Over the weekend, social media blew up with post after post lauding the new Netflix docu-drama Cheer. Before long, the Navarro Bulldogs’ coach Monica Aldamo was being favorably compared to both Coach and Tammy Taylor from Friday Night Lights (and yes, she is the perfect amalgamation of the two), people were comparing Gabi Butler’s parents to Kris Jenner (again, also extremely accurate), and everyone everywhere seemed to be rooting for Jerry to make it on the mat for Daytona. With a cast of incredibly likable (and seemingly normal – superstar Gabi not included) college kids, Cheer managed to concoct a tight six-episode first season that had more than enough drama. And, for those who might not typically watch docu-dramas, it’s just the latest in a growing line of successful Netflix-brand college sports stories.
Cheer is the second series from Greg Whiteley to score big for Netflix, as Whiteley is the director behind the first three seasons of Last Chance U, which, like Cheer, took viewers behind the curtain at a prestigious Junior College (or JUCO, for short) to watch kids with absurd levels of football talent try to turn things around and make it back to (or, for some, just make it to) a four year university on a football scholarship. The brilliance of Last Chance U is that it never sugarcoats anything about what is really going on at the schools. From delving into the players’ often dark backgrounds (which shines a light on a number of things that are wrong with the current college football system of not paying players) to watching their everyday struggles with school, family, and football, the series is riveting to watch. With the two schools that have been profiled on the series (East Mississippi Community College in seasons one and two and Independence Community College in Kansas in season three), the series also managed to show viewers the downfall of two college coaching regimes, as the spotlight on each program led to greater oversight – and scandals – as soon as the series ended.
On the other end of the spectrum, the series QB1 profiles top prep QBs in their final year of high school. While Cheer and Last Chance U look at how elite athletes need a bit of help, for whatever reason, to make it to the top of the heap in college sports, QB1 shows us how being deemed the best of the best from a young age can lead to entitlement and slacking without the right guiding influences. On QB1, if the young man’s parents are convinced their son is the greatest thing since sliced bread, well, it’s pretty safe to assume that the kid is going to have those same thoughts. Similarly, having grounded parents and great influences tends to turn out stars who understand that football isn’t the be all and end all, and that the team is the most important element of the game.
Now, as an admitted sports docu-drama addict (seriously, I’ve run out of things in the Sports Documentary tab on Netflix to watch), these shows are like catnip to me. So, it’s thrilling to see that so many people have found Cheer. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in wondering just what happened to Lexi to make her backslide (honest answer: addiction is hell and it’s harder than it looks to pull oneself up and out of a bad situation), or if Gabi really likes the mini-empire her parents are attempting to build around her (it seems like she enjoys the fame but is less thrilled at the thought of her parents being so up in her business all the time). And it’s nice to see that there are certain themes that appeal to all of us: sports as a metaphor for family, struggles with adversity, the joy of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, and seeing incredible athletes work hard and succeed.
What makes these three shows so darn great is that everyone, even if you don’t have an athletic bone in your body, knows the amazing feeling of working incredibly hard at something and succeeding. We remember how it felt to put hours and hours of work into that thing and come out the other side, victorious. It’s just far more fun to watch college kids at the peak of their physical prowess achieve things most of us never will be able to (I’ll openly admit that, for a brief moment, I contemplated if I could ever do a Lexi tumbling pass, before remembering that I dropped out of gymnastics as a kid with only a cartwheel to show for it).
But the real key to these shows is their casting. Each series has the absolutely perfect blend of inspiring stories, players and coaches with a history of greatness (and success), and a level of openness you rarely get from sports. Perhaps it’s a factor of the kids having come of age in the era of Instagram and Facebook, but each of the show’s young adult subjects is ready and willing to expose themselves on television, speaking honestly of past mistakes and future worries. And that openness extends to the coaches as well (for good and for ill, as the two Last Chance U coaches made their brash, devil-may-care attitudes their hallmark, and they also became their downfall). It’s clear that each coach shown on these shows wants to win, but they aren’t willing to sacrifice their players for it. Yes, they’ll push them as hard as humanly possible, but if they start getting too cool for school or backsliding into old habits, each coach is ready and willing to push them back on the right path. Each team is a family, and while they may fight (and, in some cases, implode), you get the feeling that everyone really does understand that and fit into the necessary roles.
I am eagerly awaiting the next season of QB1, and I cannot but assume that there will be a second season of Cheer coming some time next year (considering what’s happened with the last two schools involved in Last Chance U, along with Whiteley’s involvement and success with Cheer, I’m not sure we’ll get a fourth season of this wonderful, deep and intense series), so there’s plenty of time to catch-up on these shows if you haven’t seen them already. And you don’t need to know anything about football or cheerleading for them to make sense (while I’m well-versed in the world of football, I knew next to nothing about cheerleading prior to watching Cheer and I loved it). So, if you’re looking to fill the Cheer-shaped void in your life (or you aren’t sure if you should give it a try in the first place), there’s plenty of shows on Netflix that can help. This is one TV trend that I can thoroughly get behind.
