Recent American pop cultural history continues to be Job 1 at VH1, which has somehow managed to transform nostalgia and the camp framing of its ideals and icons into a growth industry and a hook on which to hang the fortunes of a TV network's entire focus. The first two hours supplied for review are something like classic television, packed as they are with magnificent archival footage and consistently profound insights about the role that illicit drug use and abuse has had in shaping our nation and its social fabric since the 1950s. Produced by filmmakers Dana Heinz Perry (who directed) and Hart Perry -- the team responsible for numerous projects for VH1 including the acclaimed 2004 docu "And You Don't Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop" -- the show has a definitive feel to it.

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