It is said that nobody wants to know how the sausage is made. Well, not me. During my journalism career, I found it a privilege to go behind the scenes and find out how the sausage is made, metaphorically anyway. Here are a few of the best documentary series available on the streaming services (and I promise … no sausages).
The work of Ken Burns on PBS aside, the documentary series era can be said to have kicked off in 2016 with Netflix’s Last Chance U. It’s a gripping look at the football team of lowly East Mississippi Community College and its players, all of whom were taking one last chance at winning scholarships at major colleges in hopes of landing in the pros. On the other end of the spectrum, Formula 1: Drive to Survive introduced the wider world (people like me) to the high-tech, high-risk, high-cost world of Formula 1 racing in 2019. These are two of the best know documentary series, but there are plenty more.
If you have the need for speed – albeit much, much slower speed – check out Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix. The Tour de France is the world’s most famous and gruelling bicycle race. Tour riders, supremely fit but almost skeletal athletes, cover about 3,500 km in 21 races in just 24 days. Winners have an average speed of 40 km/h – on bicycles! Unchained has it all: big corporations with deep pockets; wildly passionate fans; suspiciously superhuman athletes; gorgeous scenery and very, very painful falls. Two seasons are available, with a third in the works.
As befitting the most famous football team in the world, the Dallas Cowboys also have the world’s most famous (OK, the only famous) cheer team. Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders follows the super fit, super sweet, sexy-but-not-too-sexy cheer squad through a season. Dallas takes its cheerleading very seriously, with an entire wing of Cowboys HQ devoted to cheer team offices.
The organization is run by two no-nonsense ex-cheerleaders, who put the rookies and vets through a gruelling training camp that would exhaust Cowboy football players. It’s practically a full-time job for minimal pay (on game days, the cheer team’s day lasts longer than a player’s), but the girls don’t complain (much); being a Cowboys cheerleader is that much of an honour. Considering that this is a group of ambitious, gorgeous young women, there is a surprising lack of drama. There is no cattiness, no petty jealously, just lots and lots of makeup. America’s Sweethearts is a rare sports documentary that will keep both men and women watching, perhaps not for the same reasons.
Are you familiar with the music genre called K-Pop? If you are a grown adult, it’s unlikely. But for millions and millions of young people around the world, K (for Korean) Pop is their music of choice, although in this old man’s view it’s a stretch to call it music.
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K-Pop Idols on AppleTV+ follows two K-Pop groups and one K-Pop solo artist (or ‘idol’ as they call themselves) as they navigate the exhausting world of K-Pop. Large entertainment corporations like DR Music and More Vision create the groups which are as carefully manufactured as a Kia. There’s a female group called Black Swan, which struggles with internal problems (one girl is heavily medicated to combat her depression) and the addition of new members. The girls can’t date, can’t drink, can’t go out at night. The all-boy group, called Cravity, is desperate to break into K-Pop mega-star status occupied by a mega group like BTS. They practice their frenetic dance routines to the point of exhaustion, at one point spending 14 hours straight on making one video. The solo act, a clearly aging-out but still popular singer named Jessi, struggles to manage her career away from the control of a label. (Jessi has had so much plastic surgery it’s hard to tell how much of her is real. After discussing her various surgeries, she says, without irony, “I just wanna inspire women to be themselves.”)
The series is fascinating, but there is one caveat: you have to listen to the music.
And finally, a plug for an upcoming series that will make huge waves in the world of professional wrestling. Mr. McMahon, a documentary series on World Wrestling Entertainment’s evil genius Vince McMahon, debuts Sept. 25 on Netflix. Check out the trailer here, and tell me you won’t be watching when it debuts.
