Last Chance U

Sports documentaries are a personal favourite, but Last Chance U is a rare example of a sport's true colours shown through big budget filmmaking. Set in the collegiate American football setting of small town America, this show highlights everything inherently wrong with the system and the mindset that goes as standard with the sport. Being premier recruitment colleges for those denied a chance in the major leagues (sometimes through bad luck, sometimes through bad choices), they are breeding grounds for dangerous mentalities in children who genuinely know no better.

It starts with the coaches; men who have lived with the sport their entire lives, but who don't always understand the way teenagers think. On top of this, their academic teachers toil to get them almost unattainable grades to give them that slim chance of success, constantly fighting against a tide of setbacks and resistance. Finally, the students - arrogant, boisterous and over-pressured athletes thrown into stardom from the minute they discovered their talent, now deluded into thinking they are untouchable future stars.

The stupidity is that the cameras only enable these kids to act like superstars. Suddenly they have their inner belief of stardom reinforced by a full film crew following their every move - regardless of whether they win or lose. It's even made clear on the show: every single one believes they are going to make it to the NFL, but only the luckiest ever even get close. The teachers know it and try to make it clear, but nothing will dissuade these students of their dreams. You watch it with mixed feelings of pity and anger; they genuinely know no better, but they act so poorly they must know they deserve nothing from these people who give everything to help them in ways they don't appreciate. The few students who do eventually cross the line and are kicked from school all pretend to repent when the cameras are pointed at them, but the follow-up interviews make it clear some of them are just genuinely bad people.

Whilst this makes entertaining television with its various twists, it also presents the damage this society perpetuates. Whole communities suffer: these isolated towns devote their funds entirely to sportsmen they've never met, sacrificing all other academic students and their pursuits. Moreover, these students then push themselves through potentially life-threatening injuries, convinced they can handle "only another concussion" or a "small loss of feeling in their legs" from being hit repeatedly.

By the close of each season, you wonder if any of those you have seen grow throughout the show will be around for many more years. Some of them cannot resist the vicious cycles of crime and delinquency they have grown up in; others simply can't get the grades needed to take the next step. At the end of the day, the schools only care about the score after 60 minutes.

I have a love hate relationship with this show. I love football and I love documentaries, but I don't like this coach (season one and two coach) and I don't even like some of these players. As for those that I do like, I want to see them succeed. But that's not always the goal of a documentary anyway--to get you to like someone or something. A documentary brings the viewer information about a subject they didn't know before or were never even aware of.

I consider this show a documentary and not a "reality show" because it's not about false narratives or fake drama with a soft script. It's just documenting these young men as they try to make something of themselves in the wasteland of junior college. And junior college is a wasteland.

High school is where you get started. That's where you learn, grow, and display your skills for recruiters. A four-year university (preferably a D1 school) is where you're at the next best thing to the NFL and it's your best chance to get noticed by the NFL. JUCO is where you go when you've screwed up. Either you've screwed up in high school or you've screwed up at your four-year university. So, to see this no-man's-land of education and football on screen is fascinating.

"Last Chance U" is a fantastic program in many aspects, but shines the most at a human level. The vast majority of these young men have gone through many hardships in their life, and see EMCC as their golden ticket to a potential future to the NFL. Director Greg Whitely did a fantastic job at capturing the highs and lows, both on and off the field of this band of brothers. You quickly get very invested in the different players as you cheer them on at each touchdown. The show also makes you feel like a disappointed sibling, when some of the players miss class, or fall short from some of their training.

Some might argue that Coach Stephens is the centerpiece to this large and complex puzzle, but in my opinion Brittany Wagner, the school's academic adviser, absolutely steals the show. She is the loving and caring mother figure that many of the players desperately need and pours her heart and soul to make sure all of them keep on track for success.

Another absolute must watch from Netflix, which will keep you engaged from beginning to end.

I enjoyed this show right from episode one. I enjoyed Scooba the most of the three programs that were highlighted. Coach Brown was a roller coaster at Independent, and you really jump from being on board with him, to hoping he gets sent on his way. I believe he most likely let the excitement of the cameras dictate his actions and do things that maybe would have been too far prior. Season 5 overall didn't live up to the others for me, although there were some really good stories and characters to cheer for. And so happy that the coaches wife was able to get out of San Diego cos there "were too many white people and people of privilege". I'm sure they were happy to get rid of that attitude to be honest.

Season 1-2-3 were great! Season 4 was good. But season 5 was just boring for me. Didn't seem like i was watching Last Chance U.