I started watching this documentary series on Netflix this past week while we had some time off from school. It’s so good! I’m really interested in what this kind of documentary *is* in relation to feature documentary films and in relation to reality TV shows. As nonfiction filmaking and media becomes more and more popular, viewers seem to have a greater interest in these kinds of shows – both for their entertainment value but also for their educational / informational value. The directors here are definitely good at constructing stories out of the actual events of these football players / community college students’ lives, and I suspect the show appeals to fans of fiction shows like Friday Night Lights. So I wonder about a lot here: what are the ethical considerations related to this series? What do the creators want viewers to do with the information presented here? What can we take away?

For me, I fixated on a scene in the second episode where the athletic academic advisor was helping some of the players by telling them what the story was about that they should have read for an English class (!!!). I at once really like that she has a close relationship with these students (they really seem to need that), but then I wish she hadn’t given them what amounted to answers to the quiz they were about to take.

It might be interesting for us to watch a couple episodes of this show later in the semester.