The latest Apple TV+ series, “Swagger,” is a reminder that quality television doesn’t always need a high concept or a clever hook. Character-driven drama will always have a place on the landscape when it’s done this well.
Co-produced by NBA superstar Kevin Durant and loosely based on his own life, this story of a young man navigating the minefield of youth athletics is confidently made and incredibly easy to like. The writing sometimes tends to underline its themes a bit too boldly but the ensemble and the rich characters that they’ve been given slowly overwhelm any criticisms with each subsequent episode. It’s just a remarkably likable show filled with people that are easy to root for and spend time with on a weekly basis. Sometimes that’s all a TV show needs to be. One wishes there were more like it.
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Created by Reggie Rock Bythewood (“Get on the Bus”), “Swagger” is a story of a basketball prodigy, a 14-year-old kid from Washington, D.C. who has been told he’s the next, well, Kevin Durant. Newcomer Isaiah Hill confidently plays Jace, the talented player who becomes a social phenomenon and the target of everyone who knows the potential that comes with linking yourself to a future superstar. Everyone wants a piece of Jace, often forgetting that he’s just a kid who’s dealing with everything that comes with athletic fame from criticism on social media to his own inconsistent self-confidence and performance.
Jace’s closest allies are his single mother Jenna (Shinelle Azoroh) and close friend Crystal (Quvenzhané Wallis, Oscar nominee for “Beasts of the Southern Wild”). One of the smartest things about the writing on “Swagger” is how much room it allows these two characters to become fully three-dimensional instead of merely devices for Jace’s arc. Azoroh never leans into the potential for stereotype in a single mom role, allowing Jenna to be supportive but also concerned and even playful. It’s a great performance. And Wallis is even better as she’s given a rich subplot about an abusive coach, and she finds ways to play trauma in a way that’s heartbreakingly real. One of the greatest strengths of “Swagger” is how much it avoids becoming just about Jace, turning into more of an ensemble drama than other creators would have allowed, detailing how the lives of people around young talents can be just as interesting.
In fact, Jace gets a co-lead in the wildly charismatic O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Ike “Icon” Edwards, someone who stumbled his own way down the road to basketball superstardom as a teen. Once pegged as the next great athlete, he’s got some serious skeletons in his closet, most of them related to the teammates who left him behind. He’s going to be the guy who coaches Jace not just about what to do on the court but how to survive everything off of it. He’s not making an athlete; he’s making a man. Jackson is a wonderfully present performer, always feeling like he’s responding to the emotion of a situation instead of overplaying themes.
Durant reportedly based a lot of “Swagger” on his own experience—although the emphasis on Twitter and Instagram is probably new. It adds a lived-in sense to the drama, a sense that the constant pushing and pulling of Jace is truthful and not manipulative. Watching “Swagger,” it’s amazing that anyone gets out of this high-pressure system wherein a 14-year-old can be torn down by rival coaches and mocked on social media for missing a free throw. How can any child be expected to live up to such pressure? It doesn’t feel coincidental that “Swagger” is coming along at a time when the mental health of athletes has become more of a headline. If we’re more willing to accept the strain of what expectations of perfection can do to adults, imagine what it does to a 14-year-old.
Clearly, “Swagger” can be a dark show, and it’s not just in Jace’s on-court pursuit of greatness. There’s Crystal’s horrifying abuse plotline, sensitively handled but never soft-pedaled, and there’s also just a shadow of danger lurking in the background right from the beginning, which opens with the words “Before ABC” on the screen: “Ahmaud, Breonna, COVID”. That’s the backdrop of stories like Jace’s in the 2020s. The world adds to the impossibility of arcs like these. How can a young Black man become a household name as an athlete when he’s harassed by police for taking out the trash (as Jace is in the pilot)? And yet “Swagger” is never miserable, largely because of the playfulness of performers like Jackson and Azoroh, and the well-crafted scenes between the kids. There’s a love for these characters that comes through in every episode, which can’t be undervalued. Bythewood and his team really like Jace, Ike, Crystal, Jenna, and almost everyone else, and that joyful empathy is contagious.
Like a lot of shows about young people, “Swagger” has a habit of repeating itself a few too many times to make sure the message lands, but it never succumbs to its sizable “After School Special” potential because of Bythewood’s emphasis on people over theme. The drama has a habit of sliding off into the lives of characters who would normally just be plot devices, whether it’s another coach who ends up financially supporting Jace and Ike played by Tessa Ferrer or a teammate who has a rough home life played by Solomon Irama. A show that truly could have been a one-man drama that laser focuses on a young talent becomes a surprisingly rich ensemble piece. After all, basketball is a team sport, and it takes a very large team to make a legend. [B]
“Swagger” is available now on Apple TV+.