Television series
All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs
All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs is a fly-on-the-wall documentary that embeds you in the locker room, coaching staff, and front office during a pivotal NHL season. It's intimate, tactical, and honest about how professional sports organizations actually function. Perfect for hockey fans, sports documentarians, and anyone curious about what winning (or almost winning) looks like up close.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy behind-the-scenes access to a team's locker room and front office, watching ordinary tensions and private pep talks unfold with the cameras always close.
Skip it if the hockey sits behind the people, so if you want game tactics or a real sense of how the sport works, this will feel thin.
What it asks of you: Five episodes of roughly forty-seven minutes each, paced at the unhurried rhythm of a season, so you need patience for long stretches of waiting between big moments.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Last Dance2020
Captures Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls through the same access-all-areas lens. You see genius, ego, excellence, and the toll of chasing legacy in real time.
But Some find the format repetitive, and if you don't care about Jordan or basketball, the star power won't save you.
Formula 1: Drive to Survive2019
Netflix's Formula 1 series has the same DNA: elite athletes, impossible pressure, million-dollar stakes, and personalities clashing at maximum velocity. Utterly addictive.
But It occasionally manufactures drama where there isn't any, and F1 newcomers can feel lost in the jargon.
Senna2010
A three-part documentary about racing's greatest competitor: brilliant, ruthless, and self-destructive. Uses archival footage and interviews to build a portrait of obsession at its purest.
But It's meditative and slow where you might expect thrills. Also, it ends in tragedy, which casts a shadow.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Ice Storm1997
Both examine pressure cookers where people are trapped together and emotions calcify under the weight of expectation. One uses hockey, one uses weather; both are about how structure and circumstance break people.
Ang Lee's film uses a suburban ice storm in 1970s Connecticut as the backdrop for family collapse and moral ambiguity. Like All or Nothing, it finds drama in the spaces between people who are bound to each other but failing to connect.
But It's glacially paced and deeply bleak. There are no heroes and no redemption—just accumulating damage.
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The Two Escobars2010
A 90-minute ESPN documentary about soccer, Colombia, and a player caught between two worlds. Combines sports storytelling with real human stakes and geopolitical context.
But It's more about crime and politics than the beautiful game. If you want pure soccer, look elsewhere.
Hoop Dreams1994
A landmark documentary following two basketball prospects from childhood to college. It's a portrait of ambition, race, class, and the machinery that grinds up young athletes.
But It's three and a half hours, sometimes slow, and will depress you about systemic inequality. Not a feel-good sports movie.
Pumping Iron1977
Arnold Schwarzenegger at his most charismatic, preparing for the Mr. Olympia competition. It's about vanity, drive, and bodies pushed beyond reason—part sports doc, part character study.
But The bodybuilding aesthetic won't appeal to everyone, and it's dated in ways that can feel awkward now.
O.J.: Made in America2016
A five-part epic about football, fame, race, and justice. It's a masterclass in documentary filmmaking and uses sports as the entry point to something far larger.
But It's intense and heavy. Also requires significant time commitment, and disturbing content around domestic violence.
The Toys That Made Us2017
Each episode is a bite-sized, beautifully produced history of a cultural phenomenon. Nostalgic, smart, and genuinely entertaining even if you don't have personal nostalgia for the toy.
But It's shallow by design. If you want deep analysis or criticism, it's not here—just celebration.
Tickled2016
Starts as a documentary about competitive tickling and becomes a rabbit hole into obsession, weirdness, and the dark side of niche communities. Genuinely unpredictable.
But It's strange and increasingly uncomfortable. Some viewers find it exploitative, and the subject matter is genuinely bizarre.
