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Miniseries – Ren Faire

Play trailer 2:19 Poster for Miniseries – Ren Faire 2024 Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 92% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
When the ailing king of America's largest renaissance festival declares his retirement, an epic power struggle ensues between an actor, a former elephant trainer, and a kettle-corn kingpin to claim his throne.
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Ren Faire — Miniseries

Ren Faire — Miniseries

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Critics Consensus

Unpacking a bizarre true story fit for a medieval saga with finesse, Ren Faire is an exceptional piece of sordid storytelling.

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Critics Reviews

View All (18) Critics Reviews
Craig Mathieson Sydney Morning Herald The players, most notably George, are quite eccentric and amusing, but they're never just punchlines. The deeply deployed access always gets at their motivations and feelings, no matter how bonkers. Rated: 4/5 Sep 6, 2024 Full Review Carrie Battan New Yorker Oppenheim's version of Ren Faire is both explicitly and implicitly about the pursuit of artistry in the face of commercial interests, and the misfit personas caught up in between... Jun 28, 2024 Full Review Cary Darling Houston Chronicle Like "Tiger King," "Cheer" and the dueling Fyre Festival documentaries, it pulls back a curtain on a backstage world that most only know as members of a cheering audience. But what's beyond the footlights is more likely to elicit gasps than applause. Rated: 4/5 Jun 12, 2024 Full Review Dana Han-Klein We're Watching What?! Texas Renaissance Festival monarch George would be fascinating in any setting. We were hoping for a little more about the culture of Ren Faires and this is more Succession meets Tiger King than American Princess. It's not a bad thing, just different. Jun 7, 2024 Full Review Jake Tropila In Review Online Ren Faire is no less compelling to watch, thanks in large part to Oppenheim’s signature filmmaking style and the exuberant personalities who run the fest, each of them craving the same end goal no matter the cost. Jun 5, 2024 Full Review Joel Keller Decider Ren Faire works not only because it’s dramatic and stylish, but also because it’s a docuseries about some pretty interesting characters in a tension-filled situation. Jun 3, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (12) audience reviews
Ravenswood R I had to stop watching this ten minutes into episode two. It was clearly going nowhere, as you can read in spoilers. I'd heard an interview with the director and he said he wants to tell the story "cinematically." He does try very hard to do this, but he lacks the talent to meet his goal, or he did not show these skills if he has them. The music made me stop. So overdone - every single scene with the creepy, mysterious, suspensful, intrusive music. This is to keep an atmosphere of "something really weird is going here," but nothing is weird. It is a dull story about a business whose obstinate and overindulged owner needs to retire (or die soon, he's 85), and, who will continue running the business? The people involved are not that interesting, though the director tries with the music and repetitive close-up shots to make them seem that way. These are average people, mid level business hacks, with normal problems and normal American inflated egos and self assessments. There is really no point in watching these particular people or their interactions at all, much less having a camera scrutinize them. The ren faire itself is not part of the story. Extremely disappointing. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/06/24 Full Review Joseph H I went to Ren Faire expecting a more straight-forward docuseries in the vein of Tiger King or any other number of raucous documentaries. Unfortunately, Ren Faire is a docuseries recorded piece-meal over multiple years tackling only the most cursory glances at the history of this storied Renaissance Festival. The ultimate focus of the series is on the succession of ownership over the Texas Renaissance Festival, and how the paranoid, insipid, and frustrating views of an aging brilliant mind as he belittles everyone around him, is confused by anything more modern than the late 90s and partakes in sugar daddy and escort services to assuage his lonely libido. To save you all three wasted hours George Caloum refuses to sell all 3 years after being offered exactly what he wants, then he fires his general manager and inserts himself into the position because he's paranoid. This docuseries in my mind fails to explore the more interesting parts of the Renaissance Festival's history, such as multiple deaths, murders, drug running, and much much more to focus on a frustrating octogenarian. As others have already emphasized this is less a docuseries and more a drama retold in 3 hour long chunks. Save yourself the time and skip it. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 07/08/24 Full Review Chadd J This was not a docuseries it was a very boring reality series. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 06/24/24 Full Review Dean H Very cool documentary I found myself rooting for several of the main people. It had echo's of staging so I couldn't give it five stars Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/24/24 Full Review m s I don't understand how people enjoy this show. I love Houston's Ren Fest, but this "doc" put me to sleep. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 06/17/24 Full Review Sarah S Anyone who thinks this is good suffers from a serious lack of perspective. It’s safe to say that the character development is underwhelming as well as predictable. None of the potential horrifying things that I wanted to see happen, happened. The red bull dude didn’t die of a heart attack and Jeff seems like he was gunna murder someone, he didn’t. No body learned anything or changed. It’s a perfect example of a story starting in a place and ending right back up where it started. so disappoint. The essence of drama is conflict and it’s safe to say that in this story nothing happened. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 06/15/24 Full Review Read all reviews
Ren Faire — Miniseries

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Cast & Crew

Episodes

Episode 1 Aired Jun 2, 2024 Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got The Will? Welcome to the Texas Renaissance Festival, the largest in the world. King George Coulam, its 86-year-old founder, has ruled over his subjects with an iron fist for decades. With his mental acuity in question and his retirement imminent, the future of the festival remains uncertain. General manager Jeff Baldwin believes he is next in line to succeed, until kettle-corn kingpin Louie Migliaccio hatches a plan to buy the festival outright. Details Episode 2 Aired Jun 9, 2024 Make Big Choices King George goes on an unsuccessful date. Jeff struggles to thwart Louie’s bid for the crown. Darla Smith, a former elephant trainer, enters the fray with an agenda of her own. Details Episode 3 Aired Jun 9, 2024 We’re Done! Jeff gains the upper hand over Louie. Darla’s promotion to co-General Manager leads to disastrous consequences, for both Jeff and herself. George finally lands on the only successor he can trust. Details
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Season Info

Director
Lance Oppenheim
Executive Producer
Nancy Abraham, Dani Bernfeld, Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Lisa Heller, David Gauvey Herbert, Lance Oppenheim, Sara Rodriguez, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
Network
HBO
Rating
TV-14
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Release Date
Jun 2, 2024