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18 Things We Learned From HBO’s Epic Two Part Tiger Woods Documentary

Iain McNally — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 04:51:50 +0000

Despite enjoying many an evening with my Dad, watching various Major Golf Championships well into my twenties, I fell out of keeping up with golf somewhere along Tiger Woods’ initial rise to greatness in the early 2000s. HBO’s two part Tiger documentary provides a wealth of detail on what I missed, all the way up to his last Major win in 2019, as well as including a tonne of background on his early days.

Here are 18 things I learned about Tiger Woods (and golf!) watching HBO’s Tiger, along with my thoughts on the documentary.

Tiger made his first television appearance when he was just 2 years old! The Tiger cub appeared, with his father Earl on The Mike Douglass Show in 1978, with Jimmy Stewart and Bob Hope standing by!
Douglass set up a putting competition between Tiger and Bob Hope and after missing his first putt Tiger cheated, moving the ball closer to the hole for his second try!
Tiger’s full name is Eldrick Tont ‘Tiger’ Woods!? How did I not know this?
Tiger (or his Tiger Mom?) broke up with his first girlfriend, Dina Parr, by letter.
Up until 1990, Augusta National Golf Club, where Tiger won his first major on 1997, wouldn’t accept African Americans as members.
Tiger Woods does a mean “air sax” as evidenced by Dina Parr’s home videos.

A the time of his 2017 arrest for driving under the influence, Woods had 5 different drugs in his system including Xanax, Ambien, and other painkillers. The arrest footage of a clearly out of it Tiger, swaying in the breeze, is incredibly saddening.
Tiger’s dad Earl, a former Green Beret, used to rattle keys and coins in his pocket and walk in front of Tiger’s shots to teach him to play through any distraction.
American golf journalists are assholes. The documentary is riddled with footage of them asking Tiger if he thinks the next step in his life, whether it be winning a tournament, having a girlfriend, getting married, or having kids, will “dull his edge” and ruin his game!
Despite his ferocious swing and dedication to the game since birth Tiger had only (only!) won 15 professional major championships as of 2019, compared to Jack Nicklaus’ 18 professional major championships over his career.
Tiger’s parents Earl and Kultida had a shrine to Tiger and all his golf accomplishments, before he turned professional.

Despite his massive initial success, wining his first major by 9 shots, Tiger nevertheless reinvented his swing and bulked up to get even better.
The National Enquirer are also assholes. After discovering that Tiger was having a affair with Mindy Lawton, they procured photos of the pair and other… evidence. After realising that the photos were of too poor a quality to print, they used them as leverage to get Tiger to appear on the cover of sister magazine Men’s Fitness. According to the documentary, staff at the National Enquirer called Tiger’s team, asking about the relationship and then hung up?
Tiger won all of golf’s major tournaments faster than anyone in history.
After the death of his father, Tiger went to a mountain warfare training camp to engage in military training and exercises, like clearing a “Kill House” with Navy SEALs.
Woods clinched his 2008 U.S. Open while fighting through extraordinary pain due to a knee injury and recent surgery.
In 2010 Woods apologized to a room full of reporters, friends, his mother, but not his then wife Elin, for his infidelity in what must have been an utterly humiliating experience.
I’d forgotten just how much Nick Faldo looks like Harrison Ford!

Making the Cut

While undoubtedly a polished affair, HBO’s nearly three hour documentary fell just short of making the cut of great sports documentaries for me.

Golf fans will be delighted by the “front nine” dealing with Tiger’s childhood, and rocky relationship with his dad, with plenty of archive footage showing the commitment required to become a truly great golfer. Insights from his former caddie Steve Williams, and golf pro Nick Faldo, in this first part are utterly fascinating and are accompanied by footage of some truly great golfing moments.

The “back nine” however suffers from being a little too sensationalist. Whatever sins Tiger Woods may have committed, none of them warrant the sensationalist coverage his life received at the time. That the second part of the documentary spends so much time on this, and in such detail, detracts somewhat from the sports documentary feel of the first half.

Over Clubbing?

By including so much of tabloid content from the time, and including interviews with an ex-editor of the National Inquirer, the documentary itself risks sinking to the same level.

