Naked is Normal: Amazon’s “American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story” | TV/Streaming

Reality and performance meet in one of the best sequences of the first two episodes. Playboy was in its second year and the calendar girl pin-ups were becoming stale. Inspired by a suggestion from Charlaine Edith Karalus, his employee and lover, Hefner decides it is time the magazine starts shooting their own centerfolds. Blurring the line between work and play, Hefner manages to convince Charlaine (dubbed Janet Pilgrim for her spread) to become the first “playmate” for the magazine. With her blonde hair and red lips, Charlaine bears a passing resemblance to the original Playboy cover girl, Marilyn Monroe, but unlike the screen Goddess, “Janet” is quite literally the girl next door. While it goes unmentioned in the documentary, the insinuated and blurry presence of Hefner in the background of the image was his first step towards becoming the magazine’s creative force and ambassador—a man who lived, worked and played by the masculine codes of the Playboy lifestyle. Iconic in both looks and concept, this moment is where Playboy as we know it was born.

The documentary series thrives when it examines the history of sex in America and how Playboy challenged that status quo. As much as it frames Hefner’s journey as an all-American tale of grit, resilience, and chance, it presents it within the scope of the changing conditions of the American dream. The first two episodes of the series chart Hefner’s early life and the first few years of the magazine, and contextualize what it meant to be a man in the post-war period and how Hefner sought to confront that ideal. These early episodes bask in the light of a vision becoming a reality, only hinting at the cost of living in a fantasy. The many recreations within the narrative add an air of cinema to even the most painful memories in these early chapters, pulling Hefner’s experience away from raw and painful realities.

The best recreations emphasize the uncertainty of these early years. As Hefner recalls finding out his first wife (then fiancé), Mildred, had an affair, the recreations work as broad gestures. Sitting down for a movie, Mildred turns away from Hefner, unable to sit through the film. She runs to their car and confesses her sins and the physical space between them feels insurmountable. The honesty of their archival recollections attaches social meaning to what is ostensibly a simple and familiar story of heartbreak. Moving from interview to recreation, the montage evokes the atmosphere of sexual repression and social pressures of the late ‘40s, which inspired loneliness and mistrust in Hefner that helped pushed him to create the magazine.