You’ll Love The CW’s 8-Season Sports Drama, Even If You Hate Football

The sports drama is unique as a TV genre, combining the typical slew of love triangles, near-misses with the law, and general life mishaps with the ups and downs that come from cheering on a team in the real world. When it works, the sports drama can be a powerful vehicle for storytelling, as seen with the excellent football-based series Friday Night Lights.

There remains a widespread belief that sports dramas are for sports fans – or at least for those with a passing interest in the game being played. This is despite Ted Lasso enchanting folks who wouldn’t know John O’Shea from Dara O’Shea. The very best sports TV shows transcend such barriers, making themselves accessible to viewers who would never follow the sport at the heart of the story.

Based on a true story, All American charts the rise of high school student and super-talented football player Spencer James. With that premise, anyone would be forgiven for assuming a solid knowledge of football was a prerequisite. And, sure enough, All American is filled with tactical talk, on-field dilemmas, and industry shenanigans.

In truth, All American is very accommodating, even if you’re totally alien to the football world. Sports jargon, game rules, and league mechanics are either presented in a way an amateur can grasp, or sidelined because they’re irrelevant to the plot. All American is adept at filtering out football-isms that don’t propel the narrative forward, then holding the viewer’s hand through the ones left over. It’s a clever balance – one that doesn’t patronize experts, but also avoids isolating newcomers.

Without even trying, those newcomers will undoubtedly find themselves picking up the basics by the end of All American‘s first season. Non-football fans won’t necessarily emerge from the series die-hard lovers of college football, but they’ll at least emerge with a newfound respect for the sport and its athletes.

All American’s Greatest Strength Is Its Characters

The one element that magnetizes an audience to All American is the show’s cast. Daniel Ezra makes Spencer James a compelling protagonist, but it’s the dynamics between characters that really shine through. Spencer’s sibling-like bond with Coop, his early antagonistic rivalry against Asher, his endless respect for Grace – all of these relationships, and the individual lives behind them, are what pull the viewer into All American.

It’s really not about the football. Spencer could be playing basketball, table tennis, or sudden-death tiddlywinks, and the show would be just as good. At its core, All American is a tale about juggling the burden and blessing of being championship material while life tosses its usual obstacles in your path, and even if that’s not necessarily an arc all viewers can relate to, it’s an extremely human journey that makes itself accessible to all.

To label All American exclusively as a sports drama wouldn’t necessarily be fair, as that’s really only a third of its DNA. The series is as much a high school drama about romances, grades, and growing up, and as much a crime drama through the Crenshaw storyline with Coop. Between everything else going on, All American spends surprisingly little time actually on the field.