Aretha: Respect

Aretha Franklin's music genius from a young girl through to adulthood is outlined. Ms. Franklin's challenging relationship with the three key men in her life, her preacher father C.L. Franklin, her abusive and controlling agent/husband Ted White, and her music producer mentor Jerry Wexler are outlined. This first episode focuses more on her emotional state trying to balance work and life with her father, and her agent/husband Ted White who was eleven (11) years her senior when she married him at age nineteen (19).

I would have liked to have heard more of her music and less of the control her husband Ted White attempted to place on her career and interactions with her recording artist studio musicians.

What spoils this first episode were the more than frequent TV commercial breaks. If you ever played one of Ms. Franklin's many hit songs on an old fashioned record player and her tune was interrupted by the record skipping, than that is what I felt the constant barrage of TV commercials accomplished by spoiling the flow of this first episode.

Even with the constant TV commercial interruptions I give this first episode a RESPECTable 8 out of 10 IMDB rating.