The Elon Musk Show; TraumaZone

“The film told us that he is a nightmare boss, an ocean-going workaholic who prowled the office in his high-waisted trousers, bawling at colleagues for not being in their work cubes at 9pm. However, the documentary also presented a pretty good case for the world’s richest man being a genius who is ‘immune to risk’. Like many billionaires, Musk is an intriguing mix of fascinating and pretty dull.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“The film told Musk’s origin story with verve and insight, even if it fell at the final hurdle of unpicking the essence of its subject. But perhaps that says more about Musk and his apparent lack of empathy or self-knowledge. The Elon Musk Show deserved full marks for effort, but I feel no closer to understanding the world’s richest man – and I’m not sure even those closest to him fully had the measure of him. Musk is destined to remain a super-sized enigma.”
Ed Power, The i

“Is Musk a visionary, an eccentric, or something more dangerous? From this first of three episodes, it seemed the film was drawing no conclusions but leaving the viewers to make up their own minds. The documentary was strong when it comes to describing what it is like to be around Musk, but as for understanding what makes him tick? His strange behaviour didn’t feature in here, and to see the man himself we had to make do with archive footage.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“Two subsequent episodes ought to deal with the real Elon Musk, which is to say the increasingly unreal public figure, who has become a brand more recognisable than any of his companies, matching his unprecedented wealth with outlandish behaviour. For now, The Elon Musk Show tries to establish whether he is driven, a genius or a driven genius. The programme’s darkest notes come from former senior employees who talk about the cost of Musk making it big, as borne by others. They portray a man on a mission, who is intimidating and overbearing, and, ultimately, likely to use you up and chuck you out.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Documentary essayist Adam Curtis has filleted thousands of hours of unused footage from the BBC’s archive to craft a phantasmagoric autopsy of the USSR as it breaks apart in a thousand brutal ways, making way for capitalism. The result is a garish multi-part disaster epic.”
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph