Is All American a Good Show & Worth Watching?

Avatar photoByJosip Sovar Published on
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All American is a sports drama TV show. The show is based on a true story of a professional football player Spencer Paysinger. The show follows Spencer James, a high-school football player who dreams of becoming a professional football player and making it to the NFL. It is also a coming-of-age story that follows a group of teenagers juggling through their high school days. But, is All American a good show & worth watching?

All American is a good show and it is worth watching. The show combines drama, sports, friendship, love, and family. It is also a coming-of-age story about Spencer James, a high school student who is set up to make his dreams come true and become a professional football player. But in the process, he never forgets who he is, and where he came from and always tries to put his family and friends first. The show also points out some major problems in society like gang violence, drug addiction, racism, etc.

The show is worth watching because it is multi-dimensional. When we follow Spencer James’s story it is more than his football career and its development of it. It is also about the sacrifices he has to make when he leaves his family and his hometown, about social differences that he stumbles upon when he gets to Beverly Hills, and all the problems that await him there. Overall, this show provides a bit of everything so you will surely be entertained. Let’s see a bit further why that is.

The show is based on a true story

All American is based on a true story. The story follows the life of Spencer James, a young high-school football player whose character is based on a real person, Spencer Paysinger. Spencer Paysinger was a football player whose professional NFL career started in 2011 and ended in 2017. After his career as a professional player, he decided it would be a good idea to tell his story from his high school days and turn it into a story.

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Spencer Paysinger himself also shows up in several episodes of the series, playing Assistant Coach Davis, and is a consulting producer of the show. The fact that the show is based on a true story just gives more depth and meaning to it but is also a very relatable show regardless because it points out some of the key values in life while also pointing out some problems we face.

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Spencer Paysinger as Assistant Coach Davis and Spencer James

It is not just about football

Even though the show is centered on Spencer James and his ups and downs as a football player, it is so much more than that. The first thing that becomes clear is that Spencer values and loves his family and friends. He has to make a tough decision when he moves to Beverly Hills because he leaves his mother and little brother in South Crenshaw. But he is trying his best to always come home to check up on them and to help them in any way he can.

Besides that, friendship is one of the central themes of this show. Even though Spencer and his friends have many differences throughout the show, they are always there for each other when that is needed even though they are opponents on the field or sometimes resent each other. Teenage love and heartbreaks are also one thing that this show does not lack and this aspect only enriches the dramatic touch of the show.

The show brings awareness to some problems that society faces

Spencer James is a top athlete and his football skills are exceptional, so there is no doubt that his future could be stellar. However, nothing is that simple. As we all know, life is not linear and is full of obstacles and this show perfectly portrays that. Besides their high school problems with grades, break ups, and fights, these kids are struggling with more severe problems also.

Since the first season of the show, the atmosphere around the South Crenshaw community gives a glimpse of gang-related violence and all the fear and dangers it brings for its members. Besides that, there is also a drug addiction problem we get to see through the character of Olivia Baker, and mental health problems teenagers face when too much pressure is up on them. These are major problems that are needed to be discussed and provided for a wide audience to see.

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Beginning in August 2016, some American athletes have protested against police brutality and racism by kneeling on one knee while the U.S. national anthem is played. They also did this in the show.

It is no secret that athletes are sometimes prone to take some performance-enhancing drugs even though it can lead to health problems that are irreversible, and that is also something this shows puts light on. And most importantly, the All American made a huge impact on the community by pointing out that racism is still out there and is brutal as ever. Some major movements such as the ‘black lives matter movement are also a big part of the show.

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Conclusion

All American is a good show and it is worth watching. The show follows Spencer James in the pursuit of his dream of becoming a professional athlete. But it is so much more than that. It is also a story about family and the impact it has on our lives, about friendship and love, loyalty and betrayal, and everything that comes alongside it.

This show points out some major problems that society faces like gang violence, drug addiction, racism, etc. It is a perfect combination of drama and sport and will surely keep you entertained if you are into stuff like that.

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Josip Sovar is a part-time writer based in Krizevci, Croatia. He is a law student at Faculty of Law at University of Zagreb. Josip’s expertise includes Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, MCU, and more or less any other superhero-related TV show or movie. He’s also prone to learning and experiencing new things and enjoys broadening his horizons. Josip's journey as a writer started in his early childhood days, writing for his local school newspapers. Since then, he has refined his craft by writing on various online platforms, such as Fiver, iwriter, and PeoplePerHour. He also briefly owned a blog about dogs. Josip's greatest achievement as a writer is being a part of the Fiction Horizon team, where he contributes by writing articles on various topics about trending movies and TV shows. He writes for Comic Basics as well. World of fiction, alongside sport have always been Josip’s place of freedom and enjoyment. Since his early days, he liked to stay-up late and watch all sorts of movies on TV, and waking up early so he wouldn’t miss any superhero cartoon that is about to air. If he would have to choose one TV show that had the greatest impact on him, it was probably Dr. House. As for the movies, he could watch Marvel movies all day, any day. Even though he thinks that their quality is slightly declining, they are always number one on Josip’s watchlist. Besides that, he likes movies that really get into his head in a way that he can’t stop think about them long after they are over. He remembers that Inception, Life of Pi, and Interstellar, among many others, made him feel that way. His favorite video game franchise is Prince of Persia. Josip likes to be informed about the things he writes about, and his writing style is mostly based on providing straightforward facts to the readers implementing his experience into articles. He tries to keep as objective as possible while writing, but that is not always possible, so his presence can be felt in the articles he writes in a minimum way, but enough for the readers to know that he nurtures consistent affection toward his creations and work.