gwnsystems This was on my watch later literally forever, before I decided to jump in. The first two seasons follow the East Mississippi Community College Lions, a junior college football team in the less than 1,000 person town of Scooba, MS, not far from the Alabama state line. The team is a veritable powerhouse, with core players recruited from Division 1 programs, after being dismissed, or leaving of their own accord. The players are predominantly black, poor, from places you've not heard of and struggling badly with college life, particularly academics. A fair number are in Scooba because there is literally nothing to do but play Madden, go to Subway, or meet girls, which for most of them, is far less trouble than they knew before. The viewer, if paying attention, will literally want to throttle at least two players an episode.Besides the players, two people feature prominently in each episode. Buddy Stephens, the head coach, is a "large and in charge" type, who suffers nothing and is all about two interrelated things, winning, and getting players NCAA offers, to ensure new recruits for next season, to keep winning. In the 2nd season, Stephens is somewhat upset with the way he acted during the first and resolves to better himself, although it's not clear how successful he is. Brittany Wagner, the academic advisor, is probably the most easily liked person on the show, as she basically pushes a boulder uphill in trying to get the players to maintain the GPA they need to be NCAA eligible. It's hard work, players skip classes, don't submit assignments, argue with teachers and so on. It is literally all she can do to get some of them to take a pencil and notebook to class.....in college.....really! By the end of season 2, Wagner clearly is becoming frustrated, but never stops genuinely caring about the players she's paid to help. The film itself is a well shot documentary, where the crew is able to keep a good handle on the drama within the team week to week. You see a team that wins, making no friends along the way, then that animus boil over, then the team pay for it for the next year and a half. By the end of season two, Wagner is planning to leave EMCC, as are both co-ordinators and a few other coaches, as Stephens' attempts at personal development don't progress very considerably and he begins to openly resent the presence of the film crew. The players mostly get their offers, some don't and one of the main players in Season 2 now stands accused of a murder. I more or less binged 2 seasons(6 and 8 episodes of around an hour each) in a week and a half. Season 3 just wrapped up shooting.....at a JC in Kansas. I'd highly recommend this and eagerly await next season.

jbrumundsmith If you like sports documentaries, you are going to love this series. Most people are hesitant to go into a documentary not knowing the subjects, but the filmmakers do a great job introducing you to what you need to know right away. Overall, this a great documentary that is very well put together, but the subjects can certainly aggravate you.East Mississippi Community College, which you have probably never heard of, is the focus of this documentary. The head coach obviously gets a lot of air time, as well as some of the star players (a few quarterbacks and some other intriguing characters, of course) and their academic adviser. There is no real "star" of the documentary, but the person most people rooting for is that academic adviser, Brittany Wagner. She is the only character who seems to fully understand her role at the college and give her best effort in a meaningful way.The head coach, Buddy Stephens, is like a combination of every negative stereotype of head football coaches. He is loud, overweight, aggressive, mean, and unable or unwilling to understand that kids make mistakes on the football field. In one instance, he reams out a player for missing a block, reams him out some more, then comes back for a third reaming and pushes the kid. The kid says to the coach that he didn't need to push him, which makes Coach Stephens bench him for the rest of the game. Coach Stephens is your classic bully football coach who sees no problem is publicly humiliating his players for even the most minor of offenses.Of course there are players on the team who are highlighted as well. All have a different story that lead them to a community college, and seem to really have the same goal in mind: getting out of there to someplace better. Skipping classes and not listening are recurring themes. Some players say they are all about the team, but do not sound genuine about it. Overall they want to win, of course, but seem more interested in where that winning will take them.The cinematography is beautiful. The setup and layout are beautiful. These filmmakers really know what they are doing. If you love sports and are interested in how athletics have affect human emotions, this series is highly recommended.

Robin De Paepe This series is more of a documentary than a 'netflix-series', and that's the way you should look at this. If you're just looking for a TV-series to lighten you're mood, then this clearly isn't for you. If you are, however interested in the subject of the importance of education, if you want to have a good look at how the American college system works ( especially if you're not from the US this is interesting), than this series might be exactly what you're looking for.What sets Last Chance U apart from other 'reality-series' is the different angles where it is coming from. From the grad student, to the renominated coach Buddy Stephens, to the concerned tutor of the college athletes who is desperately trying to get them graduated at the end of the year. You really understand the importance of the situation, the legacy that these young athletes are trying to maintain. It also doesn't really feel like a real documentary-series, although you keep getting reminded that this in fact has really happened before.However Last Chance has a hard time trying to keep my focus, maybe it was just me but I found myself numerous times being distracted while watching the series. and while this is no doubt a real documentary, I couldn't help myself but finding it all a bit by the books. It almost sounds like a classic football story which you have seen so many times before. I couldn't help myself wondering if some things were really scripted.Still if you can get yourself invested in the stories of these coaches, students and their surroundings, you do really get a real reward out of it, because it does leave a mark. It really gave me satisfaction to get to know the stories of so many lives in this little Mecca of American football. So if this subject is your niche... you should definitely check it out.7,5/10 Verdict: A very interesting and touching look at the life of student athletes

dansview The director made sure there was never too long without some game action, or at least some conflict. That was key to keeping our attention. This film of course did not reflect well on football players in general. They come across as lazy, self-absorbed, irresponsible, and feeling entitled. Football is not supposed to simply produce or nurture great athletes. It is supposed to build solid men. The counselor woman had a tough choice. Because the guys were already getting the tough cop routine from their coaches. So she probably didn't want to be too tough on them. She either chose the mom/buddy approach, or it just came naturally, or perhaps we didn't see the tougher side of her off camera. At times I felt frustrated that she wasn't tougher on the players. One thing this show made me realize, is that pro football should have a minor league. Why should guys who have no interest in school, be forced to attend, just so they can continue playing? It's absurd. Just create a minor league, like baseball has.A person could have a career in the minor league, or play in the Arena League, or Canada, etc. There are plenty of options. Why do you need college?Needless to say, this piece of work does not reflect well on African Americans, rednecks, or the South. The coach is a beast, the players seem almost lobotomized, and the culture looks bland and hopeless. The physical geography looked very inviting however.Lesson to be learned: You can't just swear, fight, lie, and screw, and then say an "Our Father," and wash it all away. You have to try not to do those things in the first place.But what made the whole thing worth it, and what I never came close to predicting, was how a bizarre chain of events redeemed and jettisoned the career of one player, who seemed to be almost out of the picture.