This is a documentary that I think the people who decided to make it believe would have turned out a bit different than it did and no spoilers but let's just say that I don't think they were planning on various outcomes that they couldn't really have had any control over.
Over the past 30 years or so there have been a number of high-school football films that I have really enjoyed and many of them I can still remember key moments from to this day. It is probably a lot more difficult to capture that same glory when it takes place in real life and while I am sure that a lot of it is forced by the producers of this series, they can't really influence the overall outcome of things, especially the scores of the games in question.
Basically this series is about a team that hasn't been great for a while and now they are rebuilding and the coach is a mentor and really good at what he does. The school, the team, the coach, everyone involved is very hopeful that they can be brought to the forefront and win a state championship.
Most of the emotions seem genuine but there is no denying that at leas some of it would be influenced by the fact that there are cameras following them everywhere and they are probably being pushed to make a show of it. I know a couple of people that have been on reality shows and they were constantly told by the producers that they need "more drama" in order to market this thing and most of the time the participants would deliver. This is why almost all reality TV shows end up with some crazy dramatic interludes that at times seem unnecessary.
I could have done without the way that they focus on the dramas that unfold about the various teenage relationships and the trash-talking that goes on with the girlfriends and what not because honestly, this doesn't really have anything to do with the overall theme of the show, which is the creation of a winning football team. I guess they were hoping that this would draw in some people who enjoy that sort of shit, or perhaps some teenagers.
Should I watch it
I think it is important that you have at least some interest in American football before you even give this one a shot and even then this is one of those series that probably could have been done in 2 episodes but they extended it to many more so that they could attempt to sell it to networks as well - this is just the nature of the game. Because of this excessively long season I think that the remote in hand is necessary because there is going to be a lot of BS that you probably don't care about that is going on surrounding the main story, which is the team.
Therefore, I think a lot of people probably won't like this but for me, as long as I got to skip the crap that i don't care about, it was pretty good.