There is also some unease as it slowly becomes clear that many of those being interviewed have been cut entirely from Tiger’s life for various reasons. It doesn’t invalidate their experiences and opinions, but it does cast them in a new light.

Despite chronicling Tiger’s worst behaviour, and highlighting his humanity, the documentary makers still can’t resist the urge to mythologize Tiger’s return, again making him out to be more than just a man.

HBO’s Tiger explores the dedication and commitment required to ascend to the very top levels of international sport, as well as the pressures and temptations that can result. At times, it falls between the stools of sports documentary and sensationalist biography, but is worth for the early footage of Tiger’s early years, and of course the golf.

Tiger
HBO, 2 episodes
Directors: Matthew Hamachek and Matthew Heineman
Executive Producers: Alex Gibney, Sam Pollard, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Armen Keteyian, and Jeff Benedict

Part 1 of Tiger aired on Monday, 11 January, and is available to watch on HBO Go, with the second part airing on Monday, 18th January, at 10AM on HBO Go and HBO (Astro Ch 411 HD), same time as the US, with a repeat that same day at 10PM.

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Greatness Code

Bahir Yeusuff — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 01:00:00 +0000

“Greatness Code is a landmark short-form unscripted series…”

At first glance, the description of the AppleTV+ series Greatness Code sounds like typical PR/marketing bluster. When you declare your own product to be a “landmark,” it automatically raises the expectations of the audience, it instils a sense of doubt, before even having seen this thing.

Then again, they may be on to something here. The first thing to understand about this series is the sixth word in that opening line. Each episode of this seven episode season averages at about seven minutes, and features one athlete, and one moment of their career. Greatness Code never wanders and never overstays its welcome. Like a great YouTube video, each episode is hyper focused on the moment and the athlete. There are no other voices to set the scene, no teammates or coaches to provide context. This is about a moment and the only voice that matters in that moment.

Just as in episode one, when LeBron James talks about the fifth game of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in 2012, or in episode two, when Tom Brady talks about his “perfect” game. Or Alex Morgan’s first start in the US Women’s National Team. Or Shaun White’s Olympic qualification run. Or Usain Bolt’s world record race. A lot of these aren’t what other people would consider the athlete’s defining performances, but these are the moments that stand out for the athlete themselves. It would be easy to just pick the big winning moments, the ones in which they won a title, a game, or an Olympic gold (okay maybe it’s not so easy in the case of these repeat champions), but to focus on what the athlete considers a defining moment was a masterstroke in story telling.

The interview footage is simple, the athlete is on a chair, black and white camera, single camera angle. No fancy cuts, no second camera. It is, however, in the cutaways where these episodes shine. Each episode is absolutely filled to the gills with animation, making it feel more like an ad for a sports brand than a documentary series. Instead of just relying on old game footage, these moments are amped up to 11 with graphics and animation that are driven by the athlete’s voice.

The show was created by Gotham Chopra (GREAT. F*CKING. NAME.), son of alternative medicine guru Deepak Chopra, along with Tom Brady and LeBron James. Greatness Code could have very easily fallen into the worse kind of hero worship, self hero worship. The look-at-how-amazing-we-are traps would have been everywhere.

But, despite opening the series, the involvement of LeBron James and Tom Brady seem to have given the series a direction, and steered it away from those traps. This isn’t self hero worship.

Both Brady and James understand that this is the value of the series, not the big game-changing decisions they made, but rather the times they got into “the flow,” in order to be in sync with their teammates, as Alex Morgan says in her episode. Tom Brady isn’t talking about one of the six (!!!) Super Bowl Championships he’s won, he’s talking about a (slightly inconsequential) game against the Buffalo Bills. Shaun White isn’t walking us through one of his three (!!!) Olympic Gold medals, he’s talking about the run that earned him his Olympic team place. This series isn’t about the heights they’ve reached, it’s about what it takes to get there.

The big downside of the series, however, is the lack of international athletes on show. Aside from Usain Bolt in Episode 4, all the athletes featured are, not just American, but also from American-centric sports. Yes, I know Alex Morgan plays football, but it’s women’s football, a sport which the American Women’s National Team has thoroughly dominated since the mid 90s.

