When I try to recall the last time I was engrossed (or grossed-out) by a reality television series, I’m taken all the way back to 2009 and something that featured Paris Hilton. I know that I’ve seen others since then, but I can only remember vagaries of chocolate sculpting and kitchen fires.
I dislike the other programming of this genre on principle because I can turn off the part of my brain that’s aware of the manipulation. It’s the editors that make these shows so emotionally impactful, with their carefully selected non-sequential, non-linear cuts designed to wring every last tear from the unsuspecting audience member.
So, it was refreshing to find extraordinarily little of that in Greg Whiteley’s look into the mechanisms of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. I started the series on a lark, knowing full well that my time would have been better spent on algorithms and data structures studies, and I managed to get through the seven-ish hours in three days.
Worth watching to get a glimpse at the price of perfection. Anyone fostering a brand or public-facing identity would be well-served to take notes at the way the cheerleaders and everything around them are run. This series also serves a hot and heaping helping of 100% pure Americana. Only the wealthiest nation on the planet could concieve of and execute a project like this, and it’s on full display in ultra-high definition.
2024.11.27 – 2024.11.29
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