Take My Message to Your Brother and Tell Him Twice

Just as Michael Jackson was getting ready for his This Is It concerts in London, his brothers were also contemplating their own comeback with a fortieth anniversary concert and just like Michael was documenting his preparation for the event, the brothers decided to film as they decide to put on a concert or not. The result ended up on Bravo as a six episode documentary show for A&E as The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty.

With filming starting just before the death of their brother, naturally grieving became a big focus when the announcement of Michael’s death comes at the end of the first episode. The entire episode, entitled Aftermath, is devoted to the brothers dealing with their brother’s death. And ever episode after that doesn’t go with some mention or reference to Michael.

The best thing going for The Jacksons A Family Dynasty is also its biggest drawback in that there are no contrived situations that plague other documentary style reality shows that question the definition of “reality,” the closest thing to a contrived segment is when a couple brothers go back to the city of Gary Indiana to visit their old stomping ground. But even that was engaging to see the house where the seven children grew up in. But on the other side of the coin, without any of the set pieces, we spend a good chunk of the series watching the boys debate on whether they should put on an anniversary concert or not.

The show is also striking on who was not involved. Yeah we get glimpses of all the Jacksons during the Michael memorial, but besides that, there are just mentions of Rebbie and Randy, we get Janet via a speakerphone chat with her brothers. Joe’s presence if felt throughout the show, but we never see him outside the memorial. And sorry LaToya, you are cut out altogether.

But Randy’s absence was the biggest head scratcher because even the show was stylized “The Jack5ons” there were only four Jacksons featured on the show. Michael was obviously busy when they started planning the reunion, buy where was Randy (and no he wasn’t hosting American Karaoke, they are two different Randy Jacksons) who replaced Jermaine who stayed with Motown (he was married to the boss’ daughter) and The Jackson 5 left the label, how was he not included in this or at least explained why he was not included?

But plenty of Jacksons the next generation, many of which are in the music business but have had as much successes as the other Jackson brothers not named Michael. The stand out of the next generation is Siggy the neck tattooed, mohawked, rapper wannabe son of Jackie (but you wouldn’t be surpised if he turned out to be the spawn of Bobby Brown even if Brown hadn’t gone through puberty by the time Siggy was born) who appears in half of the episode.

The show is basically for fanatics, but keep in mind for anyone that watched the series when it was on A&E, he DVD features just the six episodes that span around four and a half hours, no audio commentaries, no deleted scenes or any type of extras.



Full Disclosure Notice: This DVD was given to me on behalf of A&E Home Entertainment for the sole purpose of reviewing the series.