The Offseason S1: E1 and E2
Hop in we're watching the new hot show in town
I do not watch a lot of reality shows.
I may in fact never watch reality shows. Whenever I am watching something, I tend to gravitate towards funny tv shows or dramatic movies and becoming swept up in the tireless drama of reality shows has never had that strong of a pull on me.
Or I thought so, until I realised that I watch a lot of men’s football. So scratch that - yup, I do in fact watch reality shows sometimes.
Well, now they have put eleven women’s football players in one house and promise a lot of funny, queer, dramatic, football stories and drama. Now I’m hooked !!
This preamble is to ensure that I have warned you that I might de facto be a terrible watch-alonger due to my inexperience with structured reality tv. Or I might be great -possibly somewhere in between there.
The Offseason is a new show sitting at the intersection somewhere between sports documentary and reality tv show. Midge Purce, who last season won the NWSL Championship with Gotham FC, is the creator and executive producer of the show and has invited ten other footballers, from teams across the league, to join her at this massive house as they’re working through the offseason leading up to their preseason.
The six-episode show releases a new 30 minute episode every Friday on X, with the first episode airing on 18 October.
The show was early with building up the hype, as they created all the social channels and started posting about the venture months ago. Spearheaded by Purce, it is clear that the production and marketing team is fluent in social media, creating an online presence and community around the show early on through clear branding and language.
The production company behind the show is Box To Box Films (Drive to Survive, Break Point, Full Swing) and 32 Flavors (Vanderpump Rules, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and it is funded by Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. Ohanian is also an executive producer alongside Purce.
“This series is just the first step of a much broader strategy to reform the way women’s sports is marketed, consumed and experienced by not only fans, but also the athletes themselves,” Purce said.
I had no idea what to really expect. The trailer was the sort of thing that I was expecting of an American production and I loved it, but was it going to be able to go deeper or would it be a lot of tennis commentary back and forth, forced tears and central nervous system-wrecking level drama?
First off, let me just say that the tears were coming from me and they were very much REAL thank you.
I curled up on my sofa under a blanket and blasted through the first two episodes on a roller coaster of feelings.
Episode one
I feel like the first episode, as is usually the case, has to carry the load of introducing the characters and setting the tone. Allowing space for things to settle in a little bit. I don’t want to see any manufactured drama (this is clearly where I’m exposing my inexperience with reality shows) or things blown out of proportion, just because I think that even today, in 2024, living as a pro women’s footballer is dramatic enough!! Reading any news headline from the last few months can confirm, the NWSL is RIFE with drama.
So far it feels like the show has been good at drawing on the natural drama and allowing tensions to build slowly. Not too much interpersonal drama (yet) which can sometimes feel contrived, but you can tell that there’s potential. Like LaBonta and Paige Nielsen, the veterans in the group, talking about the huge discrepancies between their generation and the younger players coming into the league now, in terms of perception, expectations, and entitlement, as well as pay.
I love players and people in the game taking control of their own narratives and putting their stories out there when mainstream media does not want to listen or is too lazy to do the minimal amount of research and work required to uncover them. Like Lo’eau LaBonta’s story, giving up an engineering degree for a four-figure salary despite being, possibly one of the best players in the entire league. Or Maria Sanchez’ (conversely, at the time the highest paid player in the league) story in the second episode, which obviously got the waterworks going.
The most hilarious moment from the first episode was definitely LaBonta declaring that she did not have an agent with the words “I just raw dog it”.
Also such a bombshell dropped by Purce right at the end! That’s what’s funny about watching a show recorded in January as we know, or can find out, what happened after those comments were made.
Episode two
In the second episode we got to see even more of the different player’s personalities and their background stories. They give more insight to the inner workings of life as a pro athlete and the decisions that the players have to make, as well as some injury updates.
The most emotional part was when Sanchez told her story about her parents, very very touching. And when Ifeoma “Ify” Onumonu was opening up about her thoughts about moving teams and going to Utah.
I love Michelle Alozie and I love to be allowed in to see more of the dynamics in the relationships between the players.
Then they cut to Sanchez first arriving at the house, greeted by Alozie and Nikki Stanton who ask her to do something for a TikTok video. Sanchez’ confused look is so relatable 😭
The girls laugh really hard and Sanchez just chuckles, still confused. I have honestly never related more to anything.
Then she concludes that she decided to do it in the name of football. This is such love of the craft from the, at the time, highest-paid player in the league who could definitely facilitate her own personal training set-up. But she recognises that the environment full of other pro footballers would be more beneficial and although not a self-proclaimed girls girl, she just wants to hang out with them!!
This sentiment from Kelli Hubly (which was backed up by several players) gave me a real existential moment. The insight that a lot of the time it is the people closest to you that will have to put up the most shit from you, whether that’s a bad tackle on the pitch or a shitty moment during the day. Why are we like this? (Probably because we feel safe with them?)
Goosebumps!
As I’m watching this I’m noticing how thirsty I am for women’s footballer stories. Is the format my favourite? Not really, it’s not something that comes natural to me (or being a girls girl but all I want is access to that inner circle). However, I will be SAT watching a bunch of women’s footballers in a house together working out and chatting shit.
New episode out on Friday!