With Last Chance U relieving their football duties and moving to basketball, Netflix needed a documentary series to keep giving audiences that fix. We Are: The Brooklyn Saints is different. There’s more focus on kindness and the importance of sowing the seeds. While the other series focuses on college football and young adults having the desperation to make it to the top despite their adversities, this documentary series follows a youth football program in the depths of inner-city East New York, Brooklyn — it’s geared towards boys ages 7-13.
It’s a little bit like when Gordon Ramsay heckles and shouts at his chefs in Hells Kitchen, plunging adults into despair, but when he does a junior version of his series, he brings a comforting approach, bringing warm-heartedness as a way to ensure he can get the best out of his children. We Are: The Brooklyn Saints season 1 presents kids in similar backgrounds — this is a vehicle of opportunity for them. This is an environment that could make them.
But on the other hand, a loss is not a loss — each moment and situation is a win; it’s a chance to learn, mature, and develop, and the Netflix series does well to get those themes across. The documentary series takes its time to get to know the kids and their influential adults, it brings a full, wholesome picture to how this youth program works.
At 4 episodes, Netflix’s We Are: The Brooklyn Saints shows how sport goes beyond competition; by nature, it can become a safe haven of community. It can be a young child’s second family. It can change the course of the future. While we nestle ourselves in front of the television every week to watch multi-million dollar sports, this Netflix series exemplifies how sports is way more important than the monetary incentives. Youth programmes work, and We Are: The Brooklyn Saints demonstrates that with a close-knit and an up-close documentary approach.
We are: The Brooklyn Saints is now streaming on Netflix.
Read our other reviews here.