As a documentary, series, story whatever you refer to it as this fails fundamentally. The involvement of the team behind it is loose to be quite frank and varies completely upon whether or not they will capture something positive. The filler shots of landscapes are amazingly filmed and the match highlights too are well captured but as for positives that's abiut it, the 'story' elements that are touched upon are left after 10 minutes, see for example the goalkeeper situation, William's injury and mentality issues and the perspectives of those in charge all of which have so much to offer in terms of drama and entertainment and all holding the potential to be very interesting where instead we see only the views of fans and their relationship to the club which is fine but seems to be a back up as the filmmaker's failed to get what they set out to acheive which is footage from inside the club. You get a slight grasp of the community feel to Sunderland but it's put across in a disjointed, fragmented manner where there's no clear line through which connects people. The odd cameo appearance from famous faces such as Jordan Pickford (former goalkeeper) and the likes of Jim White (TV Host) as Talking heads are a let down, offering no real insight and the latter popping up for expositional purposes only which seems unnecessary given the desired audience of football fans. As for the cast, the average Sunderland resident has more to offer than any of the staff or the majority of the players and our viewfinder Martin Bain feels like Mark Strong in method acting practice for some kind of Batman/Bruce Wayne dual role, constantly over serious, dramatic yet ultimately shallow. The end is quite positive although feels very, very strange given that it oddly feels like bait for a second season yet could also be a perfectly concise ending. Perhaps naively this was released too early and possibly should still be in production covering the recovery step which has been the 2018/19 season Sunderland AFC are currently enduring down in League One before a final release where a full cohesive and impactful story could've been portrayed. On the whole this Netflix original tried to redefine the sports documentary and failed, possibly due to certain circumstances, however if you truly are after some kind of insightful or interesting series in the world of football there's always 'First Team: Juventus' in the platform which has an objectively higher quality and offers a unique look into the top echelon of Football Clubs
Review of Sunderland 'Til I Die