All in all, Greatness Code is a great short-form docu-series that looks at sports and athletes from a different point of view. Calling it a “landmark” series may be a little premature, but it’s definitely on its way to reaching the heights that the AppleTV+ PR/marketing team has set for it.

Greatness Code
AppleTV+, Season 1, 7 episodes
Creator: Gotham Chopra
Director: Gotham Chopra
Cast: LeBron James, Tom Brady, Alex Morgan, Usain Bolt, Shaun White, Katie Ledecky, and Kelly Slater

Greatness Code is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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High Score

Iain McNally — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 01:13:49 +0000

When it comes to the portrayal of video games in other media over the years, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. For those of us old enough to remember the period covered by Netflix’s new documentary High Score, we always had to deal with a certain level of cringe when our hobby turned up on our TV screens. GamesMaster, Bits, or Games World were beloved but they always had the air of trying just a little bit too hard to be cool, something the makers of High Score, manage to avoid, thankfully

This six part documentary series from Netflix, tries to do for video games what The Toys that Made Us and The Movies That Made Us did for the toys and movies of the 1980s and 90s. Casting their net wider than any single toy line or film, High Score attempts to weave a narrative through the early decades of the video game industry, from the late 70s to the mid 90s, with some success, taking on some unexpected perspectives.

Now You’re Playing With Power

Like those two other slices of Gen-X catnip, High Score mixes archival footage and present day interviews with some of the players involved (“players,” geddit?), and with reconstructions of some of the major events of the time. Where those other shows used actors to reenact famous moments like say, the birth of He-Man, High Score instead uses delightful 8/16-bit animations.

Narrated by the voice of Mario himself, Charles Martinet, it’s an enjoyable and informative ride, with plenty of fun anecdotes, even if the subject may be a little too broad for a six episode limited series to really make a dent in.

The first two episodes unfold mostly in a chronological manner, documenting the initial rise of the video game arcade, the boom and bust of the home console industry in the early 80s, and its following resurgence with Nintendo’s Entertainment System. Later episodes, however, digress to cover topics like Role Playing Games, how Sega’s Mega Drive (ok, ok, Genesis) took on Nintendo at their own game, fighting games, the congressional hearings into video game violence, and the rise of 3D gaming and the First Person Shooter.

It’s an approach that can feel a little scattershot, one that is compounded by the list of interviewees. Despite sitting down with the likes of Nolan Bushnell of Atari, former head of Sega Tom Kalinske, or John Kirby, the lawyer who successfully defended Nintendo against a copyright suit brought by Universal Studio, and the apparent inspiration behind Nintendo’s pink fluffy cloud… thing, you get the feeling, that sometimes, the show is built around who the show-runner’s could get, rather than to follow a planned narrative.

Console War Games

While mentioned often, there’s no interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about Donkey Kong and Mario. Instead we get Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka, the sound designer on the game. John Romero is interviewed about the birth of id Software’s iconic shooter Doom, but there’s no word from his partner in code, John Carmack.

With so many areas of interest, perhaps it’s to be expected that High Score focuses almost exclusively on the American video game market and experience, with side trips to Japan mostly providing background for games that became huge in the US.

The Nintendo Gameboy and Sega Game Gear handheld consoles get only cursory mentions. Hopefully if the show is a success they could dedicate a follow up episode to the various handheld gaming consoles. Personally I’d love to see anything on games on the “Personal Computers” of my youth, the Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST, and the vibrant scene in the UK.

A Challenger Appears

Anyone who knows their Champion Edition from their Turbo: Hyper Fighting, won’t find anything too surprising here, but High Score does manage to bring to light a few stories I’d never heard before. Like that of Jerry Lawson, the African American engineer who pioneered the use of game cartridges in home systems in the Fairchild Channel F, or Ryan Best, creator of a satirical Role Playing Game Gay Blade.

Admittedly, it’s also a lot fun to hear from the winners of some of the early large scale video game competitions. Considering the breadth of Rebecca Heineman’s experience within the gaming industry itself, it is slightly disappointing to only hear of her Space Invaders days as a child.

