. It's powerful seeing the world Wu-Tang Clan grew out of and how success was their only salvation. At points, American Saga feels more like The Wire -- the gritty HBO crime drama that famously starred Method Man as a drug dealer -- than a jukebox biopic."

ALSO:

• Wu-Tang: An American Saga is a hot mess: "It would make sense for Wu-Tang: An American Saga to emphasize, in its narrative and on its soundtrack, music by the famed hip-hop group," says Nick Schager. "Which is why it’s so puzzling that it has no interest in meeting those predictable expectations. Dramatizing the origin story of the famed Staten Island crew as a pastiche of every gangster and drug-dealing cliché imaginable, Hulu’s eight-part series (premiering Sept. 4) is both ill-conceived and consistently dull."
• Wu-Tang feels less like a celebration of self and more like a carefully, thoughtfully told memoir
• The story is just a version of the truth, a construct, and American Saga doesn't let you forget that
• An American Saga isn't a glossy tale - despite history being re-packaged and re-shaped for TV - but it's also not a "warts and all" affair
• RZA says the Hulu series was like "making sweet potato pie"