I watched Part 1 of the New Edition biopic last night. I’m a sucker for biopics and this was possibly the most popular R&B group during my childhood in the 80s, so this was right up my alley. I thought the producers did an amazing job with the casting. The young actors looked the part and did a great job with the songs as well. I also like that pretty much all the details of the biopic have been corroborated by the members of New Edition. They were on social media last night confirming that everything shown in the biopic actually happened.
So far nothing too juicy has come out of it. However I will say that it was interesting seeing that there might not be a New Edition if it weren’t for Ralph Tresvant staying loyal to his crew. In the movie after they won a local talent contest the record producer (the same guy who founded New Kids on the Block) secretly tried to only sign Tresvant to a deal but Tresvant told him he wouldn’t sign unless the entire group received a deal.
Also, they did touch on the bubbling tension between the group members and Tresvant. The other members grew tired of the record producers always putting Tresvant on lead vocals; which was strange to hear because Bobby Brown is the one who actually got kicked out of the group (they haven’t reached that part yet in the biopic).
The only real complaint I had is BET went overboard with the commercial breaks. During hour 1 the breaks were pretty normal…..12-15 minutes of the movie, then cut to commercial. The ridiculousness began in hour 2 when they literally only showed 3-4 minutes of the movie then they’d cut to commercial. They did that nonstop for the entire second hour of the movie. Completely ruined the flow of the movie.
My plan is to DVR the next 2 episodes so that I can just fast forward through the excessive commercial breaks.
I look forward to your responses. <silently humming “Cool it Now” in my cubicle>