January 28Jan 28 I have watched all the episodes, it's been very cool and made me appreciate once again the work Take That have put. It also made Nigel a "bad guy" (reminds me of the Elvis movie and about his manager).The lyrics to 'Patience' before the one we know sure was... interesting. It's kind of a shame not to hear anymore from Jason. He truly has returned to his normal life. I guess it's for the best.Never saw the 2005 one back then so I don't know how much I missed.
January 28Jan 28 Author 18 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:I have watched all the episodes, it's been very cool and made me appreciate once again the work Take That have put. It also made Nigel a "bad guy" (reminds me of the Elvis movie and about his manager).The lyrics to 'Patience' before the one we know sure was... interesting.It's kind of a shame not to hear anymore from Jason. He truly has returned to his normal life. I guess it's for the best.Never saw the 2005 one back then so I don't know how much Very few managers back in those days seemed to have any sense of personable responsibility for those in their care. Time & time again we read how members of different bands were treated badly .I would hope things have improved nowadays. Robbie was very lucky when he left Take That that he had fantastic management at IE Music , I doubt he would be alive today if it was not for their intervention.Nice to see all of the band members now in a happy place & I hope Jason is too,
January 28Jan 28 Author The three-part Netflix doc features new interview with Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen as well as plenty of clips from the archiveNNetflix‘s documentary series about Britain’s best-ever boyband benefits from fortuitous timing. Just four days ago, the group’s prodigal son Robbie Williams broke The Beatles‘ all-time record for the most UK Number One albums – he now has an astonishing 16. It’s a handy reminder of Take That‘s enduring appeal and lofty place on the pop landscape.Directed by David Soutar, who’s previously made decent docs about Bros and Ed Sheeran, this three-parter tells their story chronologically. Audio interviews with the band members are laid over archive footage and scrapbook-style visuals that evoke the ’90s Smash Hits era that Take That dominated. This may well be a stylistic choice but it also feels like a practical one. While the band’s current three-member line-up – Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen – recorded new interviews for the series, Williams and fellow departee Jason Orange did not. Their recollections are all sourced from the archive.AdvertisementThe first episode zips through the group’s rise so briskly that it risks becoming boring – quite an achievement given that Take That’s first music video, for 1991’s dance flop ‘Do What U Like’, involved jelly, mops and band members baring their buttocks. A little more of the group’s spiky svengali Nigel Martin-Smith would be nice but there are some sweet and revealing moments. “Myself and Howard, we were the dancers, we just made up the numbers at the back,” Orange recalls self-deprecatingly. Barlow, who set himself apart from his bandmates by penning early signature hits like ‘Back For Good’ and ‘Pray’, says in a very old-before-his time way: “I always dreamed of a [song-writing] copyright.”The second episode is more compelling, sensitively covering their breakup. An increasingly erratic Williams – by this point, he’s sinking neat vodka in his hotel room – quits in 1995. The remaining band members go their separate ways a year later after a valedictory eighth Number One single. Barlow was famously tipped to become the next George Michael but after a wobbly start, Williams comprehensively eclipses him. Barlow struggles with an eating disorder and low self-esteem as a result, while his former bandmates also flounder: Owen is dropped after his first solo album sells poorly and Donald feels so directionless that he contemplates jumping into the Thames.Take That have shared these harrowing stories before but Soutar does a good job of placing them in the context of a more overtly cruel media climate. Asked about his bandmates’ solo prospects at a press conference, Williams quips: “Jason will be a really good painter and decorator, I’m sure.” It’s hard to imagine any pop star making such a dig now. The final episode is just as illuminating, reminding us that Take That’s triumphant 2005 comeback – as a four-piece without Williams – was no foregone conclusion. It also reveals that Orange, once there to “make up the numbers”, grew into a source of soft power. It was he who pushed for Barlow to start sharing song-writing duties (and royalties) and for Williams to return to the fold for 2010’s ‘Progress’ album and tour.Smartly, Soutar frames this as the series’ dramatic crescendo, because from this point on, Take That’s story becomes less interesting. Williams leaves to resume his solo career, Orange beats a retreat from the public eye, and Take That settle into an extended third act as a beloved legacy act – the odd alleged tax discrepancy aside. Fittingly, the series ends with the three-piece singing one of Barlow’s wisest lyrics: “Never forget where you’ve come in from.” After all of Take That’s ups and downs, you don’t doubt they believe it.'Take That' review: a moving look at Britain's greatest boyband
January 28Jan 28 https://flixpatrol.com/title/take-that/ - Official chart positions.Number 1 (3):Denmark, Ireland, UK.Top 10. (25):Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland.Worldwide: Number 8.Will update when more come in. Edited February 1Feb 1 by nirvanamusic
January 28Jan 28 Haven't seen it yet - trying to find it somewhere : we don't have (happy people at some point 😄) Netflix nowadays but should be found soon.Thank you for your reviews.
January 28Jan 28 Author 31 minutes ago, Better Man said:Haven't seen it yet - trying to find it somewhere : we don't have (happy people at some point 😄) Netflix nowadays but should be found soon.Thank you for your reviews.I am sure it will turn up on YT soon Alex ...
January 29Jan 29 I watched the first two episodes tonight -really enjoyed it although I didn't learn anything new.Looking forward to part three tomorrow, especially the Progress bit.
