On Aug. 1, the “Untold” series on Netflix released four new installments for its third season. The new episodes of this increasingly popular sports docuseries covers well-known and extremely controversial sports figures, teams and scandals, that have all been staples of sports discourse at some point since the start of the 21st century.
“Untold” has a firm commitment to the mission of “going well beyond the headlines and upending what we thought we knew” for the sports stories that they cover. They use this mission statement to bolster their image as a reputable and well-intentioned producer of sports media to consumers of their content.
The growing popularity of sports docuseries, like “Untold,” comes as part of a concerted effort by sports media producers to ride the wave of crime docuseries that television audiences find irresistible. Additionally, sporting event broadcasts are currently the most widely viewed television content, according to 2022 statistics from Axios. Sports docuseries allow filmmakers an opportunity to tap into this extremely large and lucrative market.
Despite its name, “Untold” has received pushback from a wide range of journalists for doing little more than replicating common knowledge of already well-documented sports events and failing to explore fairly obvious questions that arise as their episodes unfold.
“More than most seasons of ‘Untold,’ it feels like a few punches are pulled this year with some natural follow-up questions ignored and some potential analysis saved for another documentarian,” said Brian Tallerico, film reviewer for the Roger Ebert website.Tallerico said.
This season only partially covers four massive events in the sports world. The first episode, titled “Jake Paul the Problem Child,” tells the story of YouTube’s polarizing personality Jake Paul, who became a championship boxer as the result of the pulpit he gained from his large following. The second episode, titled “Johnny Football,” informs the audience about Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel, a former Heisman Trophy winner turned NFL flameout.
The penultimate episode, “Hall of Shame,” documents the uncovering of illegal efforts by the BALCO laboratory to supply professional athletes, including Barry Bonds and Bill Romanowski, with banned substances, such as HGH and anabolic steroids, to enhance their performance in their respective sports. The final installment, “Swamp Kings,” informs the audience about the Urban Meyer coached Florida Gators, who won BCS National titles in 2006 and 2008 with Tim Tebow at QB.
“There’s an ‘untold’ story to be found in each of these documentaries, but the directors aren’t interested in telling it,” said Claire Lustig, a journalist for Primetimer.
The aforementioned untold story is the very credible claims of assault that Paul and Manziel have against them, which the documentary does disappointingly little to get to the bottom of.
In April 2021, TikTok star Justine Paradise accused Paul of forcing her to perform oral s*x on him. This claim was followed by one of similar nature from actress Riley Lollie, who said she was groped by Paul when the two filmed a video together in 2017.
The episode makes it easy for Paul to casually brush off these allegations by presenting them alongside the many dumb pranks and disputes that he has previously been involved in as a YouTuber. Doing so allowed Paul to avoid answering specific questions and make an overly general claim that these allegations are just another part of a coordinated effort by the media to tarnish his name.
Manziel stands accused of domestic violence. The accusation stems from two incidents that occurred with his ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley. In October 2015, he and Crowley were pulled over during an argument that took place while Manziel was driving on the interstate.
In 2016, Crowley accused him of dragging her into a car and striking her, an incident that damaged her left ear so injured that she could not hear out of it for days. Just last week, Manziel was indicted in Highland Park, Texas, on charges in relation to this incident.
When asked about this incident on “Untold,” Manziel began to respond, but he abruptly trailed off and was not asked to further speak on the matter.
“Throughout that relationship, I was unfaithful, and, you know, we [ he and Crowley] got into a heated, heated argument,” Manziel said. “She’s trying to jump out of the car, and, um … ”
That is where it ends. The scene then shifts to Manziel’s parents speaking about his past and current struggles with substance abuse and mental health. Just like in many other episodes of “Untold,” the questions that would add the real — and oftentimes ugly — truth to our understanding of these sports stories fail to be asked.
Not only does this failure to press interviewees on the hard questions omit important details from these stories, but it represents a failure of this series to adhere to their mission to provide the entire truth.
This failure continues in the final episode, “Swamp Kings,” where an overly charming and glossy portrayal of the Urban Meyer-led Florida Gators football team is provided to viewers. The coverage of the many negative elements of this team is quite minimal.
There is barely even a mention of – and no new information on – Aaron Hernandez, the convicted murderer who was allegedly involved in a fatal shooting in 2007 with three other teammates, and almost faced a felony battery charge due to a fight that occurred in a restaurant in Gainesville, Florida.
“I’m not saying that a quarter of ‘Swamp Kings’ needed to talk about arrests and other misconduct, but spending more time discussing the negative elements surrounding the team could have helped balance the feature more,” said Joe Lucia, a sports journalist, in an article titled “Untold: Swamp Kings Barely Scratches the Surface of Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators.”
Unless “Untold” begins to ask the tough questions, and step on toes with its questioning, as a typical professional docuseries would, this series will continue to do little more than reiterate what is already known while simultaneously concealing of the ugly truth of these stories. Until changes to the methodology are made, it will remain unable to effectively portray the entire story.
