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Media Amazon fly-on-the-wall documentary about Spurs

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FightingIllini said:
I can see why it's built around Mourinho as a storytelling choice, but it is obnoxious to have Poch totally airbrushed out of it. Like we don't even get him speaking to the team once.

It would have been nice to take one episode to exist in PochWorld without looking toward what was to come, which would better simulate the actual experience of the season.
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It wouldn’t work as TV, though? No-one wants the protagonist to be removed and replaced partway through. Maybe for the proper fans, but for the casual viewer; and from a club perspective, we’d also want to focus on the now and the future, which is Jose, to help build global brand. The media’s about selling stuff, not telling the truth.
 
ChrissyWaddleShares said:
It wouldn’t work as TV, though? No-one wants the protagonist to be removed and replaced partway through. Maybe for the proper fans, but for the casual viewer; and from a club perspective, we’d also want to focus on the now and the future, which is Jose, to help build global brand. The media’s about selling stuff, not telling the truth.
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Feels slightly like an advertisement for the club IMO.
 
ErikLamela'sHip said:
Good points. You basically can't make anything other than a PR piece to some extent with these programmes that are set within current or very recent seasons: everyone is compromised by the immediacy of the events so you get very safe coverage that tries to show the protagonists in as good a light as possible, whilst not sticking the knife into anyone too much.

Compare this programme to something like The Last Dance on Netflix, made 20 years or so after the events. That programme is a genuine investigation and time has provided much opportunity to think, reflect and, in some cases, distort memory. As a result the programme that results is far more interesting, even though I personally am only a very slight basketball fan.
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As someone who grew up idolizing that Bulls team I was a little frustrated by Last Dance as a recantation of stories I already knew, but what stories they are, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

As a general rule the level of behind the scenes access is going to have an inverse relationship with how honest and unvarnished the portrayal is. And the behind the scenes access of these All or Nothing docs are top notch.

For a different point on that spectrum I would highly recommend Sunderland Til I Die on Netflix. The best of this new breed of football documentaries I've seen.

Airfixx said:
I still don't understand the suggestion that it's "obnoxious"..... Who's being obnoxious?
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As viewer it is somewhat irksome that a central figure of my lived experience of supporting Spurs in 2019-20 barely makes an appearance in this purported behind the scenes look at that season.

It's fine, it's not the end of the world, I'm still very much enjoying watching it.

This series isn't the place to litigate Poch vs Levy arguments of hyper-engaged Spurs supporters. What it does do is really frame and draw out the emotion of something like Mourinho pulling Dier off after half an hour against Olympiacos. That's compelling viewing in its own right, for Spurs supporters and casual viewers alike, which is the audience they're making this for.
 
ChrissyWaddleShares said:
It wouldn’t work as TV, though? No-one wants the protagonist to be removed and replaced partway
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FightingIllini said:
This series isn't the place to litigate Poch vs Levy arguments of hyper-engaged Spurs supporters. What it does do is really frame and draw out the emotion of something like Mourinho pulling Dier off after half an hour against Olympiacos. That's compelling viewing in its own right, for Spurs supporters and casual viewers alike, which is the audience they're making this for.
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Totally agree... It's not going to provide the grit nor operational/tactical minutia that I think some had anticipated.... It never was; which is why I was never too concerned with the project on an 'exposé' level.

Did occur to me though; there was a contingent that upon announcement of the deal being struck saw it as a scandalous betrayal of Poch; lifting the lid on him in favour of a cynical cash-grab.... Truth is, that outlook massively glosses over the fact that he breached the sanctity of his own dressing room first (for his own personal financial gain) a number of years earlier with his book.
 
Airfixx said:
Did occur to me though; there was a contingent that upon announcement of the deal being struck saw it as a scandalous betrayal of Poch; lifting the lid on him in favour of a cynical cash-grab.... Truth is, that outlook massively glosses over the fact that he breached the sanctity of his own dressing room first (for his own personal financial gain) a number of years earlier with his book.
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I don't remember that argument, but the book was a bad idea, fun as it was to read.

At the end of the day, we caught lightning in a bottle with Poch and for a variety of reasons we just couldn't quite hang onto it. His era at the club ending trophyless is going to be hard to swallow for the rest of my days. It will be harder still if the same is said of Harry Kane, so let's fucking go get it this year.
 
Airfixx said:
.... Truth is, that outlook massively glosses over the fact that he breached the sanctity of his own dressing room first (for his own personal financial gain) a number of years earlier with his book.
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He absolutely didn’t do any of that - completely incomparable to an actual TV crew for reality television - what a shameless lie
 
It will be interesting to see what kind of viewing figures the documentary gets worldwide and whether it attracts a new legion of fans/people Levy can flog stuff to.
Mourinho is box office, he knows how the media works; e.g. the scene in which he turns off the tele and tells the presenter to f-off, was planned in advance.
I think the producers are going for a redemption narrative with Jose like Rocky Bilbao emerging triumphant when everyone had written him off.
I know a few Americans who support Spurs because they consider them a rough diamond.
Are they filming a second season out of interest?
 
OK - I've finally managed to watch the first three episodes in their entirety.
For full disclosure, I'm a documentary maker, having directed over 20 hours of network broadcast films for all the BBC channels, Channel 4, NatGeo, Discovery etc before leaving the industry in disgust at corporate working practices.
I have a top level observation.
There is no such thing as a "fly on the wall" documentary. Everything broadcast on network TV is edited. Editing creates meaning, narratives, And when I say "creates", editing can quite literally change what happened by 180 degrees. It's one of the reasons I left network TV, because I have red lines I'm not prepared to cross.
The only real "fly on the wall" is some geezer turning on the camera on his mobile phone and recording three minutes of actual uninterrupted footage before hitting Stop. And we all know if another person is filming with their mobile from a different angle, perhaps starting a minute earlier, and you compare those two unedited pieces of footage, then they may tell two very different stories.
So, "All or Nothing" is artifice. A constructed narrative. It is not "pure reality", whatever that means.
Reaction shots and cutaways may be edited in from different settings and time periods to create the mood or emotion that the director, and whoever (Levy?) had ultimate editorial control, desired.
But, having said this, the series has an incredible level of access to certain events. You do feel inside the dressing room, and key meetings, and that is compelling, especially for us Spurs fans.
The footage with Dier after he's subbed on 29 minutes, and with Sonny after the chavski red card. is astonishing access. These are incredibly emotional moments for both players alone in the dressing room, and we are shown it.
Also, getting snatches of the 1:1 meetings between Mourinho and Kane, Dele, Dier is revealing and fascinating, even though the scenes have been edited to create a certain narrative.
Kane wants to be a global superstar and Mourinho wants to help him. Dele is a lazy trainer and inconsistent, and Mourinho tells him careers are short. Mourinho deliberately speaks with Dier in Portuguese, and Dier responds fluently and articulately.
However, just as important is what is omitted, what we don't see.
So, we don't see the 1:1 between Eriksen and Mourinho.
What we are shown is Levy speaking with Mourinho and saying, I paraphrase, "Eriksen is controlled by his agent and none of us know what he really thinks". Levy then encourages Mourinho to have one last attempt at persuading him to stay. Amusingly, in the edit, they could not find any footage of an enthusiastic Jose agreeing to do so.
So, in short, there is some compelling and revealing access which lets us see our Spurs players and coaches at their most vulnerable. And in real situations, such as half time in matches we watched live.
There are also events , such as the Eriksen contract situation, where we are not shown what happens and instead are given a narrative constructed around some exchanges between Levy and Mourinho.
I look forward, with some trepidation, to the rest of the series.
 
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