Netflix Original: Cheer

Full disclosure. The purpose of this piece is to get everyone to watch the new Netflix docuseries Cheer because take it from me: this show is truly the most wholesome, exciting, nerve-racking, and emotional production of television I have seen in a while. The show is a six episode series that follows the journey of a community college cheer team towards winning a national title in Daytona, Florida. The school, Navarro College, is literally in the middle of nowhere-Texas in a town called Corsicana, yet the cheer team is known across the country, attracting students from across the country. The town truly has no other products other than an award winning junior college cheer team, so they’re kind of a big deal as you can imagine. 

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While the show is focused on cheerleading, and you will see girls get thrown in the air, people flipping across the stage, and a ton of injuries, what separates Cheer from another similar reality TV counterpart like Dance Moms is the team coach, Monica Aldama. For many of the kids on the team she is the mother figure they never had; she isn’t mean but she’s strict, you won’t catch her screaming or making kids sob, but you’ll see her push their bodies to endure unimaginable pain. This show has undeniably become an instant hit and that is largely due to revealing what some of the members have gone through in their pasts and how its led them to being on the team at Navarro. You will learn of the members dealing with homelessness, suicide, losing parents, sexual and domestic abuse, and despite it all, they still choose to go to college and pursue their goal of winning a national title. 

Prior to watching this show I knew absolutely nothing about cheer, and truthfully I only started watching it because I had nothing else to do. I did not expect to laugh or cry or feel so nervous at their performance in Daytona, but I really became invested in the members. This docuseries isn’t like classic reality TV where we watch for the drama or to see grown women scream at 12 year old’s to point their toes; it was refreshing to see that people with different values and backgrounds were able to support each other towards one common goal.

The show highlights how cheer is different from other sports in that it basically ends with college–there is no professional competitive cheer, so for many of the members of the team they spend their whole lives working towards winning with Navarro College, and then are forced into retirement. If it isn’t obvious enough already I loved this show, and my only complaint is that I wish there were more episodes. And while a season 2 hasn’t been formally announced yet, I think if Netflix knows what’s good for it, they will continue the show. 

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