TV REVIEW : Jackson Admires Himself on His HBO Special

Michael Jackson’s Saturday night HBO special, a concert taped Sept. 30 in Bucharest, Romania, in front of 70,000 fans, was an homage to His Highness, the King of Pop.

This two-hour, 20-minute extravaganza (which won’t be repeated) was marked by a disturbing self-aggrandizement. There was none of the old-fashioned, let-me-entertain-you, show-biz humility. We were supposed to be honored that he descended from his pedestal to entertain us.

Jackson’s first TV concert ever was shamelessly manipulative, beginning with a 20-minute pre-concert documentary featuring music video clips and footage of his European tour, constantly pounding home the message I am the greatest . Throughout the show there were endless shots of Romanian fans crying and fainting. This was clearly an unsophisticated audience starved for Western pop culture.

On such songs as “Thriller,” “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” (which were clearly superior to the material from his two post-”Thriller” albums), you did get a feeling for Jackson’s extraordinary entertaining skills. Among pop music performers, he’s still far and away the best dancer, although he still hasn’t shaken that incessant crotch-grabbing move.

Schmaltz ruled at the end, with a world-peace message drummed home on such songs as “Man in the Mirror.” Things got really heavy-handed when he brought out a group of people from different cultures to parade around a giant globe.

This show is the epitome of the excesses rampant in the concert business. Many artists think that audiences need to be dazzled with extras or they won’t feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth. What often happens--and it happened frequently in this show--is that the music gets lost in the shuffle. It was hard to look at all the glamour, glitter, gaudy production numbers and fancy special effects with anything but indifference.