Stream It Or Skip It: ‘TMZ Investigates: Lisa Marie Presley: Unending Tragedy’ on Hulu, A Quickie Doc Released In The Wake Of The Singer’s Untimely Demise

TMZ Investigates: Lisa Marie Presley: Unending Tragedy, which appears on Hulu after first airing Jan. 30 on Fox, features a handful of the tabloid outfit’s personalities tracking the recent passing of the singer and sole heir of her father Elvis Presley’s estate, connecting her death to flashpoints of trouble over the course of her life, and suggesting what might happen next regarding custody of her twin daughters and squabbles over life insurance and financial trusts.  

TMZ INVESTIGATES: LISA MARIE PRESLEY – UNENDING TRAGEDY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “To the Presley family,” Austin Butler is saying in “the voice,” as he accepts his award for best actor in a drama at the 2023 Golden Globes, “Thank you, guys. Lisa Marie, Priscilla, I love you forever.”

The Gist: And then TMZ founder Harvey Levin picks up the thread. “Two days after this glorious night” – here, footage of mother and daughter sitting together at the Globes goes into slow-motion – “Lisa Marie was dead.” It’s a function of our relentless media ecosystem churn that Presley’s passing Jan. 12 at age 54 already feels like forever ago. But it wasn’t, and in fact it was so recent that this quickie documentary special from TMZ can’t reveal what caused her cardiac arrest. As Levin tells us, the Los Angeles County coroner has deferred that decision pending toxicology reports. But that won’t stop the tabloid from speculating, and speculation and archival footage is basically what this doc is built on.    

“We have information that could be highly relevant in determining why Lisa Marie Presley died,” Levin says in Unending Tragedy, and he’s joined by TMZ executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere and other staffers for the outlet in connecting her death, “whatever the circumstances,” to the “eerily similar” passing of her dad back in 1977. Presley’s appearance on the Globes red carpet is played, alongside Extra host Billy Bush’s suggestion that she was wobbly; Dr. Drew Pinsky surfaces to link her look to that of a person on opioids; and Levin returns to say sources told TMZ that Presley suffered from severe stomach pain on the morning of her death. The toxicology, he says, “could be revealing.” 

What follows is a step backward through the many traumas in the life of Lisa Marie Presley. Her father’s death, mother Priscilla shipping her off to the Scientologists for therapy, her struggles with addiction, her marriages to Danny Keough, Michael Jackson, and Nicolas Cage, and her ultimate union with Michael Lockwood, which devolved into bitter counter-accusations and a battle for custody of their twin daughters. Ancient footage of Presley’s TV interviews with Diane Sawyer, Oprah Winfrey, and her appearances on The View, her awkward kiss with then-husband Jackson at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards, and Presley’s descent into seclusion after the 2020 suicide of her son Benjamin is all rehashed before we arrive back in January 2023, where TMZ ticks off Presley’s money troubles and the potential outcomes of her life insurance polices and financial access to Elvis Presley’s estate.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The TMZ-to-Fox-to-Hulu content pipeline that this doc is part of also includes the recent TMZ Presents: Lamar Odom: Sex, Drugs & Kardashians. (After all, Fox owns TMZ.) But TMZ’s quick turnaround on Lisa Marie Presley’s death and the drama surrounding her demise also feels similar to the two-part Discovery+ doc Johnny Vs. Amber, which offered little in the way of new information about the Depp/Heard defamation trial and instead lots and lots of filler.   

Our Take: “We’ve learned at the time of Lisa’s death she was $4 million in debt,” including millions owed to the IRS. “But. We found out, on the day she died, Lisa’s estate was suddenly flush with cash.” That’s TMZ’s Charles Latibeaudiere in Unending Tragedy on what the tabloid says it’s discovered about Lisa Marie Presley’s financials, which is then buttressed by Harvey Levin, who says “family sources” told them about Presley’s hefty life insurance policies, which will eventually be divided among her three children. Latibeaudiere, Levin, and the other TMZ producers also make exhaustive use of the term “bad blood” to describe the vibe inside the Presley circle, from the testy relationship between Danny Keough and Michael Lockwood to Lisa Marie’s relationship with her mother Priscilla. “We know they barely spoke with one another for years,” the TMZ’ers say; “a family member told us they were shocked” to see them sitting together at the Golden Globes. 

Does any of TMZ’s information go beyond clarifiers like “We heard,” “sources say,” “could be,” and “based on what we’re hearing”? Not really. And yes, this is still an evolving story, with no information about Lisa Marie Presley’s deferred cause of death pending toxicology, or who will gain custody of her twin daughters. But it’s the singular fact that all of this is still in flux that makes this documentary special feel like a sensationalist cash-in, especially since it consists largely of biographical material on the singer and Elvis scion’s troubled life in the public eye. 

Sex and Skin: None, beyond an icky piece of footage from an decades-old Diane Sawyer interview on ABC that features people on the street asking whether Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson are having regular sex.

Parting Shot: The special ends with footage from Lisa Marie Presley’s memorial service, held on Jan. 22  at Graceland in Memphis, where speakers include Sarah, Duchess of York, former Memphis mayor AC Wharton, and Priscilla Presley, who reads a poem written by one of her granddaughters. 

Sleeper Star: Let’s give it to TMZ’s research department, which is responsible for compiling the bulk of this documentary special. Beyond interviews with Levin and the rest, which occur in the tabloid’s newsroom as per its established style, Unending Tragedy is an unending stream of archival footage. 

Most Pilot-y Line: “It’s the most shocking marriage, maybe ever” – OK, TMZ, just relax a little with the spicy takes on a celebrity union that was last newsworthy nearly 30 years ago.

Our Call: SKIP IT. In terms of actual investigating, there is nothing in TMZ Investigates: Lisa Marie Presley: Unending Tragedy that anyone curious couldn’t discover with a quick survey of headlines on Google. But if you’re looking for reheated segments on the singer’s fraught marriages and dicey financials, maybe there’s something worthwhile within. 

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges