Cheer (2020)
Created by Greg Whiteley
Produced by One Potato Productions, Boardwalk Pictures, and Caviar
Premiered on Netflix, 2021
Featuring Monica Aldama, Lexi Brumback, Gabby Butler, and Jerry Harris
Genre/Format: Documentary Series
Awards:
Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, 2020
Television Critics Association Awards Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming, 2020
Rating TV-MA (Common Sense Media recommends for ages 14+)
Summary: Cheer is a six episode limited documentary series on Netflix. It focuses on Navarro College, a junior college in Corsicana, TX with a top ranked cheer team. The series follows the team as they prepare for the 2019 National Championships in Daytona Beach. Navarro.
The team is led by Monica Aldama, who is described as being quiet, classy, and relentless in her pursuit of excellence. The team is filled with students from troubled backgrounds who consider their acceptance onto the team by Aldama to be a second chance at a successful start in life. The cheer team works tirelessly on dangerous stunts and the camera does not shy away from showing us falls and injuries. In between cheer sequences the show focuses on the personal lives of the cheerleaders. All of it works together to make a captivating series.
Creator Background: Greg Whiteley is best known for creating Last Chance U, another Netflix documentary series, and Cheer. Prior to those series he worked on making documentary films.
Critical Evaluation: Cheer is a fascinating documentary series about a subject that many people don't know about and are sometimes prejudiced against. The viewer is drawn into the personal stories of the cheerleaders and gets invested in their ability to overcome and succeed. Additionally, watching the efforts of the cheerleaders during their grueling, often dangerous, practices, perfecting their death-defying pyramids is awe-inspiring. It's a peek into a world that you can't help but (excuse the pun) cheer for.
Creative Use for a Library Program: Our library will host a workshop to teach our teens how to pitch an idea to a production studio. They will be encouraged to come up with their own documentary idea and create a pitch. The goal is to get them to turn their creative ideas into a concrete idea and practice getting other people interested in the idea.
Speed-Round Talk: Cheer follows a top-ranked cheer team as they prepare for the National Championships. Prepare to binge watch the entire series because you won't be able to take your eyes off the death-defying routines and the captivating personal stories.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: The series doesn't shy away from telling the students' stories, some which included drug use and sexual abuse, and there is some profanity. My defense is that there are plenty of other items in the library that include the same issues, making it meaningless to exclude this show.
Reason for Inclusion: This show highlights the grit and determination of teens who don't shy away from hard work or setbacks to succeed. The teens who watch the show can find inspiration in their successes and, hopefully, apply those same lessons to their own lives.
References
Netflix. (2020). CHEER Season 1 Official Trailer. You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Whiteley, G. (nd). Greg Whiteley Biography. IMDb.
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