aka Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen has always been interesting and entertaining - his movies, his television work, even his public mental breakdown. Nothing this man has ever done has the slightest whiff of "boring" to it.

How has this man escaped cancel culture? While other celebrities get roasted or jailed for similar or less he somehow manages to not only stay popular, but also become more well loved.

The documentary clearly shows how charismatic he is; a strange dichotomy of braggadocio and self-deprecating candor, you want to hear his story or at least as much as he's willing to share. He knows how to captivate an audience and it's seems from even home movies that he's always played-well to an audience.

What is gotten here, from both him and those who are interviewed, is similar. It's entertaining, but not investigative in the least. We hear the tabloid stories we all knew, told by the players, but with no hard follow up questions or specific details given. It's three hours of Charlie Sheen telling anecdotes without one hard question ever asked. Even in the second episode where CS discusses sleeping with men - it's glossed over with an analogy by CS suddenly finding new food options by turning a menu over. The interviewer himself had to state it outright.

You won't walk away feeling like you wasted 3 hrs, this is interesting enough and Charlie tells his story well, but you also won't feel like you really learned anything new or with depth about him...so that's what you get - entertainment. None of it is hard investigative journalism. None of it is especially illuminating on who Charlie Sheen is. It doesn't even really discuss his inner journey to sobriety or reflect a sense of accountability on his part. However it's is, same as the man, entertaining.

Watching this "documentary" isn't so much about Sheen's redemption as it is about the art of self-curation. If you've ever wondered how far money, notoriety, and access let you go in rewriting your own story, here's your manual.

The documentary makes it painfully clear how narrative control works: how a person can present themselves as reflective and redeemed while serious allegations-HIV status disclosure issues, substance abuse, and reckless behavior-linger in the background, barely challenged. Accountability exists only on the surface, packaged for viewer consumption.

That said, it is an unsettlingly honest glimpse into addiction and mental instability. Sheen's candor about his lows, triggers, and attempts at recovery does give some insight, but the overall effect is both instructive and grotesque: a portrait of excess, privilege, and the ways charisma can be used to obscure consequences.

It's grotesque!

This has some tremendous and extremely insightful interviews, both of Charlie and of many other people in his life. But the production is down so horribly, with so much irrelevant video interspersed which has nothing to do with what is being discussed. For example, when Charlie discusses paying Heidi Fleiss with travelers checks, they show multiple old American Express travelers checks commercials. Pointless! Then the interview discusses other times paying Fleiss in cash-and they show one dollar bills and loose change pouring out of a person's hands. Sorry, but I'm confident the Sheen never paid her with nickels and pennies. I know that's the current trend in modern Netflix documentaries, but it's tacky and cheesy. Be better!!!

Aka Charlie Sheen is a brutally honest, emotionally exhausting dive into the life of Hollywood's most infamous bad boy.

Split into two gripping episodes, this Netflix docuseries traces Sheen's dazzling rise, tabloid-fueled implosion, and fragile attempts at redemption. It's a story of addiction, excess, and the human cost of fame... told with a rawness that's as unsettling as it is impossible to look away from.

Sheen himself is the documentary's greatest asset... and liability. His candor about his darkest moments - his 2011 meltdown, HIV diagnosis, and reckless behavior - feels genuinely unfiltered, especially when paired with interviews from ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller, whose heartbreaking testimonies humanize the chaos.

Jon Cryer and Sean Penn add further depth, offering perspectives that go beyond the tabloid caricature. Rare home movies and archival footage provide a fascinating contrast to Sheen's later notoriety, highlighting the creative, rebellious kid who became a cautionary tale.

Yet, the documentary sometimes veers into sensationalism, lingering on Sheen's most salacious moments (like the infamous airplane cockpit incident) without always digging deeper into the why. The pacing falters at times, and the absence of Sheen's father and brother leaves a noticeable void.

Ultimately, aka Charlie Sheen is a messy, magnetic, and haunting portrait of a man trying to outrun his demons.

It's not a redemption story... it's a reckoning. 7.5/10.

I actually really enjoyed the documentary. I never really followed Charlie Sheen back in the day or understood all the hype around him...especially when he was doing those cringey U. S. tours while clearly needing help, not a stage. We didn't get all of that "live meltdown" coverage over here, so it was interesting to watch his downfall being laid out in full. I had only seen snippets on social media, and I was never that interested in reading into it at the time...

What stood out most was how candid and honest he was. I think he's always been like that, which isn't always a good fit for Hollywood, where people tend to hide their mess behind PR teams. I just hope he stays sober....maybe he could handle that level of drug use when he was younger, but now it would probably kill him...

A good watch if you like those type of 'wow reaaaalllyyy.' type shows..