By Joseph Naguski
One show capturing America by storm over the duration of this quarantine is the sports Drama television series All American (April Blair, 2018). With the lack of sports being televised at the moment it leaves many enthusiasts with a hole to fill their time with. Amongst other popular sports media recently arisen such as The Michael Jordan Documentary The Last Dance (Jason Hehir, 2020), All American seems like a good way to gratify the eager sports fan. This is what I perceived from it when I was first going into it. In reality, while still containing elements of football within it, All American is much more than just a sports show. (And this may make some sports fans shy away).
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All American loosely revolves around the life of Spencer Paysinger (played by Daniel Erza). It follows Spencer being recruited from his Crenshaw home by the head coach of the Beverly Hills High School coach Billy Baker (Taye Diggs). Though initially turning down the request, through encouragement from his mother Grace (Karimah Westbrook) Spencer reluctantly agrees to transfer to Beverly for a chance at a better life and a promise from Billy to get him into the NFL. The story meanders through the relationships of Spencer, the Baker family, his best-friend Coop (Bre-Z), and the players on his new and old football teams. It tackles issues involving family, relationships, homosexuality, drug addiction, gang violence, racial injustice, and infidelity all on top of the overarching ambitions concerning football.
The plethora of topics covered in All American make it have much more traits of a drama than a sports series. The show is more accurately a story of relationships and overcoming adversity. Though sometimes melodramatic to a point, overall the acting of the series is pretty phenomenal and helps capture the emotions of the narrative. Specifically, Daniel Erza’s portrayal as Spencer really drives this home. Erza’s depiction of Spencer’s confident attitude coupled with his deeper sentiments towards his absent father captures perfectly a personality of one who wants the greater good for his community and to be the best football player but is hindered by the adversity which challenges them.
Spencer (Daniel Erza) with the real life Spencer Paysinger behind him in his role as an assistant coach of Beverly High
Especially prevalent in the second season, All American tackles a lot of gang-related issues as well as the racial injustices black Americans face. It shows just how hard it can be for some to escape gang-life and the hood in general. An example of this is the in-show memorial and mentioning of the real-life assassination of American rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle. Much of this is also depicted through Coop’s side story. Coop is such an interesting character in the show because of her struggles with gang activity and acceptance in society caused by her homosexuality. Matters relating to racial profiling are also prevalent and can shed light on the way some are treated because of the color of their skin.
All things considered, this series so far has a very interesting narrative captured representing portions of Spencer Paysinger’s life. While some events seem over the top, much of the show is well acted and the writers do a good job of keeping the audience at the edge of their seats most episodes. If you’re going in to watch this show because of football like I was, reconsider watching it for the relational storytelling aspects which are the dominant part of All American and it will be a much more enjoyable experience.