On a similar note, how can you interview Lord British himself, Richard Garriot, creator of the Ultima series of games, about role playing and morality and NOT ask him about the experience of having his supposedly invulnerable avatar murdered in Ultima Online!

While High Score is a pleasant trip down memory lane for many older gamers, I’m not sure how interesting this would be for younger generations. Who exactly is it aimed at anyway? While the show takes the time to explain the difference between 2D and 3D games, it also refers to 8 and 16 bit consoles, but never really explains the difference.

Insert Coin to Continue?

If High Score has whet your appetite for more “serious” video game related content, we have some recommendations for you.

Top of my personal list is Noclip, the video game documentary channel on Youtube. Hosted by former GameSpot journalist and fellow Irishman Danny O’Dwyer, Noclip have produced slick, entertaining multi part series on how games like Rocket League and 2016’s Doom, came to be, as well as a fascinating look at how the MMO Final Fantasy XIV Online was basically rebuilt from the ground up after a disastrous launch.

In the UK, Chris Bratt and People Make Games do something similar with informative videos on whether you can stop Fortnite from stealing your dance moves or how Neopets was sold to Scientologists.

Check them out.

If there’s any piece of video game history you’d want passed down to future generations it would be the awesome Mortal Kombat ads, but despite plenty of time spent on the game they never show up!

We’re DOOMed!

With probably too much material to draw from High Score does well to present a coherent look back at the industry. While it might not be to everyone’s taste (I could have done without the time spent on Nintendo Power magazine) it’s a fun show that nicely captures the early days of video games, and more importantly, the people who made them.

Seeing as former Nintendo lawyer John Kirby sadly passed away since his thoroughly entertaining interview was filmed, it’s more important than ever to capture these stories now.

High Score
Netflix, 6 episodes
Executive Producers: France Costrel, Courtney Coupe, and Melissa Wood
Cast: Charles Martinet, Nolan Bushnell, and Rebecca Ann Heineman

High Score is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Home Game

Bahir Yeusuff — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 00:38:15 +0000

Too small to be a war, too cruel to be a game.
Henry III

Home Game opens with a bang. As the season opener to a series about unique – and dangerous – traditional sports from around the world, nothing fits that description better than the uniquely Florentine sport of Calcio Storico. Three matches a year, that take place over two weeks, the Calcio is played for little more than pride and bragging rights for the coming year. It is brutal, violent, and dripping with testosterone.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one it its nets of wonder forever.
Jacques Cousteau

Home Game, Netflix’s latest documentary series is both a study of strange sports, and the people and community who are keeping it alive. Over the course of eight episodes, the series takes the audience from the beautiful storied city of Florence, to the highlands of Scotland, to the deepest depths of the Philippine ocean, to the historic city of Varanasi, India. Narrated by Mark Strong, each episode follows a cast of characters in the run up to their big championship day – be it on horseback for the Kok Boru championship, or on buffalo for the Makepung Lamping race – while also providing a clear primer into the sport itself. How it’s played. How it’s won.

Roll Out.
Optimus Prime

The selection of sports being featured in this series is admittedly a bit of a mixed bag. There were two episodes that didn’t quite hit home with me personally. The first, was about a roller derby in Austin, Texas. In a series about “traditional” sports, I’m afraid the roller derby doesn’t really feel like it qualifies. Especially since the sport of roller derby isn’t unique to the culture, as there are other similar competitions around the world. The other episode that didn’t work for me the one on Catch Fétiche, the wrestling form practiced in Congo that imbues voodoo mysticism on top of the sport. The wresting being discussed here isn’t traditional greco-roman wrestling (that’s featured later in the form of a traditional Indian wrestling called Pehlwani). This wrestling is the WWE show wrestling. You know, costumes, showmanship, and written stories. That kind of wrestling. Yes, my view on this is probably due to a longstanding bias against that form of wrestling to be considered a sport, so take it as you will.

