Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story’ On Peacock, A Docuseries About The History Of Joe Francis And The Hit Adult Video Series

Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story is a three-part Peacock docuseries, directed by Jamila Wignot, that examines the phenomenon of the Girls Gone Wild video series, which began with clips of drunk college girls bearing their chests to a camera, and eventually evolved into almost full-blown sex scenes. BuzzFeed journalist Scaachi Koul visited the video series’ creator, Joe Francis, at his Mexico home, where he has permanently taken up residence after running from assault charges in Florida. The audio from that interview — Francis refused to be interviewed on camera for the series — forms the basis of the show’s narrative.

GIRLS GONE WILD: THE UNTOLD STORY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Shots of Punta Mita, Mexico, where Joe Francis now lives as a fugitive.

The Gist: The first episode goes into Francis’ background and how he started in the entertainment industry; his first job was on the series Real TV, and when he found that there was local news footage even that show wouldn’t air, he put that footage together in a video called Banned From Television. He sold the VHS tapes via late-night TV ads and made millions.

He conceived of Girls Gone Wild when he saw footage of women baring themselves during Mardi Gras. The first videos were a hit, but licensing the footage became more difficult, so he had camera crews go to campuses and spring break locales, with announcements about their presence generating huge crowds and women very willing to doff their tops, especially if they’ve had a few drinks. After Howard Stern advertised the videos on his show, the already-strong sales took off, allowing Francis to make half-hour infomercials that flooded late-night television.

The idea, according to Francis and other GGW staffers Wingot talked to, was to get “regular girls” to do something they never would otherwise. A couple of problems: Some of these girls were under 18, and others were so inebriated they had no idea what they were doing. Wingot also speaks to women who unwittingly found themselves featured in GGW ads or plastered on the covers of the tapes and DVDs, essentially branding them with labels they never wanted.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Mainly because of Joe Francis’ inherent dudebro-ness, this docuseries gives us the same vibe as the various Fyre Festival docuseries, though at the very least Francis had a real product that made him a lot of money.

Our Take: Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story is somewhat hampered by the fact that the only current interview with Francis is via Koul’s audio recordings. While it’s good that they’re there, and Wingot supplements them by placing his words front and center on the screen, we don’t get to see his mannerisms or any other non-verbal reactions. Given how much of the docuseries revolves around his mostly-arrogant interview responses, there’s a whole lot of time where there’s generic b-roll and text on the screen.

The first episode ends with how, in 2003 Francis got into his legal situation, running afoul of the very colorful Lee Sullivan, the former mayor and chief of police of Panama City Beach, Florida. There will also be lawsuits and the 2011 assault charges that led Francis to run to Mexico. But even though the episode mostly talks about the rise of Francis and GGW, it still doesn’t look favorably on the phenomenon he created.

As Koul stated, a lot of what we see today on social media and sites like OnlyFans was made possible by GGW‘s success. But at its heart, Francis and his film crews took advantage of women who were either too young or in no state to resist.

The interviews with two women who found themselves featured in GGW ads or video covers are presented in a way that neither blames them or makes us pity them; they made mistakes that came back to haunt them in ways that far outstripped their momentary lapses of reason. But their interviews are a good view of exactly how these film crews were persistent until they got the footage they wanted.

Sex and Skin: Not as much as you’d think; all of the shots from the videos are pixelated.

Parting Shot: “He was going to get arrested. He seemed to be the only person who didn’t realize it,” says one of the experts about Francis’ time in Panama City.

Sleeper Star: Oh, it’s definitely Lee Sullivan, especially when he says the line, “Joe Francis. What a miserable little shit. I’d pinch that little shit’s head off and crap down his neck if I could.”

Most Pilot-y Line: As we mentioned above, the audio-only Joe Francis interview footage is better than nothing, but certainly doesn’t make for the most dynamic visual element of the series.

Our Call: STREAM IT. You may have watched a GGW video or two, or you may have seen the ads and thought, “who cares?”, but either way, you’ll be fascinated with Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story as it details the rise and fall of Joe Francis and his skeevy video series.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.