Netflix’s latest sports activities docuseries, Quarterback, means that taking part in QB is the toughest place anybody can play in a staff sport. The filmmakers is perhaps proper. However the historical past and drama packed into the place is so sophisticated that boiling it all the way down to a TV present means lacking the problems and particulars that make the place so troublesome, no less than within the first season.
Quarterback follows three QBs — the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins, and the Atlanta Falcons’ Marcus Mariota — as they progress by means of the 2022 NFL season. However not like Netflix’s greatest sports activities sequence, Method 1: Drive to Survive, the football-focused sequence struggles to convey out the human aspect of the elite athletes; we see them at residence with their youngsters, however by no means get a way of what meaning for them on the sector. The excellent news is that there are many methods to repair Quarterback and assist it go from OK to nice.
Decide extra fascinating gamers
Video games are gained by placing the most effective guys on the sector. Quarterback season 1 doesn’t try this. Whereas the present’s essential coup was touchdown Mahomes, the 27-year-old Chiefs quarterback/prodigy, the remainder of the solid pales compared. The aggressively high quality Cousins and Mariota, a participant who misplaced his beginning job halfway by means of final season, are inevitably misplaced in Mahomes’ shadow. A second season of Quarterback would profit from a extra intriguing, extra profitable solid of QBs. Additionally, only a greater one. Extra gamers being adopted with cameras would give extra alternatives for extra interwoven storylines and fast-footed edits. Right here’s one suggestion: Get the Buffalo Payments’ Josh Allen on this present together with Mahomes so we are able to see their persevering with AFC shootout and rivalry. Or observe an thrilling however risky rookie like Anthony Richardson from the Colts so we are able to observe him from the primary days he steps on the sector.
Let the in-game footage inform us a narrative
The NFL is famously protecting of sport footage, which makes it fairly thrilling that Quarterback will get to make use of footage from final season. Sadly, the present usually makes use of it as a crutch for its episodic narratives, forcing collectively unrelated video games and condensing them into montages as an alternative of constructing pure pressure that the video games create. A doc like The Final Dance is a good instance of what’s attainable when given entry. Don’t present us a game-winning landing drive with audio from the sector; let Cousins or his coach meticulously stroll us by means of how they made the comeback occur and level out the small print within the performs we’d have missed.
Let the QBs cook dinner
This level is intently tied to the one above, however the most effective moments in Quarterback are those the place the manufacturing workers coaxes one of many QBs to go deep on one sport, play, or choice. Quarterbacks aren’t at all times essentially the most charismatic, insightful storytellers — because the present factors out, Cousins has been fascinating and emotional precisely as soon as in public and it immediately turned a meme — however they do know soccer higher than nearly anybody on the planet. When the gamers simply speak down-and-dirty soccer, they gentle up. Listening to the variations in how Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes method comebacks, or listening to Marcus Mariota attempt to pull himself out a rut mid-game, is strictly the form of perception that separates the present from simply being a big-budget fancam.
Combining these interview segments with the precise NFL sport footage may lead to sports activities evaluation you possibly can’t get from a panel present on ESPN, irrespective of what number of former gamers they embrace. Moments like seeing Mahomes go deep on the tics or tells he notices whereas watching his opponents on movie, and the way that helped him rating a landing or win a sport, is perception solely a participant may present. Even when the QB lineup in season 1 is missing, all the themes appear completely personable and able to ship on what Quarterback does finest. Patrick Mahomes isn’t himself when he’s driving a digital camera crew round; he’s himself when he’s breaking down defensive coverages or speaking in regards to the intricacies of offensive play calling.
Focusing extra on the video games would additionally permit the present extra room away from the gamers’ private lives, that are nice shade for the sequence, however really feel previous and repetitive only a few episodes in.
Let the teammates shine
As anybody who watches soccer may anticipate, Quarterback truly consists of fairly a little bit of its QB stars speaking up their teammates. Receivers, tight ends, operating backs, linemen, coaches, and trainers all get key shoutouts that make their lack of participation within the present a bit of complicated. Listening to Justin Jefferson speak about how he ran a route to assist Cousins out, or Travis Kelce clarify how Mahomes improvises, would have deepened the reason of how groups win video games and what behind-the-scenes relationships made all of it occur.
Quarterback is in an advanced place proper now. For all its points, it’s nonetheless a reasonably entertaining present that has moments of huge payoff for followers who solely perceive the 2022 season on a floor degree. Mahomes breaking down a game-winning drive or seeing Cousins battle by means of a myriad of accidents is fascinating once they narrate it themselves. However these moments are the exception proper now, somewhat than the norm.
The excellent news is Quarterback can also be precisely the place any NFL staff would desire a promising prospect to be: profitable early, regardless of its many errors, however with loads of room to develop.