It seems the writers and producers just glossed over the Bobbie Arnstein tragedy. If you're just watching episode 8, "Sex, Drugs and DEA investigations" you would get the impression that Arnstein was arrested for merely shaking hands with her boyfriend's dealer. Unless you went to the General Trivia add ins, you wouldn't know that Arnstein was recorded discussing the cocaine deal with her boyfriend and his dealer.What also stood out for me was the date, 1971. This was way before the cocaine flood in the late 70's and early 80's. Before Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder, George Jung and the Medillin Cartel. This was at a time when cocaine was manufactured in labs in Chile and Pinochet was cracking down hard on them because it funded leftist groups determined to bring down his dictatorship - watch Season 1, Episode 1 of "Narcos". So cocaine was relatively hard to get and much more expensive. Only Hollywood elites and Wall Street brokers could afford it - the champagne of drugs.So why would Arnstein get involved in drugs? She had a good job, she lived at the mansion and how did she or her boyfriend have enough cash to purchase 1/2 pound of cocaine? I don't know if it's true in the real case, but I did notice that the same attorney that advised Hef not to say anything was also the same attorney that defended Arnstein. Conflict of interest? Was he there to defend Arnstein or protect Hef by denying her cooperation with the DEA? Was Hef brought up in these tapes?I don't believe the theory that Hef was a drug trafficker, Playboy was at its zenith, he didn't need the money. I also don't think Hef was a coke user, you don't live to 91 years snorting lines, but I do think it's possible that Hef could have bowls of coke available for his guests as a status symbol of his success. I think it would be naive to think it didn't happen at his parties and that Arnstein was possibly sent on a mission to bring coke back to the Playboy mansion. Her boyfriend and his dealer cooperated with the DEA, but they didn't have access to Hef, Arnstein did, she may have implicated Hef in the wiretap and because she refused to cooperate, she was hit with the toughest sentence. An aggressive US Attorney doesn't guarantee a conviction. 12 jurors had to unanimously agree that Arnstein was guilty. Maybe after realizing she just got sentenced to 15 years for protecting the man that sent her to get the coke in the first place and then promptly fired her and booted her out of the mansion after getting pinched that she decided to murder herself. It would be easy for Hef to blame the DEA and calling them corrupt, rather than admit that he may have been behind the whole debacle.

After I started watching this documentary I realized that I've had the completely wrong perception of Playboy my whole life, i.e. if I'm to believe everything depicted in this documentary. I've only browsed through Playboy magazine a few times in my life, and I never read any of the articles in it ;-) Though I've always been fascinated by the life of Hugh Hefner, though from a purely sexual perspective. After watching the first 4 episodes of this series though, I'm even more fascinated and impressed by this man as I had no idea he was such a visionary and innovative entrepreneur and that he had such a nag for surrounding himself with talented people. Further, the documentary gives the distinct impression that he was anti-establishment, an equal opportunity employer, had an open door policy, was a great boss, was surprisingly respectful of women (even though at the same time he was obviously exploiting them too), was color blind and, even though indirectly and possibly unintended, he supported for the civil rights of blacks by ignoring the fact that the southern states didn't want to air his Playboy Penthouse TV show because he had a lot of black entertainers on this show. It's almost too good to be true. And as mentioned I have only seen 4 episodes so far, but I kind of doubt the tone is going to sway again Hefner. Lastly, I liked the acting and the occasional switching back to real Hefner footage.

I got bored one night and was looking through Amazon Prime when I found this. I thought it was going to be a straight-on documentary, but it mixes actual interviews with Hefner and others, and dramatizations of the events in Playboy history. If you want to know the history of how one man created an empire, this will entertain and inform you.

If you expect to be taken seriously and claim that your film is a DOCUMENTARY, including dramatic re-creations with actors playing the real-life persons in ridiculously staged "greatest hits" of events in their lives instantly destroys any semblance of credibility.Either make a bio-pic, or a true documentary. You can't have it both ways.Worthless.