Lucy and Desi

I Love Lucy is probably, save for Seinfeld, the most important television comedy to ever hit the small screen. It marked the beginning of an era when sitcoms were shot in front of a live studio audience, and was pioneering in the way that it foregrounded women’s experiences, eventually being syndicated across the world – and to millions of fans. 

Lucy and Desi explores the story of the show’s founding couple, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, from their first meeting on the set of Too Many Girls, to I Love Lucy’s massive success and finally their divorce. It chronicles their difficult relationship but amazing working partnership and displays just how impactful the show was.

Directed by Amy Poehler from Parks and Recreation, the documentary tells the tale with plenty of archive footage and talking heads from industry figures, such as Bette Midler and Carol Burnett. It’s relatively straightforward, not deviating much from the traditional documentary format, but the strength of the film rests in its story, not its delivery. 

It’s fantastic subject matter: Ball and Arnaz were fascinating figures with multifaceted lives and the production manages to portray this quite effectively. There are plenty of hilarious, sad and shocking moments to keep viewers’ attention and the ending is even a bit of a tearjerker. The most prevailing impression audiences are left with is that Poehler really wanted to tell the world about these two, which is a sentiment mirrored in the people she interviews, all of whom praise the pioneering way in which Arnaz and particularly Ball changed television. 

For people who have tired of the recent glut of Netflix documentaries, this might prove to be too similar, as there is little to differentiate it from most of the made-for-streamer docs of the past few years. However, it is definitely entertaining, and even someone who might not have much interest in the subject is likely to feel pulled into the life and times of one of Hollywood’s great couples.

Joe Milo

Lucy and Desi is released on Amazon Prime Video on 4^th March 2022.

Watch the trailer for Lucy and Desi here: