MTV Biographies Use Images Instead of Talk

Remember when one of the networks televised a football game using no announcers years ago? Now MTV gives us a series of biographies with no narrators.

“BIOrhythm,” premiering tonight with a sprint through the life of slain rapper Tupac Shakur, is designed to let images and music tell the story. It turns out to be such a dubious premise that the show has to cheat on it--while it’s true there is no spoken narration, much of the story is told through bulletin-like written text displayed on-screen.

Like a subtitled foreign film, this tends to keep your eye from wandering, but it makes for pretty slim journalism. One major incident--Shakur’s reconciliation with his mother--is reduced to the terse note, “Afeni comes back into Tupac’s life.” And how does “BIOrhythm” use music to tell the story? How about Smash Mouth’s “Walking on the Sun” over footage of ‘60s social turbulence, or David Bowie’s “Fame” serenading Shakur’s sudden success? The nightly sports highlights come up with more inspired matches than that.

The Shakur sketch that does emerge is one of a complex, charismatic, increasingly self-deluding prisoner of the “thug life” he depicted in his music. A great subject for a meaty exploration, but way beyond the range of a stream of photos and film clips. You need words to do it, not the kind of superficial pastiche that’s become synonymous with the letters MTV.

* “BIOrhythm” premieres tonight at 10:30 on MTV.