Michael Jackson: Too Big to Fail
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The biopic “Michael” solves the third-act problem of Michael Jackson’s life by simply ending before the 1993 lawsuit that alleged child sex abuse, and before his appearance and behavior took a drastic turn. It leaves the King of Pop someone you can love without qualification—but not someone you can understand.
Guest: Aisha Harris, co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Heads up, there is some spicy language ahead. |
| 0:10.5 | So, picture this. |
| 0:12.9 | You show up for a screening of the new Michael Jackson biopic, which is simply called |
| 0:17.7 | Michael. |
| 0:19.1 | What do you expect to find? |
| 0:24.2 | Well, first I will say, just to give you a sense of, like, the ambiance, |
| 0:29.3 | there was already a line outside of the theater for Michael of, like, |
| 0:33.1 | I'm assuming, fans who had tickets or who were trying to get in. |
| 0:36.7 | There were like maybe 25, 30 people |
| 0:38.5 | a few hours before already camped out waiting. |
| 0:41.9 | The screening NPRs Aisha Harris went to was a few days back in California. |
| 0:47.9 | Is that what you expected? |
| 0:50.4 | It is, I've been to a lot of press greetings. |
| 0:53.1 | This is one of the more chaotic ones I've been to that wasn't at a festival. |
| 0:59.0 | And so I was kind of surprised. |
| 1:01.9 | In some ways, Aisha expected chaos. |
| 1:05.0 | But this was more than that. |
| 1:07.2 | The audience wasn't there to critique this movie. |
| 1:10.4 | They were there to bask in it. |
| 1:13.9 | Michael is opening on something like 4,000 screens this weekend. |
| 1:18.6 | Do you think there's any chance this movie does badly? |
| 1:24.7 | No. |
... |
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