‘Weird, unbalanced, curdled TV’: how Netflix’s Cheer was ruined | TV

IIn hindsight, the first season of Cheer felt a bit like the last good thing to happen to humanity. It burned out of nowhere in January 2020; a clean and more accessible version of American Football Series Last Chance U, and he effortlessly won over a world that didn’t know what was about to hit it. A documentary series on the world of competitive college cheerleaders was not only spectacular to watch, brimming with footage of young women being thrown miles into the air without a safety net, but it was filled with heart. There was a joy to Cheer, and the goodie bag of underdog stories he chose to tell.

This week, the second series of Cheer launched on Netflix and, well, the first season of Cheer still feels like the last thing that happened to humanity. How strange, unbalanced and curdled few hours of television are these. Like the rest of the world, Cheer has spent the past two years deformed and moody. It still qualifies as dating TV, just don’t expect to enjoy any of it.

Part of the problem is that world events conspired to break Cheer. You can get an idea of ​​what the show was supposed to be like by sitting down to watch its first four episodes. They pick up where last season ended, in a life-changing cavalcade of success. Navarro College’s cheerleading team has won the prestigious Nationals in Daytona Beach and dominates everything they poll. Plus, his Netflix show has turned the entire team into celebrities overnight, and everyone wants a piece of them. They know Elena! They are dating Oprah! They spend every spare moment shooting Cameo videos for $ 50 each! The message seems to be: these kids have risen to the top, but can they hold their focus long enough to stay there?

Here’s the thing: we never find out. And that’s because, after watching the team train and fight, sweat and vomit in preparation for the next group of nationals, Covid comes to town and everything shuts down. Daytona Beach. Navarrese. Production of joy. Everything. Everything stops screeching, stripping the show of any semblance of a clean bow.

And so, for the last four episodes of the season, we started over. We have skipped a year and Navarro is training for the 2021 nationals. By necessity, this implies a strong personnel change. Some of the series’ most beloved characters have already finished college and left without a proper goodbye, and in their place are a handful of bright young men who never have time to properly get acquainted. To make up for this, the producers cleverly devote a chunk of their time to Trinity Valley Community College, the ragged upstart neighbors who see themselves as Rocky Balboa to Ivan Drago, Navarro’s Netflix bloat. It means that when the nationals are finally held, you are met with shattered loyalties. It is not the best way of doing things, but as a necessary workaround it is quite effective.

But the reason you’ll be watching Cheer this year is the episode that falls between these two halves. Titled Jerry, it’s the most heartbreaking hour of television you will ever see. If you followed the news at the time, you will know that the rising star of the first season, Jerry Harris, a cheerful and effervescent figure whose charismatic interjections in Cheer made him a leading candidate for general fame, was arrested in September 2020, charged. production of child pornography; then when more teenagers showed up, requesting sex and explicit photos of minors. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. This is the episode where the show tries to deal with everything.

For the most part, it is successful. Much of the time is given to the alleged victims; two twins who were 13 when they met Harris. They, and their devastated mother, patiently detail how Harris presented himself to them, what he asked them to do, and the uphill struggle they faced getting someone to believe them. It is something deeply disturbing to watch, due to the predatory nature of the accusations and the culture of silence when it comes to child abuse in sport.

This is where the episode falls off. There are many testimonials from Navarro alumni who are surprised that a bad apple like Harris has escaped, but the most rudimentary Google search will reveal that he is far from alone. Just a few months after his arrest, two more Navarro figures were also arrested. One of them, Robert Joseph Scianna Jr, pleaded guilty to indecency charges with a child. This hints at something grotesquely institutional, and the episode could have had a lot more impact had it gone a little deeper.

And, in terms of viewing, the episode throws the season out of balance. By not dealing with Jerry Harris in advance, you feel like Cheer wants to spend four hours ignoring the elephant in the room. And then once that’s done, diving right into the trivial world of cheerleaders can’t help but feel rude.

If he does come back, we can hope Cheer season three stays on the slopes and brings back some of its old magic. But for now, he has given us a dark and complicated show for a dark and complicated time. It’s not particularly nice, but it still has value.