Stream It Or Skip It? 

Directed by Alexandria Stapleton (Reggie), and executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Sean Combs: The Reckoning is a four-part docuseries for Netflix that dives deep into the label owner, record producer, and rapper’s personal history to plot the timeline toward and reasons for his eventual downfall. Combs and his representatives have called The Reckoning a hit piece. But it provides a level of access that feels legitimate, not just because of exclusive footage it has obtained from inside his universe, but because of the candor of its interviews. “It got to the point where he wanted control of everyone around him,” former Danity Kane and Bad Boy artist Aubrey O’Day says in the docuseries.

Opening Shot: September 10, 2024. Six days before Sean Combs’ arrest. We are in the room as he FaceTimes an attorney. “Things are happening, and it’s like, I want to fight for my life. I don’t want to fight for – just not guilty.”

The Gist: Given what we all know – Combs’ 2025 conviction in federal court and resulting four-year prison sentence – it’s startling to essentially be standing in a hotel room next to him while he blames the media for distorting his story. Intercut titles in The Reckoning explain that Combs hired the unnamed videographer, and how the filmmakers obtained the footage. And this 2024 version of Combs appears throughout the docuseries, as it reconstructs his backstory while emphasizing how his upbringing and early forays into the business of hip-hop indicated who he’d become, and where it would all lead.

“I was there from the very beginning,” says Kirk Burrowes, “with the invention of Sean Combs.” Burrowes co-founded Bad Boy Entertainment with Combs in 1993, but they also grew up together in Mount Vernon, an enclave just north of the Bronx. And according to Burrowes, it was all Combs ever wanted, to be “swaggy, a pop culture mover and shaker.” Reckoning draws on a visceral cross-section of footage, everything from old videotapes of Harlem parties in the late 1980s to later Puff Daddy appearances on MTV, to paint a picture of a guy who tenaciously pursued what he perceived his position to be, plus anything – or anyone – he wanted. As Combs outgrew an initial stint at Uptown Records, signed the Notorious B.I.G. to the fledgling Bad Boy, and kept his trajectory in rocket mode, he also offended former allies like EPMD rapper Erick Sermon and lashed out violently at rivals and romantic partners alike.

The Reckoning takes a methodical approach to all of this, even as it uses music and powerful editing to build a sense of dreamlike foreboding into its narrative. While it periodically drops in the disclaimers – clarifying who would speak on the record, and the nature of Combs’ alleged crimes – it also hits this material head on. “Was there ever a time when Sean Combs sexually assaulted you?” the filmmakers ask an interviewee, and the answer comes back through a fog of tears and heartbreak. “Yes. [Combs] was raising his hand in victory, and I’m living in trauma in defeat.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? While Sean Combs: The Reckoning is the only one with Curtis 50 Cent” Jackson attached as an exec producer, it is not the only series tracking the Combs allegations, and there is even some overlap in the included interviews. Hulu has The Fall of Diddy, Tubi’s got The Downfall of Diddy, and over at Peacock there’s The Making of a Bad Boy, which uses anonymizing tech to allow people to speak freely.  

Our Take: What’s so arresting about Sean Combs: The Reckoning is that it’s not just people saying shit. There is no sensationalism here, no glomming onto an existing story full of secrets and illicit sex and a controlling personality. While it’s not an investigation per se, we appreciate the strong journalistic approach Reckoning takes, using direct quotes and personal experience, wherever it can, to establish historic, scary patterns in Combs’ behavior.

At the same time, director Alexandria Stapleton is an artful builder of tension, which makes Reckoning eminently watchable. Right away, in the first episode of the docuseries, Stapleton effectively cuts between the obtained 2024 footage of Combs as his own, most brash defender – “Now I gotta spend money to go and get rid of this bullshit” – his past interviews – “I’ve seen the media portray me like I’m a gangster” – and the widely-seen, still totally disturbing video of Combs assaulting Cassie in a hotel hallway. It’s an approach that backs up the docuseries’ assertions, even as it explores a kind of horror movie-like, growing sense of terror.     

Performance Worth Watching: Appearances in The Reckoning by former Bad Boy artists and employees are a stark look at both what they believed about Sean Combs, and what they learned to be the truth. “He was presenting this freedom that Black people hadn’t had,” says singer Kaleena Harper. And Capricorn Clark, Combs’ former personal assistant: “He thinks he’s Black Superman.”  

Sex and Skin: More careful, clear disclaimers. “The following series contains descriptions of domestic and sexual violence, which may be disturbing for some viewers.”

Parting Shot: “I think that Sean now, in my mature mind, had a lot to do with the death of Tupac.” It’s not just Combs’ most recent troubles analyzed in Reckoning.

Sleeper Star: The interviews with Erick Sermon and Al B. Sure! stand out in the first installment of The Reckoning. Both are prominent figures in hip-hop and R&B, with intimate knowledge of Combs’ early days, and neither artist holds back on the opinions.  

Most Pilot-y Line: Kirk Burrowes: “I know people shaped by pain, as well as love. And if it was more pain than love” – like with Combs – “watch out. It’s gonna be pain that you’re gonna give others.”

Our Call: Stream It. It’s a huge story. But after all the splashy media chatter about “freak offs” and Diddy parties – and the competing docuseries – Sean Combs: The Reckoning feels like the most complete and definitive word on the producer and Bad Boy founder’s denouement.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.