“Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story” (Hulu, streaming) is not named as a farewell. Indeed, band founder and lead singer Jon Bon Jovi spends most of the four hours trying to extend the life he started as a teen, even in the face of vocal problems that require risky surgery.
He takes the surgical leap, we see, after a small tour in 2022 preparing for a 40th anniversary comeback convinced him his voice was not what it once was. We see him burst on many stages, and exit them, but for a music documentary, there is surprisingly little music. Just snippets of the many hits are heard; the closest we get to a full performance is an unplugged session between Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora, who hints on bringing drama when he talks about frustrations that drew him to withdraw from the band.
It was Bon Jovi who hired the documentary director Graham Chopra of Religion of Sports. I asked the rock star why he was a good fit at a press conference earlier this year.
“He was my first and only choice,” he said, after seeing Chopra’s documentary series on Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant that both dwelled on the sports star’s dependence on their team. “I always say that Bon Jovi is the power of we. And that it takes that team. And, of course, if I am the quarterback, I know that I couldn’t complete anything without somebody blocking for me, somebody there to catch the ball.”
The metaphor is meant to include his bandmates like Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres and others, who are quoted sparingly. More impressive is getting Jersey mentors Southside Johnny and Bruce Springsteen to say complimentary things about the kid (as a result the Boss gets top-billing on the credits’ thank yous, above Bon Jovi’s wife and bandmates).