December 12, 2009
TELEVISION REVIEW | 'THE JACK5ONS: A FAMILY DYNASTY'
No Longer One for All, but Still All From One
By MIKE HALE
Michael Jackson appears in “The Jack5ons: A Family Dynasty” only as a voice on the soundtrack and an ecstatic face in music videos. But in his absence he’s everywhere, dominating the program in a way he wouldn’t have had he lived to see it completed.
“Dynasty,” which starts on Sunday night on A&E, began production this year as a documentary about the other members of the Jackson 5: Jackie, Jermaine, Tito and Marlon. Michael was still alive but took no part in the film. His death on June 25 changed everything, including this project, which grew into a six-hour television series. With Michael gone, his brothers were suddenly more interesting. Even in death, his coattails were large enough to carry them all.
It would be easy to see “Dynasty” as sheer exploitation, the latest instance of family or followers cashing in on the star’s legacy. But it doesn’t play that way on screen, even if you suspect that money lies behind every decision. As you watch these comfortable, suburban squires in their 50s padding around the homes that Michael’s (and perhaps their sister Janet’s) success made possible — as you see Jermaine parking his Rolls-Royce in front of Tito’s McMansion — you begin to think that ego, or a childlike need for affirmation, is the larger motivation and has been for a long time.
The first of two episodes available for review (both are being shown on Sunday night) is drawn from the film shot before Michael’s death, when the other brothers were planning a reunion album to capitalize on the publicity surrounding Michael’s planned “This Is It” comeback performances. Lines of conflict emerge quickly: it’s Jackie, the eldest, versus the mercurial Jermaine, with Tito and Marlon supporting Jackie but sympathetic to Jermaine.
At a dance rehearsal the brothers look good, spinning and gliding like the boy band they once where. In the studio, though, things aren’t as smooth. Jermaine commandeers the microphone, and when he goes to lunch, Jackie erases the tracks, saying they “didn’t have that Jackson 5 magic.” You want to say, of course they didn’t — the magic came from No. 5.
The appeal here should be the chance for an inside glimpse of the Jacksons’ lives, but the backyard get-togethers and family basketball games that we see are no different from the gatherings of any other fat and happy, or at least relatively happy upper-middle-class family. The two people most responsible for the fame and fortune of everyone on screen — the younger brother Michael and the taskmaster father, Joe — aren’t around. The other brothers have led fascinating lives, but they’re not fascinating people.
The most interesting moments in the first episode come when Tito and Marlon head back to Indiana and show some members of the younger Jackson generation the house where the Jackson 5 group was born. After being carried through the harsh streets of Gary in a stretch limousine, they marvel at the tiny bedroom they shared. (The three Jackson sisters slept in the living room.) The early history of the band, founded by Jackie and Jermaine, is recounted, but the story ends before Michael joins up.
In the second episode, as the brothers react to Michael’s death and begin to discuss a reunion concert, the show begins to adhere more firmly to reality television formulas. Jermaine embarks on an ill-fated solo concert tour without telling the others, then ignores a group photo shoot in New York, leading to sniping and soul searching. The songwriters and producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are called in to provide new songs; Mr. Lewis tells Jermaine and Tito, “You guys are legends,” but tells the camera: “The only problem that we have now is that we don’t have Michael as part of the Jackson sound. It was the Jackson 5, not the Jackson 4.”
A&E has been trying to pump up some suspense by saying that the fate of the reunion concert will be revealed in the course of the series. It’s only a slight spoiler to report that things look good at the end of Episode 2, but Jermaine’s sensitivity could torpedo the deal at any point over the last four weeks.
Katherine Jackson, the family matriarch, is a quiet presence in the background, and when Jermaine and Jackie fight, they both turn to her for approval. A chagrined Tito says he can’t believe “they’re still running home to Mama, telling on each other.”
It’s emblematic: the Jackson 4, who never had to fight the battles Michael did, have talent and charm, but those traits appear to be outweighed by self-absorption and arrested development. “Michael’s success comes from us,” Jermaine says. He’s right, in a narrow sense, and also profoundly, sadly wrong.
