Enjoyed this series to a good degree, but it did leave several things to be desired. First, I need to acknowledge all the things the show does well: it shows an important cross-section of the field performance community, and why elements of HBCU community stand apart from other field performance ensembles. The passion that Black colleges and bands bring is stellar, and lifts to the crowd over other college marching bands, especially with concern to the dance by the overall band, and dance squadron (14K dancers). I most enjoyed some of the side narratives concerning relationships and weight/fitness... as these are real elements that present among the band community.
Now for the trade-offs: As others have mentioned, the series primarily focuses on the 14K dance team and their struggles - I would say 40% of the show focuses here. To a lesser extend it then focuses the flag team (20%) and then approaches the overall band, with peppered human interest stories, for the remaining 40%. While I understand that making programming can be difficult, the 12 minute segments were not merely silly, they were lazy. By limiting to 12 minutes, the producer/director was able to reuse footage and rehash previous moments at the beginning of each segment.
While others may be unaware, there is a robust competitive field performance industry known as "Drum and Bugle Corps" (D&BC). That community is less defined by pageantry and entertainment, per se, but is arguably more precision-performance oriented. Accordingly, hearing the BCU members bemoan a 'long bus drive' to North Carolina (from Florida) juxtapose the reality of D&BC members who routinely criss-cross the country on 48-hour drives. This being the comparative reality - I much would have rather learned more about the real-life struggles of these kids leading up to university, why being in the Bethune-Cookman band meant so much to them, and when the first saw them, previous family members involved, etc.
As mentioned, there truly could have been better attention giving to (any) musician sections, from battery (drums) to other brass and woodwind instrument sections. While the program did show a brief interlude with the mellophone section - the growth of the band was not made clear through the course of this show. By comparison, the Dwayne Johnson produced "Clash of the Corps", available on Amazon, is more engaging, appreciative of performer backstories, and better produced. I greatly hope that if they make a second season of Marching Orders, their gaps might be better bridged.
