Parents' Guide to Untold: The Liver King

This documentary seems completely in awe of its subject, the Liver King, for better and for worse. While Untold: The Liver King does an admirable job of detailing Brian Johnson's rise to fame, wealth, and success, it fails to fully put him to task for how much he misled his followers and fans. Beyond asking him late on, "Did you mislead people?" the documentary simply accepts Johnson's "Yes" reply and moves on. But it's the little things that such a tell-all feature often indirectly reveals, like Johnson's kids' varying reactions to their father's lifestyle pre-steroid revelation and post-, or how Johnson's wife was immediately on board with denying any and all accusations of steroid use. However, it's clear that Johnson and his family did live a ridiculously "natural" lifestyle, with Johnson's personal deception and secret steroid use even a surprise to his best friend.

Also fascinating is how this documentary ends up prompting the ethical connotations of Johnson's example. Yes, he personally used steroids to keep up appearances, lied about it, and continued to profit and benefit from this. But his brand and promotion of healthier living, even if it was built on lies, ended up helping millions of people. While this doesn't justify his behavior and lies, it does prompt an interesting question. At least he's clearly very into fruits and vegetables now, which can't hurt, hopefully. This revelation at the end of the documentary is oddly touching, watching this ridiculously muscular man revel in the pure joy of eating a strawberry, as if it were his first time.