Lance Oppenheim\u2019s three-part HBO docuseries \u201cRen Faire\u201d walks that fine line between mocking and celebrating its incredibly unique subjects. I told a friend just now that I was reviewing a docuseries about a \u201cSuccession\u201d-esque power struggle at a Renaissance fair, and he said, \u201cSo, a comedy?\u201d Yes and no. While aspects of \u201cRen Faire\u201d are undeniably funny, there are also parts that are equally fascinating regarding the human condition to give everything you have to one thing, either because you love it\u00a0or really because you know nothing else. These people certainly don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything comedic about Renaissance cosplay or the art of perfecting kettle corn. And while Oppenheim\u2019s series sometimes feels a little over-directed and over-heated, that makes sense for the world of Renaissance Fairs, where what some might dismiss as comedy is taken very, very seriously.<\/p>\n
You won\u2019t soon forget King George Coulam, the octogenarian multi-millionaire founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, the largest of these events in the world. Coulam is obscenely wealthy\u2014a glimpse of his profile on a site where he\u2019s looking for a woman half his age to be a sugar daddy for lists his wealth at over $100 million\u2014and, well, the descriptor ‘irascible’ would be the politest way to define him. Coulam lords over his empire like an actual King, clearly taking his position in this operation seriously but also succumbing to what would delicately be called a toxic workplace. He randomly yells at employees when he\u2019s not scouring the web for a woman to live out his last decade on Earth with. A series of dates with potential partners at Olive Garden wherein Coulam repeatedly asserts the importance of natural breasts are truly amazing docu-theater, the kind of docuseries moments that make this show feel a bit more like \u201cThe Righteous Gemstones\u201d than \u201cSuccession.\u201d <\/p>\n
Coulam\u2019s empire is more than turkey legs in an abandoned field and endless breadsticks on awkward dates. The Texas Renaissance Festival is an impressive operation\u2014one wishes the series spent a bit more time just on the sheer scope of an event with thousands of attendees, multiple shops, events, restaurants, etc. And Coulam loves to bathe in his success, whether it\u2019s the opulence of his \u201crococo\u201d house\u2014which he basically explains means a lot of extravagance\u2014or the fact that he\u2019s basically founded a small town around the festival, over which he\u2019s the mayor, of course. Coulam is judge, jury, and executioner in this mini-society, proclaiming how he wants to step down and find a successor\u00a0but is increasingly erratic in his judgments and behaviors. It\u2019s hard to be the King. <\/p>\n
\u201cRen Faire\u201d pushes forward three potential heirs to the Coulam throne: Jeff Baldwin, Louie Migliaccio, and Darla Smith. Baldwin is the most sympathetic of the bunch, an actor who loves Shrek: The Musical<\/em> and seems to come to life on the stage. As the general manager of the festival, the kind Baldwin has undeniably been a success, but King George doubts his instincts to run the whole thing and gets obsessed with the fact that Jeff wants to hire his wife, even though she\u2019s qualified and experienced to take the job. George is the insulated and privileged boss whose quirks can become toxic if you happen to rub him the wrong way on the wrong day. One feels that Jeff has done that a few times, which is normal for an employee, but George isn\u2019t a normal boss. To take the \u201cSuccession\u201d thing a step further, if George is Logan than Jeff is Kendall\u2014the obvious heir to everyone but daddy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lance Oppenheim\u2019s three-part HBO docuseries \u201cRen Faire\u201d walks that fine line between mocking and celebrating its incredibly unique subjects. I told a friend just now that I was reviewing a docuseries about a \u201cSuccession\u201d-esque power struggle at a Renaissance fair, and he said, \u201cSo, a comedy?\u201d Yes and no. While aspects of \u201cRen Faire\u201d are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary-movies","tag-documentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}