I recently watched the very popular and highly-rated series on Netflix, All American. It stars a poor, yet amazingly talented football player, Spencer James, played by Daniel Ezra, who transfers from an inner-city high school in Crenshaw to a prestigious “rich kid” school, called Beverly High. The cast includes many attractive actors and actresses, which is never a bad thing. 

As the novice student in school, Spencer struggles to make friends at first, yet forms himself into the most respectful and respected kid in Beverly Hills. As Spencer develops into the ‘All American’ football player he strives to be, he struggles with father abandonment, friend betrayal, and death among his people back in Crenshaw. 

Some of the other characters, such as Spencer’s lesbian best friend Coop, played by Bre-Z, constantly gets herself in trouble with the inner-city gangs, which leaves suspense and worry throughout the remaining characters in the show. A fan-girl favorite and team QB, Jordan Baker, played by Michael Evans Behling, goes through a teenage pregnancy scare with his one-night stand, and his twin sister Olivia battles with coming out of rehab. Just to mention a few of the many issues among their family.

As a fellow high school student myself, I felt I could relate to the characters in the struggle to find themselves and also belong among their peers. The only negative I have to say about this series is that there were only two seasons available to watch. As soon as I finished the last episode of the second season, I craved more.

My overall review of All American is very positive, and I would recommend this series to any person who has an interest in football, teamwork, team growth, as well as family problems, friendship struggle, romance, and identity. This series includes a lot of drama—which is expected for high schoolers—where every episode ends in a nail-biter.