I live my life a quarter mile at a time.
Dominic Toretto

As a big fan of sports and documentaries (the Amazon Prime series on the Australian cricket team of 2019 is a fantastic watch), Home Game hit a particular sweet spot for me. There were a few low episodes, but overall, the series was a good watch and I am definitely looking forward to more episodes. On the off chance someone from the production is reading this, here are a three suggestions: the Royal Shrovetide football match from England, gaelic football from Ireland, or the Palio di Siena from Italy.

Home Game
Netflix, 1 season, 8 episodes
Cast: Mark Strong

Home Game is now streaming on Netflix.

For more sports documentaries, here’s a list of 6 football documentaries, Sunderland Football Club, Formula 1, and Maradona in Mexico.

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Formula 1: Drive To Survive

Bahir Yeusuff — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 02:00:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, Netflix’s Formula 1 documentary series Drive To Survive dropped its second season. Following most of the teams throughout the 2019 World Championship calendar, the series’ 10 episodes gives fans a truly behind the scenes look at the big personalities and even bigger egos that make the up the sport.

The first season of Drive To Survive, which followed the 2018 edition of the competition, truly was a revelation when it premiered. Although the behind the scenes look is similar in vein to the other Netflix sports documentary series, Sunderland ’til I Die (Season 2, coming soon), what sets Drive To Survive apart is that instead of following one team over the course of a season, this series follows the entire sport – very much like a journalist who tracks an interesting story or breaking news.

If you’re an avid F1 follower, what happens in Drive To Survive may not be news to you: drivers getting dropped, fights between teammates, mechanical breakdowns; these things happen and are often reported after the fact. But that is also what sets this series apart. Watching all of that happen in real time (well real time to the camera at least) is fascinating and really showcases, not just the drivers’ motivations to compete in this the highest level of motorsport, but also the size of their ego and personalities. Which, in some ways, shows you what it takes to risk everything, when travelling 200 miles per hour, just inches off the road.

The access the cameras are afforded, from being in and amongst the pit crew, to interviews with drivers, team principals, and owners, is astounding. They don’t just give us in-depth interviews (which I suspect takes place at the end of the season), but also show us what goes on around the back offices and during the teams’ private meetings. Hell, you even see an argument between a driver and his team principal in this season that leads to the driver being demoted to a different team. (You actually hear it, because the cameras weren’t allowed in, but they were still mic’d up, so it’s close enough.)

Drive To Survive is a true behind the scenes look at a fast paced sport, filled with oversized egos and personalities. Absolutely nothing is sugar coated or controlled here.

The other thing that I really enjoyed with Drive To Survive is how it manages its episodes. The episodes develop naturally to tell different stories over the course of the race calendar, so as the series wears on, you see races from different times in the year, and how each of those races become the setting for a different event or story that they choose to tell. The series rarely jumps around from character to character, or story to story. Each episode is focused on a particular team, or driver, or event, and how it affects a specific story arc. That discipline in story telling – as well as the crazy amount of note taking and immense planning required – is a joy to watch.

Drive To Survive isn’t an in depth look at Formula 1. It doesn’t go into the mechanics of pit lane strategies, or tyre wear strategies, or how Ferrari’s wings are 0.1 millimetres off the Mercedes or the Renault. This isn’t for the fan looking to level up their knowledge. Drive To Survive is about the people in Formula 1. The people and the politics. And egos and personalities. It’s about the people who think they are the best drivers around and, because of that, deserve to have the best car, opponents and team mates be damned.

But hey, if Formula 1 isn’t your cup of tea, I’ve also got a list of football documentaries that are worth watching this weekend, as well as a review of the Netflix Maradona series, Maradona In Mexico.

Formula 1: Drive To Survive, Season 2
Netflix, 10 episodes
Showrunner: Sophie Todd

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The World According to Jeff Goldblum

Bahir Yeusuff — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 07:30:35 +0000

Jeff Goldblum is a colourful sort of fellow. But you probably already know that, being Internet-savvy meme-savant that you are. And that’s the Jeff Goldblum you get in his new Disney+ series, The World According to Jeff Goldblum. You get Jeff Goldblum in full technicolour glory.

