• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 2, 2024

Jeff Daniels’ direction for portraying a profane Atlanta real estate developer in “A Man in Full” may have been to play this guy in the most vulgar way possible.

As readers of the TV Blog may recall (or not), I run hot and cold with the coarse way in which TV barges into people’s homes and pollutes the atmosphere.

While watching Episode One of this six-part Netflix series on Wednesday, my reactions to this show’s sometimes loathsome contents were up one moment and in the next were down.

As a TV reviewer, I preview these shows at home on a laptop during daytime hours. I am not alone here, so I often use headphones to listen to the shows by myself without broadcasting their expletives and sexual sound effects throughout the house.

Based on what has already come before in this TV Blog, you can guess that the headphones got a full episode’s workout while watching Part 1 of “A Man in Full.”

But here’s the kicker. Despite all that, I liked the show even if certain scenes made me wince.

“A Man in Full” is adapted from the 1998 novel of the same name by the late Tom Wolfe, author of “The Right Stuff” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities.”

It is about a brash, larger-than-life real-estate mogul, investor and man about town who hogs the limelight everywhere he goes. 

In Episode One, one of the principal banks that has long supported his businesses calls in his debt, which amounts to $800 million plus interest.

If the bank is successful, his corporation will collapse like a house of cards, and this high-flying, free-spending loudmouth will be bankrupt. 

Naturally, the man -- Charles Croker, played by Daniels (above photo) -- plans to dig in his heels and fight back.

If the Croker character bears any resemblance to a certain high-profile, real-life real-estate tycoon, then the similarity is likely coincidental since Wolfe’s book came out long before Donald Trump ever said anything about entering politics.

On one level, Daniels’ over-the-top acting in “A Man in Full” might be described as straight-up scenery chewing. 

For the role, he has adopted a very pronounced Southern accent that may or may not be outlandishly exaggerated. 

I’m no expert on regional inflections in Southern accents, but for actors, taking on Southern accents always seems risky to me, since Southerners in particular can likely detect a phony accent as soon as they hear one.

Still, Jeff Daniels is such a long-time actor of considerable renown that he undoubtedly knows better than I do how to put the character across. 

If approached with the right attitude, “A Man in Full” can be a whole lotta #$@&%*! fun to watch.

“A Man in Full” premieres Thursday, May 2, on Netflix.