Basketball or Nothing (Netflix Series): Sorry, it's boring
There seems to be a trend lately on Netflix to have a reality show of sorts featuring the triumphs of underdog teams in communities that don't have a lot going for them. The first one I saw was about American football and was called "Last Chance U." That show stayed interesting for about 2 episodes and there was a major reason why that was the case - Lack of action.
This series suffers from the same exact problem.
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The story focuses on the Chinle High School boys basketball team that is based out of Chinle, Arizona. Chinle is located on the largest Native-American reservation in the United States. The people of these reservations are not normally in the best situations. They tend to be addled with alcoholism and obesity and I'm not going to pretend to know why that is, it is just the case. Unfortunately, for a lot of Native Americans, the future isn't terribly bright.
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In a general sense, Native Americans don't tend to have genes that result in them being terribly tall, which obviously is a problem when playing a sport like basketball. Therefore, they have to learn other tactics to achieve victory such as speed and precision.
The entire story behind this unscripted reality show is that the Chinle High School brings in a new coach with a great track-record of victory, and the episodes feature the trials and tribulations that they face as a physically smaller team that comes from a community that doesn't have a lot going for it.
The idea behind the show is great but unfortunately, just like any sport reality show, it suffers from being a bit boring.
You see, there is only so much game footage that can possibly be shown in each episode, and this is where all the "fun" comes. Unfortunately, This only encapsulates about 10% of the screen-time. The rest is dedicated to putting the spotlight on the various sob stories that the members of the team and the community face and I'm not trying to be heartless, but it's boring.
The show is uplifting and at least for 10 minutes or so per episode, entertaining enough. I am able to enjoy this show only by virtue of the fact that I started skipping past at least half of each episode. Unfortunately, this has fallen into the usual trap of being too long. There doesn't need to be as many episodes as there are and if they were going for raw entertainment, this entire season could have been condensed to around 3 (or even 2) one hour episodes.
The only reason that I didn't abandon this show after the first season is because of the fast-forward feature and the fact that the remote is always in my hand. I believe it is a better show than "Last Chance U" but for the most part, I can't really say that this is a great show because I don't believe it is.
It seems wrong to bash it, so I wont. It is an uplifting story afterall and therefore it gets the overall rating of....
Thanks for the review. If I run into it, I would not watch. I do not have time for boring!
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Very interesting review! I think indigenous populations have something in their DNA that makes them more likely to be alcoholics. It is something with the way their body processes the alcohol. Don't quote me on that though. I know when my wife and I used to watch Alaska State Troopers they talked about it in one of the episodes.