Konnichiwa, Tokyo! With Olympic fever in the air and stunning feats of athleticism on our minds, there’s no better time to check out the sports stories at the top of the podium. From basketball to baking, Formula One racing to Rubik’s cubing, Queue’s staff present this list of series and documentaries that stick the landing, hold the torch, and take home the gold — all available to watch from the comfort of your couch. Let the games begin! *
Michael Jordan
It’s easily one of the most stunning sports documentaries ever made, about one of the most exceptional teams ever to play the game of basketball. The Last Dance chronicles Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls as they attempt to win their sixth N.B.A. title in eight seasons. At the same time, it offers an in-depth portrait of Jordan himself, tracing his career from the time he was an emerging high school superstar in North Carolina to his coronation as an internationally admired icon. Featuring candid footage captured throughout the 1997–1998 season and one-on-one interviews with teammates including Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Steve Kerr, as well as then-Bulls coach Phil Jackson and a host of other athletic luminaries (and at least two former presidents), the 10-part series is a fascinating watch for even the most casual sports fan. For anyone who closely followed the one-of-a-kind season, The Last Dance is the very definition of must-see TV.
Feliks Zemdegs
While most people take more than three hours to solve a Rubik’s Cube, speed cubers work in less than seven seconds. You can’t look away as Max Park and Feliks Zemdegs break competitive “cubing” record after record, but it’s the heartwarming story of friendship that prevails in The Speed Cubers. After years of holding every cubing title that exists, Australian champion Feliks meets his match in Max, an American cuber who has autism. Their relationship is symbiotic, supportive, and uplifting; the montage at the beginning of the 40-minute documentary proves they are rivals, but no matter the results, they always help each other grow. Although cubing is a solitary sport, The Speed Cubers illustrates the importance of camaraderie and teamwork.
Alex Albon
As someone who doesn’t have a driver’s license, watching Jerry Seinfeld drive around with John Mulaney in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee seems like a sport to me, so watching Formula 1: Drive to Survive is like watching the most extreme sport I can handle being a part of, from the safety of my living room. These drivers are true athletes. There is so much at stake in F1 races — trophies, money, and lives. Following the drivers and managers in the internationally beloved car-racing league, this series leaves my adrenaline pumping as much as the drivers’ brakes are when their cars collide with walls. Ladies and gentlemen, start your binging.
Maryland School for the Deaf’s football team
Documentary short Audible drops viewers into the life of high school football player Amaree, a 17-year-old living in Frederick, Maryland. One of the top players on his highly competitive team, he’s got bleached hair, and he’s completely deaf. He and his girlfriend are still defining their relationship, which they talk over during an ice cream date. He’s also struggling with the death of his best friend who committed suicide after being bullied becuase of his sexual orientation. There’s a lot about Amaree that’s arguably unique. But the openness with which he discusses his emotions, and the respect the filmmakers afford their subject, make Audible one of the most relatable and universal films I’ve seen in years.
East Los Angeles College Huskies
In the opening minutes of Last Chance U: Basketball, Coach John Mosley says, “Basketball builds character? Not necessarily. Basketball reveals.” That ethos is carried throughout the docuseries, which, like its predecessor Last Chance U, follows a team of passionate and hungry junior college players who, despite their extreme talent, were unable to make it on a Division 1 team. The holy grail at the end of their make-or-break season is a state championship where players might be noticed by the powers at be. The filmmakers are right there for every victory, loss, and the intimate moments in between. Every player on the East Los Angeles College team could carry their own series, but the real star is Coach Mosley, who insists on sweeping the floors of the court before each game to ensure the best performance from his team.
Jordan Bentley
What happens when a favorite childhood pastime is combined with American Gladiators and escape rooms? The Floor is Lava happens. Take an all-too-real dive back into a classic childhood sport where an imagined floor of gurgling lava takes the form of 80,000 gallons of hot, bright, red goop.. In each episode you tag along with three teams of three lava jumpers across varying magma-teeming rooms. Each room has a different theme — the basement, the bedroom, outer space — and each comes with its own unique set of slippery surfaces, narrow ledges, and occasionally spinning obstacles. All the while, commentator Rutledge Wood hilariously homes in on the spills and thrills of the contestants.
