Paul American is a reality series about the crazy lives of Logan Paul and Jake Paul, both of whom have essentially built their massive YouTube followings into business and sports empires. In addition to the millions of people who follow them on YT and social media platforms, Logan has started wrestling with the WWE; Jake Paul is now a professional boxer who just fought Mike Tyson in front of a record audience on Netflix.
Opening Shot: Logan and Jake Paul exit a black SUV. “Sorry,” calls out Jake as he holds up his phone. “I’m trading crypto.”
The Gist: While the Paul brothers have spent most of their lives in front of a camera, making silly content even when they were kids, this show includes an extensive look at members of the Paul family. We’re reintroduced to the brothers’ outspoken father Greg and his wife Hawkwind Kelly, and their mother, Pam Stepnick. Jake’s speed-skating champion girlfriend (now fiancee) Jutta Leerdam, and Logan’s model girlfriend, Nina Agdal, also appear.
The first episode finds the brothers at odds, especially after Jake sets up his bout with Tyson, a vision he had on an ayahuasca retreat. Being at odds has always been good for their respective YT feeds, which seem to love their mutual diss tracks as much as the dumb stunts they would do. But while some of the rivalry is for clicks, a lot of it is genuine. Jake feels that his older brother undermines him too much, like when Logan went on his podcast and ribbed Jake about fighting the 58-year-old ex-champ.
But they also have to pitch the very show that we’re watching, so they have to look together on the Zoom pitch meetings. Apparently, they even had Greg in on one meeting — the name of the outlet is bleeped, but it’s obvious that it rhymes with “Snapple” — and that didn’t go well.
The brothers are also trying to convince their girlfriends to be on board with a reality show; Logan even presents a funny PowerPoint presentation to Nina to sway her.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Paul American reminds us of The D’Amelio Show, only much dumber.
Our Take: We have to admit that we’re not fans or followers of either of the Paul brothers; it could be because of age or it could just be that we’re not into their schtick. But, with anyone who has built a massive online following and parlayed it into a business empire, we do like how the brothers have been able to “crack the code” of virality and not just become indentured servants to the algorithm, burning out like so many influencers before and after them.
That being said, there seems to be little point to Paul American. In their pitch meetings, the brothers pitch the concept as a testosterone-fueled version of The Kardashians, but one big difference is that the brothers have pretty much lived their teen and adult years online, to the point where there isn’t much insight left to gain into the two of them.
Do the Pauls have private lives? Somewhat. It’s interesting to see that the rivalry that they show online isn’t complete BS, but they also acknowledge that they can never alienate themselves from each other because they each know what the other’s experience in the spotlight is like. their significant others, Jutta and Nina, seem to not only be grounding but they do a good job of grounding their respective boyfriends.
But watching Jake and Logan do their dudebro stuff 24/7 gets tiresome. In fact, given how online they really are, we’d rather watch more of their SOs and their parents, just to give the brothers some human dimension that they currently lack.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: While the credits roll, Logan annoys Jake and Jutta, trying to have a romantic date on the lake by the Logan home, by flying a drone over their heads. Jake knocks the drone into the water, then Logan laughs as Jake and some friends try to retrieve it.
Sleeper Star: Greg Paul is definitely opinionated; what we hope is that he’s opinionated in an entertaining way and not in a way that just gets viewers pissed off.
Most Pilot-y Line: As Jake talks about discussing the fight with Tyson, he does a Tyson impression. Dude, Tyson was heavyweight champ when you weren’t even a zygote; doing the impression felt disrespectful to us.
Our Call: SKIP IT. We don’t need more Paul bothers content, and Paul American really doesn’t give enough insight into Jake and Logan’s lives to make us want to keep watching.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.