Mission to Burnley

Its a sports doc, but the little sport you see in it is quite remarkable. Its a documentary, about a football club, ran by american owners, who seem to know nothing about the sport.

It almosts seems like a publicity stunt, to make the owners know, when all you care about is the club. They try pushing the mormon church, and cater to their egos.

Seeing an owner laugh after being relegated is quite something. Personally, i think that a burnley fan would stop supporting the club.

These americans just seem to burn everything they touch and that really comes through in the episodes.

Not a great watch. 5/10.

One of the better 'fly on the wall' documentaries about English football clubs. The first season focuses on the club's season in the second tier of English football and the hope of promotion to the Premier League. The second (and probably more interesting) season is set on the 2023/24 season where Burnley are playing amongst the football elite. Why is it more interesting? Well, in my opinion these type of documentaries work better when there is failure and acrimony - a losing team throws up far more situations of interest to fans of other teams. I really enjoyed the Prime and Netflix series on Manchester City but I'm a City fan and both series focused on seasons of great success. Do these have as much appeal to a fan of other teams? Probably not.

Mission to Burnley works because the key individuals, the manager, the owner and the players come across well, in the main. I knew nothing about Alan Pace (the owner) but whilst others may be dismissive about US owners who 'know nothing about English football', Pace clearly cares about the club and the town and the insights into his (and his families') Mormon faith is a nice balance with the 'life or death' outlook that fans of football often have.

There are a lot of expletives, mainly from the mouth of Vincent Kompany, but these are to be expected from a football documentary (if rather repetitive).