The Story:
The Last Dance is a 10-part documentary series on Netflix that takes us back to the last championship run of the Chicago Bulls in the ’90s. The 1997-98 team led by Michael Jordan was almost on the brink of collapse as the Bulls organization decided to kick-start its plans to rebuild the team and break apart probably the best basketball group assembled in NBA history. Directed by Jason Hehir (The Fab Five, The ’85 Bears), the documentary series goes beyond the lore of Michael Jordan as it unravels a basketball sporting universe we never knew existed back then.
Watch If You Are:
Missing live sports so badly. If you are a sports fan with an appetite that goes beyond the box-score, this would be your perfect boredom buster.
Watch this too, if you’re a serious or casual sneakerhead paying crazy money on Air Jordans — you’ll find comfort that every penny you’re spending is worth it. If you’ve seen Space Jam back when you were still in school and think it’s the greatest feel-good basketball movie, then this series would be the adulting counterpart of that.
What I Think:
Netflix did a 2-show drop during its premiere, so I was able to watch the first two episodes. I may have a personal bias because Michael Jordan is a childhood hero of mine and that I’ve spent hundreds of thousands on his shoes. There was really no way this documentary would spoil the shrine I’ve built for him in my mind. And guess what? It is pure validation every time the end-credits roll. Back in the 90s, I was a kid who grew up rooting for the greatest basketball team without social media and access to cable TV. So just imagine the amount of nostalgia that went running through my veins as the first few footages rolled in. Thank God for sending me the DeLorean! Hehir is a genius!
The docu-series is just like any reality TV (except there are no bad staging of actors and scripts). We get unhinged access to the team’s locker room and players don’t worry about the backlash of social media. We see superstars and basketball personalities speak their minds freely. Our heroes face their individual adversities and battle a common enemy – the team’s General Manager. It’s a documentary that checks all the boxes.
The first two episodes already have me pumped up and I can’t wait to see the rest. It’s a fact that the heroes won the End-Game, but the documentary tells us the story of the battles won and lost along the way.
Welcome to the Chicago Bulls Extended Universe.
My Rating:
The Last Dance is now streaming on Netflix, with new episodes every Monday.
