Last Chance U - Season 1

The fact is this football fan was engaged by the two I've seen, and I'm ready to take the trip down to Scooba, MS again this Friday.

Inspirational,motivational, and frequently infuriating, Last Chance U is a fascinating trip beyond the field and the locker room that dives into the gritty fabric of one of the country's most unpredictably successful sports programs.

Whiteley frames their struggles largely in one-size-fits-all narratives of work ethic and what educational reformers have until recently called "resilience."

Last Chance U proves a gripping snapshot of individuals on the brink of both triumph and failure, and the many forces (emotional, psychological, familial) conspiring to push them in one direction or the other.

Gritty, honest football docu has cursing, mature themes.

I do not like American football. I do not understand American football. The college football system is the most bafflingly arcane thing of all time. And yet Last Chance U might be the best sports documentary series I have ever seen.

Their pasts and their possible futures balanced so precariously as to make their daily struggles more than usually fraught and compelling.

Whitely succeeds in the basic goal of Last Chance U, which is to make you care about the success or failure of a JUCO football team in Mississippi that you may not have been aware of.

An empathetic and utterly captivating snapshot of these players' attempts to find the seam and break from the pack.

What makes this six-part series the binge-able attraction it is, of course, are the characters.