# The Defiant Ones (2017)

> A four-part HBO documentary traces the improbable partnership of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre and their role in reshaping contemporary music culture.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62925

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 90 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre, Dee Barnes, Alonzo Williams, Mark Anthony Petrucelli, Gregory Schwabe, Tupac Shakur, Trent Reznor
- TMDB rating: 8.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6958022/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: reflective, confrontational, tense, candid, aggressive

## What critics say

Audiences rated this four-part HBO documentary as acclaimed, admiring its candid look at the Iovine and Dr. Dre partnership and the music industry they reshaped.

## Synopsis

The Defiant Ones (2017) is an American HBO documentary miniseries created for HBO, a four-part docuseries that follows record executive Jimmy Iovine and rapper and producer Dr. Dre, one the son of a Brooklyn longshoreman and the other raised in Compton. Both men appear as themselves, speaking directly to the camera across the episodes, with archive footage and interviews from figures such as Dee Barnes, Trent Reznor and Tupac Shakur filling out the story. Rather than a single case or a fixed plot, the series is built around the engine of their partnership: two very different men who keep crossing paths in the business of recorded music, and the frictions, ambitions and compromises that come with building a company and a sound. Each ninety-minute episode moves through a sequence of transformative moments in the industry, mixing candid reflection with tense archival clips. The result is a limited series with a reflective, sometimes confrontational register, touched by the aggression and anger of the era it documents. Viewers who enjoy Hip Hop Evolution and Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight will find similar pleasures in its mix of personal testimony and cultural history.

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