Cheer

Rating: 4.85/5

Cheer is a show that I had originally started to watch on a whim, but quickly turned into something I couldn't wait to get home from work for so I could continue the story.

In the small town of Corsicana, Texas, the cheering team from Navarro College is preparing their routine for the NCA Nationals in Daytona Beach. Their team has won numerous times before, but every season is a fresh start, and nothing is guaranteed. The docu-series follow the team on their journey to the competition, and highlights the struggles and triumphs of individual members of the squad along the way.

Cheerleading has always been something that has intrigued me, more so for the competitions rather than for the sideline activities at sporting events. For a very brief time period in my life, I was a cheerleader, and even though I never stuck with it, I still found myself defending the sport when people would say cheerleaders weren't "real athletes". Anyone who believes that, need only to watch five minutes of this series to be proved otherwise. The impeccable athleticism and skill involved in what this team does is absolutely astounding. It is insanely dangerous, and Cheer doesn't try to hide that concept whatsoever. With each attempted stunt they showed in the episodes, I found myself with sweaty palms, because I knew how the slightest misjudgment in someone's placement or distance could mean serious injury or even death for one of the members of the team.

When I saw the trailer for Cheer, I was mostly interested in watching it so I could see the routines, what I didn't expect was to be so completely invested in the lives and stories that unfolded throughout its six episodes. This series is fully inspirational, and it demonstrates how much one person or one activity can truly change the course of someone's life. Cheer spends much of its episodes chronicling the lives of a handful of the members of the Navarro Cheer Team, presenting the viewer with information about their childhoods and their time before moving to Corsicana. Many of them came from upbringings filled with loss and heartbreak, and in their interviews, those team members spoke of their need for a purpose and for someone to believe in them. That purpose was cheering, and for quite a few of them, the person who believed in them was the coach for Navarro, Monica Aldama. Her tough, no nonsense exterior may seem at first as if she may not be the most empathetic person, but her fierce devotion and caring for her athletes is undeniably what makes the team and the series so great.

For some inexplicable reason, I have always been a little embarrassed of my short stint as a cheerleader. Many times when I mention it, people give me a look filled with befuddlement and sometimes even judgement. They tell me I don't have the personality of someone who used to be a cheerleader, or I don't really look the type. People with that mindset need to take the time to watch Cheer, because it will prove to them that there isn't one type of person who can belong to this sport, and that it is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. I know I have recommended this series to numerous people since I first watched it, and I already can't wait to view it all over again.