The World According to Jeff Goldblum is a 12 episode series where Jeff Goldblum investigates all the wonderful things that make his mind go “oooooooo”. From sneakers in episode one, to ice cream, tattoos, and denim, to barbecues, gaming, bicycles, and swimming pools. The episodes are short half hour affairs and are easily digestible if Jeff Goldblum being Jeff Goldblum doesn’t get in your way.

This guy.

Maradona In Mexico

Bahir Yeusuff — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 05:25:09 +0000

One of my best friends is a massive Maradona fan. And due to the man’s “colourful” history, we tend to give my friend a hard time about it. So when news broke in 2018 that Diego Armando Maradona had just accepted the job of manager at a football team in Sinaloa, Mexico, well, the gloves were off.

Some background if you’re unfamiliar as to why. Sinaloa is the drug trafficking capital of the world. The drug kingpin El Chapo is from, and was based, in Sinaloa. The Netflix series Narcos: Mexico tells of the beginnings of the Sinaloa drug cartel. And now, Diego Armando Maradona, the infamous recovering drug addict, is the manager of their local football club. The jokes practically write themselves.

This is not a documentary about football. This is less like Amazon Prime’s All Or Nothing with Manchester City, and more like Out of Their League, the series that follows some of the former stars of Manchester United as they gain ownership of their local football club, Salford City FC. This isn’t a series about the behind the scenes drama of a struggling team, like Netflix’s Sunderland ’Til I Die. This is a documentary series about “The Maradona Effect”.

Let me say this much first. I’m not a big fan of Maradona. His achievements as a player are well written about and I respect that. It’s the circus that surrounds him that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And in this series, I was waiting for, and on some level, wanted to see, that circus in full swing. I wanted to have my disapproval of him be justified. What I got, however, has left me quite confused.

As I watched more and more episodes, my reluctance/disapproval/disdain for the series and Maradona began to fade. It really does look like he’s there for footballing reasons and not the marketing ploy that I had assumed it would be. (In doing some research into the situation, however, I did see it being reported that Maradona had, in his contract, a percentage commission from any new sponsors that came on board post his arrival.)

The man does appear to play to the cameras and the crowds wherever he goes, but how much of that is him doing it for the attention, and how much of that is just who he is as a person. That for me was the big takeaway. Diego Armando Maradona, at his core, is a 12-year-old boy. He loves being part of a team. He loves a dance, regardless of where. He loves a good song. Especially if it’s about him. (There seems to be a boatload of Maradona songs and Maradona seems to know every one of them.)

You can call him unprofessional, immature, or someone who revels in the limelight. And I did, and to a point, I still do. But more than anything, Diego Armando Maradona is passionate. About life and football. There is one particular game, Maradona finds himself relegated to the stands, and he begins to taunt the opposing crowd as his team scores a goal. But when the opposition takes the lead, and the crowd then begins to sing expletives back at him, he just sits there and sulks. As Maradona leaves the stadium at the end of the game, fans continue to mock him, and he jumps into the crowd for a fight. Passion. But also that of a 12-year-old boy.

The legend of Maradona is big. Sometimes it feels bigger in Maradona’s own mind. When told to keep his mouth shut by the opposing manager for protesting too much during a game, Maradona’s defence was to say that he, Maradona, has played more games and that the opposing manager is a nobody that needs to show his ID to get into his own house. And when Maradona is sent off, he plays the victim card. Once again, a 12-year-old boy.

In the finals, a year later, as both teams leave the field at halftime, the home supporters (of the opposition) start chanting expletives at Maradona once again. The camera then cuts to the outside of the changing room (presumably because the crew dont want to get in the middle of his wrath) as Maradona screams and shouts at the fans. Calling them cowards and egging them on to fight him. Instead of talking about the game, or his team or their tactics, Diego Armando Maradona, the manager, is railing against the opposition crowd by calling them names. The 12-year-old boy.

Watching Maradona in Mexico has softened my impression of the man. He is a problematic character, but it comes from a place of overriding passion. The lasting impression that I’m left with is that he craves the attention, but is surprised when the tide turns against him. He then retaliates, only to again be surprised that people don’t love him. Maradona in Mexico isn’t a biographical documentary series on the football legend. For that, you should check out HBO’s Diego Maradona released in July of this year. But as soon as you’ve seen that, watch this. The documentaries make interesting companion pieces, and give the audience a better look at the man both Neapolitans and Argentines call God.

