Peacock’s ‘Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy’ Is a Remarkable Disaster

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If Peacock’s premature attempt to document the Diddy debacle is any indication of the criminal trial to come, then Sean Combs is in for a hell of a media circus.

The earliest in a series of upcoming true crime projects centering the disgraced rapper, “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” started filming shortly after Combs’ arrest on September 16, 2024. It hits streaming on Tuesday amid ongoing pretrial matters and features new interviews with several people close to the case — including Combs’ childhood friends, two accusers, a former bodyguard, opposing legal representatives, hip-hop journalists, and more — in a production otherwise notable for its editorial incoherence.

Right now, Diddy’s defense team is awaiting details on three federal charges outlined in a surprisingly short indictment from last fall. Those include sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering: a sprawling and complex claim related to an alleged criminal enterprise that if proven would have spanned decades. Combs’ lawyers are arguing with the prosecution over fast-approaching deadlines, and as the former A-lister awaits next steps at a jail in Brooklyn, specifics about the sexual abuse Diddy is accused of facilitating continue to pick up steam across tabloids and on social media.

The Grammy winner’s trial is set to begin on May 5, but scads of civil lawsuits are likely to move forward in the verdict’s wake. With the former billionaire having been denied bail, time may be of the essence to the defense. And yet, “Making of a Bad Boy” is proof that the pop culture conversation around Diddy should be paced as a marathon — not a sprint. To mix metaphors as badly as this doc overcomplicates Combs’ case by tackling the topic too early and from too many angles, this research is so disorganized that the story resembles something akin to deranged lobbyists throwing spaghetti at the wall through a shotgun.

The result is a sloppy dog pile indicative of the grueling year ahead Diddy, witnesses, and the court will have facing these deeply troubling claims. The documentary further recaps not just the dozens of allegations currently facing Combs, but a number of key events from his checkered past. There’s criticism surrounding the rapper’s role in the 1991 City College crowd crush; conspiracies surrounding his knowledge of the murders of Tupac and Biggie; more unproven accusations about the mysterious death of ex-partner Kim Porter; and an impassioned consideration of the alleged attempted murder of Al B. Sure! from the singer himself, who appears while explicitly sharing hesitation about that choice.

The seriously bewildering approach taken here could look like foreshadowing for a potential legal defense. (The documentary features Diddy’s so-called “inner circle,” is sympathetic enough to the defendant, and “confusing the jury” is a common tactic among defense lawyers who are desperate to find reasonable doubt.) But after a meandering feature-length effort, the underbaked Peacock project finally gets around to letting someone actually call Combs a “piece of shit” before allowing another to directly compare him to Satan. Viewers who don’t make it past the first commercial break should be forgiven for mistaking it as a pro-Diddy effort. (Friend Tim Patterson is given a particularly wide berth at the outset to discuss Combs’ upbringing, and the psychological dangers of Diddy’s rapid professional ascent are expanded upon by domestic violence expert Dr. Carolyn West.) But in the end, there’s no mistaking that this documentary crew is predicting rough times ahead for Diddy and his defenders.

True crime audiences have an almost bottomless appetite for fact-heavy case summaries and “Making of a Bad Boy” works well enough in that context. The silhouette of an anonymous accuser describing a terrifying gang rape allegedly involving Diddy is unforgettable, and notably, it includes her recounting the failure of local police to sufficiently investigate her the complaint she filed that night (as corroborated by the woman’s lawyer). Civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing another plaintiff suing Diddy, effectively contrasts this case with her work on the Jeffrey Epstein trial. And the makeup artist for Cassie, the pop singer who settled an explosive lawsuit with Diddy, her ex-boyfriend, in late 2023, details an altercation she witnessed between the couple at a hotel in Los Angeles.

With major celebrities from across Hollywood swirling around Combs’ case (Donald Trump appears in an old photograph), many viewers want a succinct primer on this breaking news story now. These particular subjects run through Diddy’s biography and explain, for example, the difference between his star-studded White Parties and the salacious concept of “freak-offs” tidily, but they can’t overcome an unserious structure that so obviously tries to pack too much into too little time. The nonlinear narrative approach doesn’t help either with editors steadily going through the fallen icon’s life story step-by-step via chapter headings… before randomly jumping forward to describe disturbing modern contentions at will.

This first-past-the-post tactic in producing a doc on Diddy really starts to fail Peacock when the complexity of these allegations overwhelm the very question “Making of a Bad Boy” ostensibly sets out to answer — but doesn’t have the facts or thoughtfulness to support. How did this bad boy get made? No one here seems to really know and, as the voice of an off-camera producer points out, it mostly doesn’t matter. Still, the calamitous effort should tell the prosecution and the defense how not to shape their arguments for the court, even as public opinion charges ahead to make a mess of its own.

“Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” premieres exclusively on Peacock on January 14.

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