Last Chance U (2016)

Those of us who are weary of alpha-male coaches anchoring football docs may see this season of Last Chance U as a breath of fresh air (although some of Beam’s staff exudes some of that cuss-’em-out energy). But overall, this is just extraordinary nonfiction storytelling.

“Last Chance U” finds success in taking its cues from the people in frame. Rather than try to graft on a predetermined narrative, directors Whiteley and Daniel McDonald, along with DP Terry Zumalt, try to take in a season that’s not sensational and that can move at the players’ pace.

Several episodes become an exploration of gentrification and what happens to an urban space when the people who have lived there for generations can no longer afford to stay. In this respect, it's a more provocative and timely season.

It’s a rollicking entertainment. There are ticking-clock countdowns to big games, on-the-field implosions, a devotional rap video, a grudge match. Pinkard shines, throughout, a walking exemplar of the possibilities of higher education, talking with raw honesty about her struggles, doing her damnedest to teach her kids about the possibilities of life off the field, opportunities they never learned about. ... It’s stunningly well-made.

What Last Chance U shows time and again is how capturing all of these intertwined fates takes more than just a cursory glance at a clip reel. It’s about showing that no one person is bigger than the team, but that doesn’t mean each of them don’t deserve the chance to tell their story.

This sequel keeps the established skeleton of a fall slate of games, brings back some beloved characters and checks in on departed favorites. The subject may be sports, but this is as TV as TV gets.

It’s a story at once familiar and unique, and most captivating in its portrait of amateur athletic life as a series of constant challenges--in and out of pads--and a gauntlet of ever-present uncertainties.

How do you balance the game that you’ve played and loved since a child with the obligation to become an adult? That’s the question that hums through Last Chance U, and the show is cleverly structured in the way that it devotes the final act of at least the two episodes I’ve seen to that week’s game.

Director Greg Whiteley emphasizing moments of gridiron glory at the expense of diving deeper into the psychology of the athletes. And though that feels like a missed opportunity, it can’t be said that he doesn’t know his audience. For those with a love of the game, this peek inside a premier small college program is a stimulating, singular all-access pass.

While it’s easy to root for these young men, Last Chance U is hardly sentimental about why they’re in such a precarious position.

To the kid in INDY Part 2 ep 2, Bobby. You could have made it to the NFL, all you had to do was put in a little work and keep your grades decent, but you thought you were better than everyone else and didn't have to work at all. Well, it turns out that you were not better than everyone else, and that your cool guy routine and lazy ass is just like everyone else from your neighborhood. If you had just worked hard and gave a little effort, you could have made the NFL and played on Sundays. Now you have 2 career choices, sell crack or clean the bathrooms. You give lazy talented people a bad name. If there are any kids that look up to you I would tell them to do the exact opposite od what you did.