Maradona in Mexico is available now on Netflix.

Maradona In Mexico
Netflix, 7 Episodes
Director: Angus Macqueen
Cast: Diego Maradona, Antonio Nuñez

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Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Bahir Yeusuff — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 05:16:49 +0000

Food shows are getting out of hand. Specifically, the food shows we now get on Netflix are getting out of hand. From food competitions, to Taco Chronicles, to Chef’s Table, to everything else in between, there are just so many variations on variations and new takes on new takes.

But here’s the thing. I like food shows. And I actually do like some of the food shows that Netflix have been producing. Somebody Feed Phil with Phil Rosenthal (the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) is a wonderful series, especially because Phil himself is an absolute joy to watch. He is like a kid in a candy store everywhere he goes. His excitement for gelato in Venice, or tacos in Mexico City, is just unbridled and infectious.

The Chef Show with Jon Favreau and chef Roy Choi is another favourite. Where Somebody Feed Phil speaks to the culture and society of a city and how that affects the food, The Chef Show approaches it from the perspective of food, and how it brings friends and family together. From cooking with famous friends like Seth Rogen to exploring LA’s food truck culture, the show is really about how food, both in its preparation and in its eating, can build and strengthen relationships.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner however is something else. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner is a 4 episode series on Netflix hosted by chef David Chang as he, along with some famous friends, eat and explore different cultures and cuisines like locals. From Vancouver with Seth Rogen, to Marrakech with Chrissy Teigen, Los Angeles with Lena Waithe, and finally Phnom Penh with Kate McKinnon, the series somewhat spans the globe as Chang and his friends hang out, eat food, and chat.

Or smoke marijuana in the case of Seth Rogen.

Despite it’s name, however, the series doesn’t really focus on the food. There is an attempt at exploration of culture through food, but it feels cursory at best. (Phil really does it better.) Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner feels too much like an excuse for David Chang to go globe-trotting with his famous friends, and although the series is watchable, I’m mostly left asking why?

For most of the series, Chang and his friends just wander about their city of choice, and talk about themselves and each other. They do a little nod to the place that they’re eating in, or the cultures that brought them there, but that’s about it. There is no exploration of the kitchen or the ingredients involved, just a stoned Chang and Rogen at the back of a bakery stuffing their faces with freshly baked jam donuts. Or Chang and Teigen stopping by a small hole in the wall with a literal hole in the ground oven and waxing lyrical on how delicious the food is and “oh look we ordered too much so let’s have the crew come in and help us finish all this food”.

The thing that disappoints me the most is that Chang is a chef. And a good one at that. But this series just feels like he isn’t that curious about all these different cooking techniques and styles from around the world. He’s just hanging out with famous people. And for some reason we’ve been invited to come have a look-see.

There are also moments when the series feels under-produced. Take the Phnom Penh episode, for example, with the vegetarian Kate McKinnon. They don’t use her dietary needs as a reason to focus the episode on fresh Asian vegetables or what vegetarian options there are in Cambodia. Instead, Chang just goes ahead and orders fish while his guest has whatever vegetables are on the menu. She enjoys it, sure (but then again she is also an accomplished actress, so maybe not), but it just feels like a missed opportunity to not explore what vegetarianism means in a different cultural context.

It’s hard to not compare Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner with Somebody Feed Phil or The Chef Show. Especially since this series sets out to be an amalgamation of the two. It’s like a producer saw those and thought: “What would we get if we put those things together?”

What we got was a pale imitation. As Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner fails in capturing the passion of the former and the geekiness of the latter. Again, it isn’t terrible. It’s just that in this current glut of food shows, I don’t think we needed this one.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner is available now on Netflix.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Netflix, Season 1, 4 Episodes
Executive Producers: David Chang and Morgan Neville
Cast: David Chang, Seth Rogen, Chrissy Teigen, Lena Waithe, Kate McKinnon

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