Totally agree Adam. This of course has always been the worm at the core of ESPN, which pretends to have a firewall between their journalistic and rights- fees paid sports presentations.
I have watched Amazon’s All or Nothing, and HBO’s Hard Knocks. As I say, DTS suffers from a similar problem. But I also found it uniquely compelling. I also really enjoyed “The Test” on Amazon, that I watched earlier in the year, about Australian cricket, another sport I knew next to nothing about. As with DTS, it did not turn me into a regular cricket watcher, but after a lifetime of standing aloof and mostly disinterested, I feel like I have at least some understanding of the sports, and appreciation for why so many find them compelling. On Wed, 9 Dec 2020 at 1:10 AM Adam Bowie <a...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote: > I must confess that I have a real problem with the many of the currently > produced sports "documentary" series. It's not that they aren't brilliantly > made, carefully crafted and deliver a compelling narrative with > sumptuous production values. It's that they're officially sanctioned. And > if you start from that point, then I think they have a major problem > journalistically. > > Netflix and Amazon are commissioning these things a lot. They're > relatively inexpensive, have loyal fanbases to market to, and the sports > organisations know that they may (or may not) hook in new fans. In any > event, they have to be kept "on-side" to gain rights to the footage needed > to weave everything together. Amazon has it's "All or Nothing" strand, and > I found it quickly unwatchable. It's so sanitised of any kind of misdeeds > or imperfections. These weren't news crews embedded with the teams, they > were making entertainment, and no matter who has "final cut" - the team or > the producers - it's in both parties interests to present some stories > ahead of others. > > The most recent British version of All or Nothing covered Tottenham > Hotspur (arch rivals of my team, Arsenal - the lest said about last > weekend, the better). The first episode managed to cover the sacking of > their previous manager, which is usually a big thing in a football club, in > an almost offhand manner. Of course, most managers or coaches tend to have > an inkling that their job is under threat, so they might not be predisposed > towards giving full access to a documentary crew while they're struggling. > > Even the excellent The Last Dance had this access thing hanging over it. > While I found the series compelling despite - and I can't emphasise this > enough, *having ZERO interest in basketball - *having over it was the > fact that it Jordan had control over the footage including all the behind > scenes video from the season in question. While the perception was of a > "warts and all" view of the man, the fact that only right at the end that > we really learnt anything about his family suggested strongly to me that > certain aspects of his life were off limits. That Jordan's decision to make > of course, but it can call into question the journalistic validity of the > whole enterprise. > > Now all that said, I have heard good things about Netflix's Sunderland > 'Til I Die which covers an English football team just down from the Premier > League. It's about the community as well as the club. But I still can't > bring myself to watch it. > > One of the real problems we have with sport is no proper way to have > critical journalistic endeavour in TV. While ESPN's 30 for 30 series are > undoubtedly excellent, they look back at sporting history. No sports > channel, who either own, or aspire to own the rights to, say, the FIFA > World Cup, is going to do a major documentary on corruption in FIFA. At > least, not until that genie is well and truly out of the bottle. With NFL > rights being so valuable and crucial for many US networks, would any of > them really take on the NFL? Sure, awareness of concussion is a thing and > gets covered now, but all is not perfect in the game, and there are other > critical stories to tell. In the UK, Sky and BT Sport are beholden to the > Premier League, so we don't get truly investigative work from them into the > machinations of what is now a business. Why sour a relationship that is > essential to your TV station's future? > > > Adam > > > > On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 5:39 AM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I am a sports fan, but have never been into motor sports. I’ve never been >> a “car guy”. I usually watch the Indy 500, occasionally the Daytona 500, >> have had zero interest in F1. That changed a little last year when I saw >> Ford v Ferrari, which I thought one of the five best films of the year. >> >> Then I stumbled upon the two seasons of this F1 Doc on Netflix last week, >> and just inhaled it. It’s coproduced with F1, and is not perfect, as in >> spots it’s purpose as an extended commercial for a multi billion dollar >> corporation shines through. But that is tolerable, because it really makes >> the sport accessible, in my experience for the first time. >> >> I don’t know enough about documentary film making to articulate why this >> show is so effective. There isn’t really a narrator, though they use bits >> of interviews with a racing journalist to provide context and connection. >> The racing footage is exciting, and it nicely cuts out all the long boring >> parts. >> >> The show does not really want to make me watch F1 ( I am trying to avoid >> spoilers on what happened in the 2020 season, if there was a season). 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