January 29Jan 29 I like that they all have aged gracefully, but how long 35 years are. Do you think that TT and Robbie have aligned their promo? They are separate acts but still they are also eternally linked and they all seem to be very supportive
January 30Jan 30 I plan to watch it all back to back at the weekend as it seems like its a really interesting watch.
February 1Feb 1 Author TV & RadioReviewTake That on Netflix review: Despite being airbrushed to death, this is still a fascinating storyTelevision: Much like their music, this three-parter is pleasantly antiseptic, bingeable and forgettableGary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen attend the documentary's premiere in London on Monday. Photograph: Lia Toby/GettyEd PowerTue Jan 27 2026Take That spent most of the 1990s lording it over rival boybands – but they are late to the party with their underwhelming new Netflix documentary, which arrives a year after the devastating Boyzone tell-all, No Matter What.In that latter film, Ronan Keating and his bandmates unpacked the trauma they had accumulated over their many years of success and failure while their former manager Louis Walsh was cast as the comic-book villain of the piece. It was a gripping plunge into the pop industry’s heart of darkness.There is no such catharsis in Take That, David Soutar’s largely sanitised survey of the Manchester pop institution’s rise, fall and surprise rebirth as pop’s very own fuddy-duddy comfort blanket. Could it be magic? Nah.Even as a casual follower of TT, there was nothing here of which I wasn’t already aware – whether that be the rivalry between Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams or Barlow’s subsequent descent into a hermit-like funk as Williams conquered the world.As befits a group that have been living off their glory days for some years now, it sticks to the hits. It also verges on sharp practice by not revealing until the end credits that, while the interviews with the three current members of Take That, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald, are new, the contributions from Robbie Williams and Jason Orange are from the archives – and that they are otherwise not involved.It’s a shame that the programme plays it safe as there is obviously a lot more to the story beyond smashes and crashes. Barlow admits he was a control freak who, in the 1990s, saw Take That simply as a vehicle for his songwriting ambitions. It took the group splitting up and then reforming for him to understand he needed his bandmates as much as they needed him.But Netflix’s Take That never goes beyond the standard rockumentary anecdotes about disappointment and redemption.There is nothing, for instance, about the 2014 tax avoidance controversy that saw Barlow, Donald and Owen make a £20 million (€23 million) repayment to British authorities.Or the implosion in Owen’s personal life after he admitted to being serially unfaithful to his long-term partner (including a five-year affair with a woman he’d met at random on the concourse of Preston railway station).This is a striking omission, as the scandal broke in the run up to the release of their 2010 album Progress – a mending of the fences with Williams which provides one of the emotional touchstones of the new documentary. That Owen went into rehab bang in the middle of that process surely merits at least a passing mention?Despite being airbrushed to death, this is still a fascinating story. As a struggling songwriter in suburban Cheshire in northwest England, Barlow had been desperate to break into show business. Which is why he went along with the suggestion of his manager, Nigel Martin-Smith, that they build a band around his music – and try to break into the gay clubs of Greater Manchester.They did all that and more – yet all of Take That seemed to lack confidence to one degree or another. Barlow refused to share songwriting responsibilities, Williams was an ego built on sand, Orange was encouraged not to sing and reminded that he had been recruited as a dancerThe three-part series concludes with the now-three-piece Take That talking with optimism about the future and the film doubles as a handy advertisement for their upcoming summer tour, including a July date in Dublin. Fans of the band will love reeling in the boyband years – but compared to the cathartic classic that was Boyzone’s No Matter What, it’s a triumph of fluff over substance.Take That on Netflix review: Despite being airbrushed to death, this is still a fascinating story – The Irish Times.
February 1Feb 1 Are they actually going to promote the documentary? I mean properly. Not just the UK, surprise surprise.I would have thought with Netflix putting this on a global platform they would have expected more promotion and foreign interviews from the group. It was made to tell their full story to those outside of the UK who are unfamiliar.It has done well in the places they have toured since their 2005 reunion namely Europe and Australia/New Zealand, Israel. Basically countries who have kept up with them. However, it defeats the purpose if you create something then just let it sit unknown in a vortex which is the case for Asia, Africa, North and South America.No one can hear your story if they don't know you exist.Had this been just on a UK platform fine but Elizabeth Smart has been doing interviews all around the world. As have individuals from all the other new content released. Thoughts? Surely I'm not the only one thinking this. Edited February 1Feb 1 by nirvanamusic
February 2Feb 2 15 hours ago, nirvanamusic said:Are they actually going to promote the documentary? I mean properly. Not just the UK, surprise surprise.I would have thought with Netflix putting this on a global platform they would have expected more promotion and foreign interviews from the group. It was made to tell their full story to those outside of the UK who are unfamiliar.It has done well in the places they have toured since their 2005 reunion namely Europe and Australia/New Zealand, Israel. Basically countries who have kept up with them. However, it defeats the purpose if you create something then just let it sit unknown in a vortex which is the case for Asia, Africa, North and South America.No one can hear your story if they don't know you exist.Had this been just on a UK platform fine but Elizabeth Smart has been doing interviews all around the world. As have individuals from all the other new content released.Thoughts? Surely I'm not the only one thinking this.Shows have to be willing to book you to do that kind of promotion. Take That are very bookable in the U.K., not so much in the rest of Europe.It has done reasonable well in the Netflix charts so maybe there will be some post-release interest.