Bryan Fogel
Oh, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. What started out with a cute but awkward rendition of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” by the Russian Police Choir ended in scandal for host Mother Russia, accused of state-sponsored doping. Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus begins as an attempt to recreate cyclist Lance Armstrong’s doping regimen and takes a hard turn toward international scandal. “We are top-level cheaters,” says whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov — former head of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory and a huge fan of Skyping shirtless — of the state-sponsored doping program that led to Russia’s partial bans from the 2016 and 2018 Olympics. Icarus shows you how one country beat the World Anti-Doping Agency’s drug testing system to take home a record 33 medals — that is, until their luck ran out.
The TBDs
Drama, young love, and dance battles — all things that make Work It werk. Quinn Ackerman, played by Sabrina Carpenter, hopes to become a college-applicant standout by auditioning for her school dance team, but when she doesn’t make it, she decides to create her own squad. Quinn may be book smart, but reading doesn’t even begin to prepare her for the strength, coordination, flexibility, rhythm, and grace that it takes to be a dancer. As if the everyday trials of high school and college applications weren’t difficult enough, Quinn has to learn dance, which the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) just named as the most physically demanding job. Work It is full of emotional solos, romantic duets, and vibrant group performances that end in a head-to-head dance-off. Whose hard work will pay off? And five, six, seven, eight — *presses play*
Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) and Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood)
So many classic films centered around the world of boxing come to mind: Rocky, The Fighter, What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali and, then, of course, there’s Million Dollar Baby. A heartbreaking story of waitress turned world-class fighter Maggie Fitzgerald, the Missouri-set drama sees Fitzgerald, played by Hilary Swank, rise through the ranks with the help of Clint Eastwood’s grizzled trainer, Frankie Dunn. But when she fights a dirty opponent at the peak of her career, Fitzgerald is left in devastating circumstances. Only then does she find out who is truly in her corner. The 2005 film was crowned the heavyweight champ at the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Actress for Swank, Best Director for Eastwood, and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman.
Melanie Barnett (Tia Mowry) and Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall)
Before Basketball Wives, there was The Game. A spin-off of Girlfriends, The Game dramatizes the wins and woes of Black professional athletes through the lens of their significant others. 90s sitcom royalty, Tia Mowry, is all grown up — and without her Sister, Sister twin, Tamera Mowry — as she shines in the role of Melanie Barnett, a medical student who struggles to support her footballer boyfriend’s larger-than-life career. Melanie soon learns that being a pro-athlete’s leading lady isn’t as easy as she anticipated. Between coordinating social events, strategizing mental warfare with potential sidechicks, and, ya know, earning a white coat, Melanie’s schedule quickly fills up.
Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Emily Sonnett, Jill Ellis, Casey Krueger, and Lynn Williams
One of the reasons I love sports so much is, as the saying goes, On any given Sunday, anything can happen. An athlete, a team, a hero, or a zero is made in a split second. And whether it’s a seven-set tennis match in sweltering heat, a basket swoosh at the buzzer, or a stuck landing on a four-inch beam, behind all, there is the coach — someone that can take you into the zone. In words and deeds, a coach can turn a bad first half into a glorious second half and can make the difference between winning and losing. The coach is at the center of some of my favorite sports films: Gene Hackman in Hoosiers, Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own, Kurt Russell in Miracle (all films based on real life events). Despite their personal flaws, ultimately these coaches knew exactly what to say when that moment arose. And even if you’re not a sports fan, The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life lays all that passion, perspective, and motivation out there (if just to get off the couch for a snack).
Just try to knead some bread dough well enough to pass the windowpane test before you argue that baking is not a sport. The Great British Baking Show is the Olympics of amateur baking, if the Olympics only accepted British athletes who trained after they got home from their day jobs. The practice, the precision, and the sweat that goes into every bake on GBBS should earn the bakers not just “star baker” titles but “star athlete” titles, too. Did you see the sweat towels last season? We rest our case.
*Queue’s Queue: Sports Edition watchlist is based on titles available in most regions as of July 16, 2021.