Netflix Smashes Break Point!

Is the golf one doing better? The guys who golf are probably not more interesting than tennis players.

Is ther anyone who watched and liked the F1 series? What did you like about it that was missing in the tennis version?
 
I for one, think that concept/type of media would be MUCH better executed if produced by the ATP. Yeah, I understand you want some separation between entities for something influential powerful (or has potential to be within the sport), but the ATP media team has been stepping up their game year and year. And who’s to say it has to be a Drive to Survive type show. DTS is a s***-stirring drama faked product anyway. I would much rather see a legit docuwindow into life on tour, hell even off it. I’d even love post-season content. Give a real voice to the players instead of pre-ordained drama stoking questions. Local broadcasters do this often for NBA teams; for example I’m a heat fan and Miami consistently put out great media of this type. They could have more continuous season long storylines as well. AND they could stream it exclusively on their tennistv platform, vertical integration style. Loads of subscriptions would be justified then. Slam dunk
 
I got through around 1.5 episodes of season 1. I thought it terrible. It wasn’t really about tennis. It’s as if they thought tennis itself was too boring. And the way they shot the small segments of matches was awful. They tried to make the show about certain select tennis “personalities.” I like tennis but I couldn’t care less about who Bery is dating or any of Nick’s off-court BS. I got no sense of what it is like being on tour or playing a bigly match. It deserved to be cancelled.




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jl809 said:
Gill gross called it. The problem is that Fritz, Ruud, Rune and co are boring as **** and aren’t actually that good at tennis, so no-one cares. One episode of any Big 3 member would draw 10x the viewers
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I would like to spend time with Egg, for example, a visit to the partially Egg owned entity developing new Covid treatments or visiting the magical pyramids. Maybe learn more about subsisting on a diet of alfalfa sprouts, water and sunshine. That would be entertaining.
 
InsuranceMan said:
Interesting theory. As an intellectual, what do you like to watch? What do you fancy basically? Big bang theory? Rick and Morty?
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Beavis and Butthead.
Ted
Spitting image ( young people wont know about this so worth a google if they like current affairs and political debate)
I.e productions that deal with topical issues of the day.
 
One issue is what is effectively a recap of results tennis fans already know with some heavily sanitized "behind the scenes/personal life" is not really that exciting for tennis fans and the personal life is too sanitized for non tennis fans who want a reality show with hot athletes which is perhaps only partly about the sport bc these are millionaires who wont give access to that kind of thing at the behest of the slams/tours giving them access for good coverage - so its kinda a recipe for bad TV imo... especially for a sport like tennis which is already dwindling in popularity to an extent
 
Humphrey20133 said:
Tennis players are some of the most boring pro athletes on earth. Why they ever thought this sport would be interesting enough to make a series out of is beyond me. It's the most vanilla sport there is.
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Sorry for saying this but what I see is that people are getting shallow. It's unfortunate that their superficial interests are catered to for profits.
 
If it were done in true documentary style and followed the behind-the-scenes details of the elite players, it could be interesting. Focusing on MUGS like Kyrgios who have accomplished little to nothing compared with their peers just because he's controversial is a big mistake. I'm interested in seeing what makes the best tick.

In contrast (and I know this sounds contradictory to what I just said), another approach that might be even more fascinating would be to expose the daily grind and drudgery of Challenger-level players desperately trying to establish themselves on the main tour with the constant financial struggle that it entails. Those guys really have it tough.
 
zvelf said:
The failure of the show is not due to the players featured but the direction, editing, and general execution, which was awful. The match “highlights” were incoherent and the art and beauty of tennis and its athleticism were entirely missing.
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The art and beauty of tennis retired. :( Seriously though, your review nailed it.
 
Back in the day there were 3 networks, abc, nbc, and cbs producing their own programs, plus the movies. Today there is an infinite variety of outlets scrambling for content to draw in the jaded masses. Netflix, hulu, prime, HBO, showtime, cable, you tube, podcasts, etc, etc, etc.

Once you get past wrestling, the Kardashians, and other bottom of the barrel presentations, there isn't much of interest left to try. Off-court tennis stories? Not likely. Most people aren't even interested in watching the sport itself.
 
I watched about half of an episode and quit. It just felt completely passionless as far as the tennis was concerned. I’d be surprised if many of the people working on it were fans of the game
 
socallefty said:
Is the golf one doing better? The guys who golf are probably not more interesting than tennis players.

Is ther anyone who watched and liked the F1 series? What did you like about it that was missing in the tennis version?
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According to Netflix at their data release at the end of last year, Full Swing got about 50m hours viewed and Break Point 30m so a huge difference (the F1 one, Drive to Survive, is about 90m and high in the top 10).

As a casual F1 viewer I like Drive to Survive. It’s a scripted reality tv show, but you still get a rough sense of how the season went and the context they’re acting in - they don’t cover everything obviously, but they at least mention the big stuff. I tried to like Break Point but you got no sense of how the season went or anything bigger than the players they were covering, and no surprise they sucked at showing the actual tennis
 
Who could possibly be surprised? When Nick Freaking Kyrgios is supposed to be a big highlight of your TV show, you know it is doomed for utter failure. And LOL at Nick thinking he helped put Tennis on the map with 'Break Point,' when its failure is merely the latest punchline in the descent of tennis from mainstream sport to niche interest.
 
socallefty said:
Is the golf one doing better? The guys who golf are probably not more interesting than tennis players.

Is ther anyone who watched and liked the F1 series? What did you like about it that was missing in the tennis version?
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Haven't watched the Tennis or Golf ones and judging by the reviews here and elsewhere I'm not planning on doing so either.

IMO DTS (the F1 one) had a few things going for it in the beginning. The first season - at least in parts - came across as a true peek behind the scenes with footage and stories not readily available to fans of the sport before. IMO though, already in the second season the exaggerations of many details (such as engine noises heavily edited or entirely made up to sound like older engines), a scrambled timeline (with clips portrayed as part of a certain situation or race when they were from an entirely different part of the season) together with the obvious narrative of making almost all situations appear to be far more than they actually were, it became hard to watch for anyone who follows F1 fairly closely. No doubt it was a key part of growing the fan base of F1, and will probably still serve as a sort of introduction to the sport for someone interested but not familiar with it. Beware though that it's a heavily exaggerated one with clear narratives and almost caricature-like depictions in parts.
 
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I watched a little bit of season 2 and several times I noticed Nadal’s unmistakable grunt piped in over the top of some footage of Fritz or Tiafoe hitting a serve. That was very revealing. Just not a good show tbh, insipid and shallow. Drive to survive had in built drama because of the nature of F1, applying the same formula to tennis felt entirely forced.
 
What Tennis needs is more self promotion from the athletes, Tsitsipas' YouTube channel when it was active was a great and interesting look at life on the tour. Unfortunately for tennis the players aren't interested and they're not capable of promoting the sport themselves.
 
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