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Last Chance U on Netflix is the Shit!


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Basically the program tells the story of a couple of Junior College (JUCO) football programs. The teams roosters are made up of guys (mostly Black) who failed to make, or were kicked out of, Division 1 (D1) football programs. The guys all talented athletes with a menagerie of stories who are trying to make it back to the D1 level and ultimately to the pros.  They battle with keeping their grades up and dealing with the challenges that landed them at a JUCO in some all-white-one-horse town. 

 

It spoke to my experience on some level. I could relate to the young men.  I also used to teach guys this age, and background, trying to help them get a GED and it was not easy, so I could relate to the teachers that were trying to help these young men graduate.  It also, indirectly, speaks to the business of collegiate football and how it really screws up the lives of so many people -- mostly Black -- without them really understanding what is happening.

 

I don't watch sports, unless I have money on the game or am hanging out with my boys, but the way they edited the program made all of the games very exciting.  Season #3 was particularly good in this regard.

 

See I'm the kind of guy the will travel to Mississippi or Kansas just to watch these team play live and check out the communities covered.  It was just a well done human interest story that speaks to the experience of everyday folks in a way that I'm not accustomed to seeing. 

 

My daughter who turned me onto the program told me not to get carried away -- "it's not like it is better than Game of Thrones."  I loved GOT, but if I had to pick one. I'd pick Last Chance U.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, Troy said:

It was just a well done human interest story that speaks to the experience of everyday folks in a way that I'm not accustomed to seeing. 


Thank you @Troy ! I really enjoy slice of life stories - especially when the medium portrays our slices accurately. I'm going to check it out.

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Well I can't speak to "acuracy," cause anytime you put cameras on front of folks you change things. But the stories were still compelling. Let us know what you think @Mel Hopkins

 

One of my boy's sons, played on the same high school team, in Titusville, with one of the players highlighted. My boy and his wife have graduate degrees (his mom has a PhD), but the kid's mom on the show was locked up for 4 years when he was a kid.

 

So it is a "slice" and not the full African American story.

 

*I know you know this Mel, but I emphasized the point for other readers who might not know.

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1 hour ago, Troy said:

My boy and his wife have graduate degrees (his mom has a PhD), but the kid's mom on the show was locked up for 4 years when he was a kid.

 

🙄 welp, there goes that!

 

Why not write it true to life? It could still be dramatic!  Hell, if they got those degrees after the kid was born the absentee-parent would still be valid!

 

This is why I can’t stand watching most “black” dramas. Show runners usually let us down.   I don’t know why you want to get me started! 😡

 

I was ready to root for this show! 

 

Oh! By the way, I watched one episode of GoT and the black man was a  “prop.”  I didn’t see any black women - so I never went back. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I indulge in Film & broadcast programming but it’s mostly romcom, rom-mystery, holiday romcom, mysteries, thrillers and the supernatural.  

 

Most of the time,  even with a black cast, Hollywood does a better job with those genres. 

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Sorry if I gave the impression that the show was scripted. It isn't.

 

However, what they chose to focus on is the dysfunction. Often it is subtle, but that subtlety is what makes the show more interestingly.

 

Maybe it is a cutaway to the weird shoes a professors are wearing or funny looking kid... it is artistic different people will see different things.

 

The showcasing of dysfunction was spread eveningly. The head coaches -- all white -- presented like volatile, hypermasculine teenagers. Often the players were more mature.

 

The last few seasons of GOT had a sister on  prominent role. Indeed, she was involved in a relationship with... get this... another Black person. I know, rare to see Black on Black love; but it ended horribly if course 😞

 

I just watched season 4 episode 4 of LCU. My team lost; now I'm in a funky mood. I'm getting ready to go hang out though; Mrs. "Right Now" is waiting for me 😉

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