Cheer

This must be one of the best sports documentary series ever made. It follows the fortunes of a cheer-leading team called Navarro who are training to win a competition at Daytona.

The genius of 'Cheer' is how the film-makers show us the excruciating intensity needed to succeed in this sport. Bravery and determination -quite apart from skill -is essential for success.

We are shown the background not only of the highly talented athletes but their inspiring leaders who may or may not take the team to victory.

So many of the characters we meet have charisma!

The vulnerabilities and backgrounds of individuals are explored, and it is inspirational to view how the team's strict regime and goals provides stability to persons who may otherwise go wayward.

The story become so intense I found myself needing a respite for a few days between episodes leading up to the climax.

But make no mistake:

This is compelling viewing!

9/10.

I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot but it was a great show. The talent that these young adults have, their desire and determination is second to none.

I really hope for another series.

This docu-mini-series is interesting and well-done by the filmmakers! The series is 6 episodes, which feels like just the right length. It's a little bit slow to get going, but once it does, it is well worth it. It's TV drama gold because of how crazy it is, yet clearly none of it is manufactured by the filmmakers. This cheerleading program is just off-the-rails nuts.

The cheerleaders compete with broken ribs and coaches refer to it as some made-up word called "rib-e-osis." They get irritated when the cheerleaders go to the ER with injuries. It is some of the worst coaching I've ever seen in any sport, yet the head coach is put on a pedestal almost like a cult leader.

These kids are sweet, they work really hard, and unlike most reality shows where the drama lies in the interpersonal conflict, there is little of that type of conflict here. Instead, the conflict is just in how demanding and unsafe this sport is. Eye-opening and worth a watch! You'll root for the kids but you'll drop your head in your hands as you watch the coaching.

I am not from the US, and cheerleading is not a thing here. I obviously knew it was a thing because of movies and tv-shows and these did really mostly present it as like "not hard" or its only "dumb blonde girls" doing it. Personally I saw that it probably takes a huge amount of practice and effort to do it before I watched this, but I really didn't know anything about how competitive it is for so many young athletes. It's insane how many injuries occur almost every other day and how hard they have to work to get everything done right. Nothing but huge respect to all the people involved here.

As for the documentary itsself, I think it really does its job well. The bigger picture is the training for the Daytona competition, but they also take their time to focus on some of the athletes involved and I really appreciated that. All in all a great documentary that is also really captivating because you really start rooting for these people to succeed.

Can only recommend this for people who are interested in sports and how athletes practice, not only for cheerleading but for other types of sports too.

I spent 40 years as an investment banker for Texas municipal bonds. During that time, I had to sit through a school board meeting where the board president was being arrested for shooting his wife, where a community member screamed at the district lawyer for being "a Mexican," and where a husband hit the superintendents for sleeping with his wife. But, by far, I never experience ANYTHING as bad as a "cheerleader controversy." I sat for four hours while community members came close to blows over whether the cheerleader should be suspended over drinking beer at the game, or whether it was true that it "was just NyQuil."

In small town Texas, cheerleaders are the closest thing to royalty. They are terrific athletes and they are full of drama.

This is the peak of the lives of a lot of kids, and it deserves as much acclaim as "Friday Night Lights."

Trinity Valley was one of my clients, and I miss those kids.

Classify them as "athletes."