Monica Aldama deals with personal and professional struggles in Netflix's Cheer. Photo / Netflix
Monica Aldama deals with personal and professional struggles in Netflix's Cheer. Photo / Netflix
Cheer season two is not without its faults, and that makes for a complicated watch, writes Lydia Burgham.
REVIEW:
A jail sentence. A team exodus. A pandemic. An absent coach.
Those are just a few of the struggles covered in the second season of Netflix's Cheer. Plagued by scandal, tension, and the pandemic – the world's most famous competitive cheerleading team grapple with the pitfalls of celebrity and the pressure to be great.
Navarro College's athletes aren't the sole focus of season two - and arguably they don't deserve to be. Trinity Valley College is their main rival and shows a different side of the coin. They have a coach (Vontae Johnson) with a different style, athletes who seem stronger and better than Navarro's.
The first season of Cheer was an unlikely hit in my mind. I struggled to explain to people in my life what was so gripping about a series about a cheerleading team from Corsicana, Texas.
If you're already a fan, you will need no convincing to tune in to the second season. For the uninitiated – the talent goes beyond the strength and acrobatics on the mat. Part of what makes Cheer so watchable is just how good the athletes are at being on camera.
The formula is replicated well with new stars like Maddy Brum and TVCC's Jada Wooten. Both are classy, impression athletes with incredible drive and talent.
Coach Monica Aldama is back, as are fan favourites from last season Gabbi Butler, Lexie Brumback, La'Darius Marshall and Morgan. But the massive shadow on the show's success and the fame afforded to Navarro College's athletes had to be addressed in the second season. Jerry was granted access to red carpets and offered conversations with the President for his inspiring "mat talk" - and now he sits behind bars for soliciting illicit photos from minors.
It would have made sense for Cheer to not return after that. But by addressing the issue head-on, the fall-out added a complex layer to the sports documentary drama. It makes Navarro College an undeserving subject, albeit an interesting one.
It would be naïve to say that Cheer's method of tackling "the Jerry episode" was perfect. There were clear flaws: Jerry appears in several episodes before the show's fifth hears directly from his victims. The last frame of the fifth episode leaves us with Jerry – smiling, happy and free. It pales in comparison to the brave twins' faces recounting their ostracisation from the sporting community they had a right to be safe in.
And that is without considering the reaction from coach Monica and his former teammates. A tearful Gabbi grapples with the correct way to view her former friend. Monica deals with a public relations nightmare in between competing on Dancing With The Stars.
Vontae Johnson represents a different style of leadership compared to Coach Monica. Photo / Netflix
Viewing the series in its entirety, I saw what the documentary makers were trying to do: capture a human response to a horrific betrayal with the world-changing as they knew it. That doesn't change viewers' right to feel uncomfortable about platforming an undeserving star but adds clarity to the decision to address the scenario at all.
The team Netflix wants you to root for should be Navarro. But it ends up being Trinity Valley College instead. The nine episodes have been playing on loop in my head mainly because I cannot decide whether my enjoyment of the series is ethical or not.
Can you give athletes like this fame without it being detrimental in the long run? Does the entertainment value outweigh the duty of care?
In the end, Cheer gives us the most deserving winner. And I hope this season's stars nail the full-out with their newfound fame.
