This documentary series chronicles the rise of the Chicago Bulls franchise in the 1990’s. Led by Michael Jordan, the team reaches new heights and greatness.
Director: Jason Hehir
Cast: Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippin, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, various sportscasters and NBA players
TV Rating: TV-MA for language
Fun Fact: The house used for filming the scenes with Michael Jordan is not Jordan’s house. Due to privacy reasons the producers decided to film in a different house that would fit Jordan’s style and taste.
The 1990’s saw the rise of the NBA to new heights that had never been seen before. I was obsessed with basketball growing up as I was a die-hard Seattle Supersonics fan. My soul was crushed when the Sonics lost to the Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals and I still will tell my Dad that at least he got to see the Sonics win a championship. Anyways that a totally different topic that if you really want to know about just message me and I will give you my Sonics rant. Getting back on topic, the Bulls led by Michael Jordan were dominate and their rise was nothing but legendary. Michael Jordan is considered the greatest to ever play basketball and his determination really shows on the court.
The Last Dance is a ten-part documentary series with the main focus on the 1997-1998 season. This is the last season that those Bulls teams played together. The Bulls had won five championships in seven years at that point and there was some tension between the players and the front office. While this team was nearly unstoppable, the front office felt like they needed to focus on a youth movement and rebuild the team with younger players. An interesting thing is that ever since then the Bulls have not made it to the NBA Finals. This documentary bounces back and forth of when Michael Jordan entered the league to that final season. There is a ton of info that brings it together and while it might be hard for some to keep up with, the information all comes together at the end. What makes this series shine is the amount of people that are featured through the series.
For any documentary or series, you need key people for interviews. We get this with The Last Dance as many of the people interviewed were responsible for the success of the team. Michael Jordan is the main focus of the series and if you are someone that does not know much about his career you are going to be satisfied. The series chronicles his time in college to his time in basketball and baseball. We get the real deal with what he has to say and how he feels about everything. One of favorite players of all time is Scottie Pippin and we get to see his story along with Dennis Rodman. It is interesting to see where these players had come from and how they got to superstardom. Pippin’s story is the most interesting as there was quite a bit of information that I did not know about him like his contract. Rodman is an interesting and controversial subject and it was nice getting his thoughts out about his basketball career from him. It was also great to see coach Phil Jackson give his take and how he had to handle everything leading the team to the championships.
Overall, The Last Dance is an informative documentary that I highly recommend that you see. If you’re a basketball fan you will relive the nostalgia of the 1990’s and the Chicago Bulls run at top. If you do not really know much about basketball, then you will definitely learn something new. We get in depth interviews from key people and their views about their time in the NBA. It is one of the better documentary series that I have seen in quite a while and as for the TV-MA rating, I do not see why it was needed. The language is edited when airing on TV, so I do not see why that type of rating is justified. Even if you do not like sports, I think you will get something out of it.
I will leave this review with another fun personal fact about me. I bet my Dad that the Utah Jazz were going to beat the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 finals. I was nine and I thought I knew more than my Dad did. The bet was ice cream. When Utah took game one, I trash talked all week about it. Eventually Chicago won and I did not get my ice cream as I should have listened to my Dad when he told me Utah might be a good team, they don’t have Michael Jordan on their team.
Verdict: Hit
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