Peacock’s New Series Paul T. Goldman Looks Weird As Hell

Peacock is ringing in the New Year with the debut of a bizarre new series cooked up by Borat Subsequent Moviefilm director Jason Woliner, and based on the trailer alone, it looks to be a genre- and reality-bending trip that is, to put it bluntly, weird as hell. Titled Paul T. Goldman, the six-episode series counts Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as executive producers and … hmmm, how to even explain it? It’s just your typical trailer for a TV series featuring scenes and behind-the-scenes scenes from a movie based on a screenplay based on a book based on the life of a man who tweeted at Woliner in 2012 and sparked a ten-year passion project that included the production of said movie as well as true-crime-docuseries-style interview footage. Typical stuff. Here’s Woliner’s note on the show:

In 2012, a man named Paul T. Goldman tweeted at me.

 

He said that he had an incredible story to tell and had written a book — and a screenplay — about it. He asked for my help bringing it to the screen. When I clicked on his Twitter, I saw that he had tweeted the same exact thing to hundreds of other people. I clicked on his website and watched a video he’d shot himself: He was a middle-aged, nebbishy guy delivering a monologue about how he’d been the victim of a shocking betrayal that led to a transformation “from wimp to warrior� and set him on a mission to bring down an (alleged) international crime ring. I bought the book immediately.

 

It instantly became my favorite book I’ve ever read. The story is equal parts fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and often weirdly moving. It has endless bizarre turns, and Paul himself is the most captivating person I’ve ever encountered. He reminded me of my favorite documentary subjects: Mark Borchardt from American Movie, Timothy Treadwell from Grizzly Man, or the kind of people that appear in Errol Morris films like Tabloid and Mr. Death. They’re striking, quirky, passionate, a little “off�; individuals with a strong sense of purpose but perhaps an atypical form of self-awareness. After a few months of quiet observation, I responded to Paul and told him I was in.

 

The series that has resulted — a culmination of over a decade of shooting — has wound up becoming the most conceptually ambitious and personal project I’ve ever worked on. It’s in many ways an experimental show and I’m still in grateful disbelief that Peacock has let me do it. The format, combining familiar doc elements with dramatized scenes that Paul wrote about his story — starring Paul playing himself — and weaving that with behind-the-scenes footage from the making of this show (don’t worry, it’ll make sense when you watch it, I promise) was essentially my way of taking a camera inside this very unique person’s brain. At times Paul comes across as sympathetic and at other times he’s discomfiting — and it’s going to be really exciting to watch the social media response and conversation this creates as the audience debates where they stand on him and his story.

 

I have always been drawn to projects that are hilarious, surprisingly moving, innovative in form and use real people to tell stories in groundbreaking ways. From my work on Nathan for You to the two years I spent directing Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, I can’t deny that I love existing in uncomfortable, fascinating moments and figuring out how to capture them on camera. This is a project that has never stopped evolving and revealing new wrinkles and, after working on it for over ten years, my excitement for it only continues to grow. I can’t wait to bring the rest of the world in and I sincerely hope you enjoy this very unique series.

So why did Woliner devote ten years of his life to this one guy? “Uh, that’s something I’ve been trying to figure out for many years … I just became obsessed with him and his story and I couldn’t let go,� he says. “And despite the world telling me for years that it was not going to happen, I, for whatever reason, was unable to let go,� he adds with a laugh. “It’s just kind of been this passion project that I would tell people about and not be able to shut up about, and I just kept pushing for ten years until I finally, through some annoyingness and force of will and Paul Goldman–style tenacity, figured out how to get it finished, basically.�

The series is slated to debut on Peacock on January 1 with three episodes followed by new episodes every week. (Woliner is still working on the finale, which he says is “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to edit.�) Aside from Paul and Woliner, the series features a pile of supporting actors including Melinda McGraw, Christopher Stanley, Dennis Haysbert, Josh Pais, Rosanna Arquette, and Frank Grillo.

Woliner says he hopes people check it out with an open mind — and ideally without as much information beforehand as possible. “I’d love for people to experience it the same way I did, which is just kind of to go in blind and take this ride with Paul and this story. There’s no wrong response to this, really, so I’m very interested to see how people respond.� As for Paul himself, Woliner says he’s ready for his big spotlight and already has his own take on how to label the show. “Yesterday Paul told me he calls it a docu-dramedy, which I thought, Yeah, that’s … that’s pretty good.�

Attempt to define the show for yourself when it premieres on Peacock on New Year’s Day.