Documentary Now! (TV Series) Long Gone (2019) User Reviews

Did I watch this before?

[kenhoward-54227 · 2/10 · 3 December 2022]

I was looking through season 3 episodes almost 4 years after the season came out, all of the episodes look familiar to me except this one. I decided to watch it thinking I may have missed one, but after watching this I can understand why I forgot it. This may have been one of the most dull episodes of anything I've ever seen and was a real disappointment by Documentary Now standards.

There were a few moments that gave me a minor chuckle, but this whole episode was an absolute bore. I can give the creators credit for a good recreation of another documentary, but this came off more as something I would never watch and less as satire.

Context is everything

[bongoherbert · 8/10 · 9 June 2020]

I'm a but surprised by the low overall rating for this episode. I liked it, but then again, I also liked Let's Get Lost, so maybe it's just me.

During the shelter-in-place I've been re-watching Documentary Now! episodes paired with their inspirational documentaries.

Let's Get Lost is a beautiful melancholy film whose mood is mostly captured in Long Gone. Here we have Fred Amisan playing a Baker-inspired Rex Logan and Natasha Lyonne serves as the film's Ruth Young,

It seems that it would be rough to make a knee slapping parody of the original. At the same time there's a tension in dealing with Chet Baker's decline and death that is carefully avoided. Furthermore, it would be pretty simple to just parody the drug-addled slowness of Baker and friends, and. luckily, that gets played down. There is a good play on his 'disappearance' from the US scene and they go for matching the cinematography and direction instead. I wish they could have fit Jack Sheldon's stories in there somewhere.

It's a nice episode. Given that folks are relatively divided on the original, it's probably no surprise that the evaluations of the parody are similarly mixed. I think it's better than it's ratings here. But your opinion may vary.

"I'm always losing my lighter..."

Boring, Boring, Boring

[Barry0169 · 2/10 · 23 March 2019]

Waiting for The Artist was top notch hilarity. This episode was just as boring as could be and didn't make me laugh even once. Such a disappointment.

My Favourite Episode

[flynnflon · 10/10 · 28 December 2020]

I come back to this episode, a lot. There are so many clever nods to 'Let's Get Lost', and having rewatched this episode five times, I always find something new.

I'll admit a bias, which is that I absolutely loved 'Let's Get Lost'. It's one of my favourite music documentaries. I'm guessing most of the subpar reviews here are from people who may not have seen it.

For me, this is some of Fred's best work. The performances by him and the supporting cast are so wonderful.

A tribute to mediocrity.

[prophetagnostic · 2/10 · 15 June 2019]

Wether or not it's meant to be an ironic look at ego, is the question. Is this episode an insight to the inflated self of the character, or Fred Armisen? Without a doubt.... It's Armisen.

Beautifully Done

[kenkreps-197-725130 · 9/10 · 24 March 2019]

This was a fascinating story of a totally ficticious and highly interesting tale of foriegn intrigue, music, international spice, stock car racing, alien abduction, and fast paced tax accounting. OK, only kidding, but I loved it Fred Armisen was brilliant, and this was a highly entertaining episode.

Finding Fred

[taft_chatham · 8/10 · 11 April 2022]

This is a video for jazz fans. Period. But I am a fan and I thought it was superbly done. Hard to imagine how someone who liked Let's Get Lost wouldn't like this one, or how someone who didn't like LGL would. I can take Fred Armisen or leave him, often, but he's actually great here. The business about Sardasovinia is silly, but if Long Gone were too much like Let's Get Lost it would have just been depressing. As it is, it's equal parts Let's Get Lost and Zelig, and an impressive piece of work. And Fred Armisen actually a pretty good singer/guitarist.

Who played the actual guitar?

[pshropshire · 8/10 · 24 April 2019]

I thought the fake jazz guitar was really good. Just a lot of swirling emotional lines that I really enjoyed. I think the singing was clearly out of that weird Chet Baker school. I never understood Chet's vocals. I could never tell if he was just being stylish or if that's what really tired junkies sound like. It also seemed to riff on elements of "Call Me Morgan" and Zappa's influence on freedom movements in Eastern Europe. But mostly it had me asking who played that guitar because I really liked it. If I had to guess I would say Bill Frisell or Jim Hall.