This is what I learned from watching “Wham!,” a Netflix documentary about the 1980s British pop group: If I were in a pop duo with my best friend, and he turned out to be a lot more talented than I was, I’d want my friend to be as good a guy as George Michael.

Likewise, if I were in a pop duo, and I unexpectedly blossomed as a singer, songwriter and producer, I could hope for no better bandmate and friend than Andrew Ridgeley.

“Wham!” tells a fascinating story in which nothing seems sugar-coated and yet everyone comes off well. Ridgeley especially gets his due, after years of being mainly known as either “the other guy in Wham” or as “that guy in Wham who’s not George Michael.”

短版的历史告诉here is that the outgoing Andrew and the shy George — real name Georgios Panayiotou — resolved as teenagers to become pop stars. The assumption was that they would write songs together and that Andrew, who was much more socially popular, would become the heartthrob.

Instead, George Michael became the teen idol, even as his songwriting and producing abilities soared, while Andrew went from an artistic partner to a replaceable sideman.

You can see the transition just in photos of them over the span of a few years. At first, George looks insecure and Andrew is bursting with confidence. Then gradually, George starts looking like a superstar, while Andrew looks like he’s wondering why he’s even in the picture.

Yet what’s interesting and even inspiring is that these guys, who started out as best buddies, continued to treat each other accordingly. As George grew, Andrew got out of his way and didn’t become resentful or bitter.

At the same time, even though the 1984 release of George’s solo record, “Careless Whisper,” made it clear that eventually he would have to go solo, he stayed with Andrew and Wham for another two years, long enough to complete a world tour and ensure that his pal would be set for life.

So “Wham!” tells a sweet story, but also a goofy and entertaining one, because these guys were more ’80s than anybody, more even than “Miami Vice” and Duran Duran. Just the high hair alone makes this documentary worth seeing. Then there’s the music, which is catchy and irresistible but also occasionally hilarious.

My favorite is the footage from the “Everything She Wants” video, in which the 21-year-old George Michael stares straight into the camera and, with profound intensity, tells off some fictional wife for spending all his money.

This is funny for a number of reasons, almost as funny as something out of Andy Samberg’s satirical “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”: (1) Clearly, he’s not married; (2) even if he were married, it’s unlikely that he’d be married to a woman; and (3) despite his constant wailing about how hard he’s working, he looks like he’s never worked a day in his life.

But all the same … what a great song.

“Wham!” doesn’t go past the band’s breakup and doesn’t discuss Michael’s fabulously successful career, or his death in 2016, at age 53. Nor does it track Ridgeley’s subsequent successes and failures. It just leaves us seeing them as young guys with the world and their lives in front of them.

Reach Mick LaSalle:mlasalle@sfchronicle.com