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| Photo by Dom Hill |
"The Super Models," a four-part docuseries on Apple TV+, is a glossy and celebratory look back at the careers of Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and Christy Turlington Burns. While the series has its moments, it ultimately falls short of being revelatory.
The series focuses on the four models who came of age in the '80s and their impact on the fashion industry. The women share a bond that brings warmth to the overall journey, but the subject matter is often fractured among their individual stories and the shifting business. The series covers too much ground in a way that takes its access to this exclusive sorority and yields something that's often not much more than skin deep.
The first chapter of the series deals with how and where each of the four models was noticed and broke into modeling. The models established their individual brands before referring to people as such was fashionable, taking control over their careers and images in a way that transcended fashion. They created a pop-culture footprint like few before them, amassing wealth, fame, and occasionally messy relationships that went with it.
The series covers the models' influence on other media, such as commercials and videos, and their star quality on the runway. However, the directors have almost too much material to wrestle into shape, from Evangelista's health struggles and marriage to Elite Models executive Gérald Marie to Campbell's grief after the murder of Gianni Versace, her substance-abuse issues, and later her helping contemporaries with their own.
The appearance in George Michael's "Freedom! '90" video encapsulates the apex of their moment, but the world didn't stand still, as times and styles changed. The models' impact on the industry is worth telling, but the project would have possessed more impact had that thread been followed as a direct line, instead of obscuring the focus with all those digressions and detours.
At its best, "The Super Models" paints an empowering portrait of how these women gained and exercised clout, shaking up their industry while getting slapped with labels like "difficult" in response. The series is a celebration of their careers, but it falls short of being revelatory.
