TwinIon Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 We've now gotten four episodes so it's quite possible that you've heard of The Last Dance, ESPN's new 10 part documentary about Michael Jordan. The first episodes averaged over 6 million viewers, easily making it ESPN's highest rated documentary ever. It was always going to be a unique event. Primarily following the 97-98 Bulls season, the doc features two things that make it particularly special: lots of brand new interview footage with MJ himself, and a whole lot of never before seen video shot during that historic season. The then NBA films executive Adam Silver convinced MJ and the Bulls to allow video crews unprecedented access throughout the season, but with a catch: MJ and Silver agreed that neither could use the footage unless both agreed, and until now, he never has. Yahoo has a great article about what it took to convince MJ to do the project, but it seems that it mostly boils down to timing and producer Michael Tollin's preparation. Also, I think MJ still got final cut, so don't expect anything terribly cutting. As someone that maybe watches a few playoff and Finals games a year, both my wife and I have been very much enjoying it. After MJ agreed, it seems they got interviews with everyone they could possibly have wanted, from players and coaches to "former Chicago resident" Barack Obama. It also seems like they had the budget to use whatever songs they wanted for the needle drops (I particularly liked the Beastie Boys playing to a clip show of Denis Rodman), and the overall production value is excellent. If nothing else, it's kinda fun to just watch clips of MJ being great. My wife thinks the overall structure of the show is a bit convoluted. Each episode changes partial focus to another character in MJ's orbit, while also slowly working through the 97-98 season. The result is a lot of time jumps and edits, which I haven't had issues with, but I can understand if some do. I don't think there have been any crazy revelations in the first four episodes, and I don't really expect there to be. This series isn't exposing some great secret or pushing some shocking new narrative. It's just a very well made documentary about one of the most important sports icons in history. If you have even the smallest interest in sport, I recommend watching it. For those without access to ESPN, The Last Dance was made in partnership with Netflix, who will stream the whole series on July 19th. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remarkableriots Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5226110002 The next one is about Lance Armstrong and all i gotta ask is who asked for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted May 21, 2020 Share Posted May 21, 2020 Funny I see this blow up on Twitter every Sunday but didn't even realize there was a thread here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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