Netflix’s Lamar Odom Documentary Debuts Big on Netflix

Lamar Odom remains the people’s champ. In spite of his ups and downs, he’s someone the public is always rooting for.

His recent Netflix documentary, Untold: The Death and Life of Lamar Odom, has been a major favorite among subscribers since its premier last month. As of this weekend, the documentary has landed in the Top 10, sitting at No. 3 as of Saturday.

The documentary chronicles the life of Odom, from his youth in Queens, New York, his rise to NBA fame, marriage to Khloé Kardashian, his near-fatal overdose in a Nevada brothel, and his ongoing sobriety efforts. Among those featured and sharing their take on their time with Odom are Kardashian, his ex-fiance and mother of his three children, Liza Morales, his two children, Destiny and Lamar Jr, former Lakers coach Phil Jackson, and a host of family and friends. 

PopCulture spoke with the documentary’s director, Ryan Duffy, about why highlighting Odom was appealing, considering his life and career has been well documented thus far.

“We just started exploring a story, and started talking to the people around him and I think I came away from it feeling that ultimately, yes, it had been done, but he’s now at a place in his life where he has a perspective that is different,” Duffy explained. “The events are the same, but the perspective is different, and we thought we could round out the story with a lot of interesting voices that people as close to him as kids, Richard Hunter from the brothel. We felt like there was a compelling enough distance on Lamar’s part and a compelling enough surrounding cast of characters that there was a story to be told there.”

He says what makes Odom’s story even more compelling is that it’s seemingly still being written. “I make these documentaries for a living and I have been doing so for a long time. And usually, the person at the center of them is really committed to convincing you of this kind of happy ending. They want their story to have this tidy bow at the end. With Lamar, I think I was surprised by just how honest he was,” he remembered.

“He feels like he had a near death experience and he survived. He feels strongly that there was divine intervention in that survival. And that means he needs to do something, but he doesn’t know what that is. He feels this pressure to make it worth it to justify living,” he added. “But he’s still kind of feeling his way through that, and I think you feel that uncertainty at the end of the movie a little bit. And I think I was just surprised by that vulnerability, by that uncertainty, and by his willingness to just be comfortable in the discomfort of not knowing what’s next.”