‘The Super Models’ takes a few too many detours in its catwalk down memory lane

Review by Brian Lowry, CNN

(CNN) — Nostalgia only goes so far with “The Super Models,” a four-part Apple TV+ docuseries as glossy as a high-end fashion magazine of yore, and often as slim as one from the Internet age. Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington Burns lead this strut down memory lane, punctuated by occasional highlights but ultimately more celebratory than revelatory.

Focusing on four marquee models who came of age in the ’80s certainly has potential, and the bond that the women share – both then and now – brings an underlying warmth to the overall journey. The subject matter, however, ends up being fractured not only among their individual stories but those surrounding a shifting business, covering too much ground in a way that takes its access to this exclusive sorority and yields something that’s often not much more than skin deep.

The first chapter dutifully deals with how and where each of the four were noticed and broke into modeling, in Campbell’s case, without her mother’s knowledge. Crawford’s younger brother had died of leukemia, while Evangelista had steadfastly pursued a modeling career from an early age.

Their maturation into the business highlights the power of magazines at the time, and the importance of being on the cover of Vogue. Yet these models established their individual brands before referring to people as such was, well, fashionable, with Donatella Versace calling them “the first influencers of fashion.”

In the process, those who became known as “super models” created a pop-culture footprint like few before them, taking control over their careers and images in a way that transcended fashion, while amassing the wealth, fame and occasionally messy relationships that went with it.

That influence included branching out into other media – commercials and videos, yes, but also ventures like Crawford’s show for MTV in its early days – as well as bringing their star quality to the runway, with designer Isaac Mizrahi amusingly recalling his conservative, then-60-something mother saying after one of the shows, “I would have sex with Naomi Campbell.”

Still, directors Roger Ross Williams and Larissa Bills have almost too much material to wrestle into shape, from Evangelista’s heath struggles and marriage to Elite Models executive Gérald Marie to Campbell’s grief after the murder of Gianni Versace, her substance-abuse issues, and later her helping contemporaries with their own.

The appearance in George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” video nicely encapsulates the apex of their moment, but of course, the world didn’t stand still, as times and styles changed, from grunge to a wave of European supermodels and the “waif” look, embodied by Kate Moss.

“We thought maybe you’d have a five-year career,” says Crawford, who recently reprised her Pepsi look for the “One Margarita” music video, marveling at how this quartet has evolved and endured.

At its best “The Super Models” paints an empowering portrait of how these women gained and exercised clout, shaking up their industry while getting slapped with labels like “difficult” in response.

That’s certainly a story worth telling. Yet the project likely would have possessed more impact had that thread been followed as more of a direct line, instead of obscuring the focus with all those (admittedly, occasionally fun) digressions and detours.

“The Super Models” premieres September 20 on Apple TV+. (Disclosure: Lowry’s wife works for a division of Apple.)

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