'If you watch this movie, watch it knowing that Lifetime is notorious for making bad biopics of deceased celebrities and brace yourself for the worst,' Pat Houston wrote. The family issued a statement on ahead of Saturday's broadcast, warning fans to 'brace themselves for the worst.'

The movie, directed by Angela Bassett, was the subject of criticism by relatives of the singer, who died in February 2012. Whitney, which stars Yaya DaCosta as pop superstar Whitney Houston and Arlen Escarpeta as Bobby Brown, was also the most tweeted about program for the day, according to a statement from Lifetime. However, it wasn't enough to beat Flowers' rating of 6.1 million. That rating made it the cable channel's most-watched telecast across all demographics since Flowers in the Attic last January. If you are a fan of the mega star and who she once was, you won't want to miss this tale as told by a once great actress that actually knew her.Saturday night's premiere of Whitney, a Lifetime Original Movie, lured 4.5 million total viewers. Most of the time it just feels a little sad. Basset could have made a movie that slams the once great pop princess, but instead tries to be objective in just showing the audience what happened, letting them decide if it was bad or good, or sad, or stupid. Though we can not be for sure has the Houston family did not sanction or want this movie made. Though it is often ugly how real and raw it feels, it seems like this may have been how it actually happened. This keeps the drama fairly artsy and raw. There are times when there are these long takes and you want some background music, but there is none. BUt it is shot in such an interesting way, it deserves a second look.

Yes, it has the same rise and fall and minor redemption as most bio-pics do. Fortunate for us, this does not play like your typical lifetime bio-pic. What we didn't count on was that this movie would be released on Lifetime of all places. We knew we would eventually get a bio pic with a big name director (Angela Basset). We knew we would eventually get a bio pic. Probably the greatest singer of her generation if not many generations.

Whitney houston lifetime movie 2015