Netflix’s latest sports activities docuseries, Quarterback, means that enjoying QB is the toughest place anybody can play in a workforce sport. The filmmakers could be proper. However the historical past and drama packed into the place is so difficult that boiling it all the way down to a TV present means lacking the problems and particulars that make the place so tough, at the very least 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 in contrast to Netflix’s greatest sports activities sequence, Formulation 1: Drive to Survive, the football-focused sequence struggles to carry out the human aspect of the elite athletes; we see them at house with their youngsters, however by no means get a way of what meaning for them on the sphere. The excellent news is that there are many methods to repair Quarterback and assist it go from OK to nice.
Decide extra attention-grabbing gamers
Video games are gained by placing one of the best guys on the sphere. Quarterback season 1 doesn’t do this. Whereas the present’s major coup was touchdown Mahomes, the 27-year-old Chiefs quarterback/prodigy, the remainder of the solid pales as compared. The aggressively nice 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 larger 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 will see their persevering with AFC shootout and rivalry. Or comply with an thrilling however risky rookie like Anthony Richardson from the Colts so we will comply with him from the primary days he steps on the sphere.
Let the in-game footage inform us a narrative
Picture: Netflix
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 typically 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 rigidity that the video games create. A doc like The Final Dance is a superb instance of what’s potential when given entry. Don’t present us a game-winning landing drive with audio from the sphere; 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 would have missed.
Let the QBs cook dinner
This level is intently tied to the one above, however one of the best 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 probably the most charismatic, insightful storytellers — because the present factors out, Cousins has been attention-grabbing and emotional precisely as soon as in public and it immediately grew to become a meme — however they do know soccer higher than virtually anybody on the planet. When the gamers simply discuss down-and-dirty soccer, they mild up. Listening to the variations in how Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes strategy comebacks, or listening to Marcus Mariota attempt to pull himself out a rut mid-game, is precisely 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 might lead to sports activities evaluation you’ll be able to’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 might present. Even when the QB lineup in season 1 is missing, all the topics appear completely personable and able to ship on what Quarterback does greatest. 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 enable the present extra room away from the gamers’ private lives, that are nice coloration for the sequence, however really feel outdated and repetitive just some episodes in.
Let the teammates shine
As anybody who watches soccer may anticipate, Quarterback truly contains 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 little bit complicated. Listening to Justin Jefferson discuss 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 a sophisticated place proper now. For all its points, it’s nonetheless a reasonably entertaining present that has moments of massive payoff for followers who solely perceive the 2022 season on a floor degree. Mahomes breaking down a game-winning drive or seeing Cousins struggle 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 be precisely the place any NFL workforce would need a promising prospect to be: profitable early, regardless of its many errors, however with loads of room to develop.
