Cheer series 2 AAARRRGH!!

[NatashaBedwouldbenice]

It's back. Starts with a great recap of the fame and fallout of series 1's success.

@GingerAndTheBiscuits I wondered that myself about Dee and Angel - why didn't they go into gymnastics

I guess La'Darius is talking about Kailee there. It's hard to tell exactly what happened there but they definitely didn't get along. Not sure if it's his fault, her fault or a bit of both.

I also really liked Jada. Angel and Dee are both amazing! Dee's final smile was definitely one of my favorite moments.

This season felt a bit like Bring It On, with TVCC having to get the coach for 10 hours while Navarro flew and had the 100,000 dollar stage built to practice on for a week. But, of course it's a heavily-edited reality show, so I take everything with a pinch of salt.

I wonder if they will renew for Season 3!!

I watched the 2 final routines on YouTube and they are both amazing. I can see the point that the difference between 1st and 2nd place is really tiny.

I looked for the mistake that they made a big deal about and it's really hard to notice. In fact, I still can't see it!

Kudos to all of them for doing amazing though!

TVCC:

Navarro:

Ohh, thanks for the videos! You're right, the mistake is very hard to spot. I think it's the one at the 2:30 mark. Gill is the girl on the left.

But the TVCC routine has higher difficulty.

@XelaM thanks. I will come back when I have watched it!

Yes, thanks for the videos!

I wonder if there can/will be a third series. I think they should pivot to a series about the really young classes.

I want to know more about the academics.
I know that's not what it's about but even a little bit so we know how much time goes into it, and if any of them use their qualifications afterwards.

Navarro Routine:

On the video it's at 0:50 the very left.

@ISpyCobraKai

I want to know more about the academics. I know that's not what it's about but even a little bit so we know how much time goes into it, and if any of them use their qualifications afterwards.

In season 1 the cameras went into 1 lecture about the Texan political system. And they sometimes studied in the library. Wasn't there a test which Gabbi had to pass but she'd not been to any lectures as she'd been off else where doing cheerleading stuff

@Joinedforthis2021 You're right! That's the moment I meant. I just gave the wrong timestamp for some reason

Yes, I'm sure Jerry actually passed the academic bit too.

I'm only on Episode 2 of season 2 but i couldn't help myself and skipped straight to Episode 5 after Episode 1. Absolutely horrific.

I cannot bare Monica, I think she's awful. How she managed to make the revaluations about Jerry all about her rather than his victims was really quite something. I was infuriated last season by how she behaved towards La'darius. It will be interesting to see how their relationship is this season.

American college sports programmes are so intriguing to me. I highly recommend Last Chance U Basketball on Netflix. There's a football one too but the basketball one was phenomenal in my opinion. The head coach is a completely different character to Monica, you can genuinely see how much he cares. I loved it.

Just finishing up - really want TVCC to win, their atmosphere is way better than Navarro! But am confused why they’re suddenly referring to themselves as CCFC or something? I must have missed something.

[quote XelaM]@GingerAndTheBiscuits I wondered that myself about Dee and Angel - why didn't they go into gymnastics[/quote]
Tumbling is only a very small part of gymnastics - Women's Artistic Gymnastics has 4 apparatus, Men's Artistic Gymnastics has 6 apparatus, so they might not have been interested in pursuing it.

Gymnastics is an individual sport - there is a team event, but you still compete alone, the scores are added together - so it doesn't have the same community and camaraderie as cheerleading.

Not sure how it compares to cheerleading as I know that is pricy, but gymnastics is a very expensive sport, just not accessible for everyone, especially when training to be elite level.

More so for women, but gymnastics highly competitive in the USA, getting to elite level is exceptionally hard, the vast majority of the women you see on the Olympic USA team have been homeschooled since the age of 12 so they can fit in more hours at the gym.

One of the major benefits of artistic gymnastics above cheerleading for young people is the NCAA eligibility, they can go to Stanford, UCLA, and other top universities on a sport scholarship, but this is only a benefit if you are interested in perusing higher education.

Also, and I think it is completely wrong, but I am willing to bet that if Angel had expressed a desire to be an artistic gymnast she would have been told her body was wrong for it. The sport is slowly changing, but there is still a pervasive narrative that to be a top female gymnast you must look like a very slim, prepubescent girl.

That all makes sense Summa, just a shame the athleticism isn’t so well recognised in Cheerc

@SummaLuvin Simone Biles is not skinny. It used to be that the tiny girls with pre-pubescent bodies win, but certainly Simone showed that's not necessary and in fact it's beneficial to be more muscular. None of the too female gymnasts are as tiny as the figure skating ladies for example (or the cheer flyers). And you can have apparatus-specialists in gymnastics, not necessarily to be an all-rounder. Although I get that gymnastics is insanely competitive in the US.

@WeDontTalkAboutBrunoNoNoNo I LOVED "Last Chance U" season 1 (football) with Brittany as their mentor. Completely different emphasis on the kids's futures after junior college than just on the win of the actual college. Junior College is just a means to an end to be noticed by a big uni

top*

@XelaM I'm well aware that to be a successful gymnast that you don't need to be super skinny, there are many many examples disproving that old rhetoric, and I think things are changing, but slowly. Women still currently competing have spoken about how they are frequently weighed or had their food restricted or told to lose weight if they put any on by the top people in their countries programme - sadly it's not a problem of the past yet. A lot of coaches seem to still be under the impression that to be successful you need to be small, that's why I think Angel would have been told not to bother with gymnastics, not because I personally don't think she could have done it.

@SummaLuvin Yes, totally get that. But going by Gabi and Morgan's conversations this season, I don't think cheer is any different in that respect. I also think Monica side-lined Brook because she was a different body shape to the skinny Navarro flyers.

@WeDontTalkAboutBrunoNoNoNo Completely agree about Monica's awful behaviour this season. She turned into a bloody monster/zombie (maybe as PP said the Botox didn't help as she can't move her face )

@WeDontTalkAboutBrunoNoNoNo totally agree about the basketball coach on last chance U.
He's phenomenal at coaching the individual as well as the team as a whole. And really cared about the future of each of his athletes.

Monica doesn't give a shit, whatever she proclaims about family. They're all items on a conveyer belt.

The only time I liked Monica this season is when the alternates were having a go at the team.
And Monica shut them down and told them to be supportive or leave.

Apparently, Angel is on the US gymnastics team. Here's an interesting article about her and her background a little.

www.marieclaire.com/amp/culture/who-is-angel-rice-cheer-netflix/

I mean she is on the US gymnastics power tumbling team but it's quite a different sport to what they do in the Olympics. But she's apparently very famous in the Cheer world and a world champion so I don't think TVCC actually we're really the underdogs Netflix portrayed them as.

Ohh interesting! Thank you. Will have a read. I'm completely guessing, but Angel probably only went to TVCC because the whole Jerry thing came out at Navarro and she knew she would get Netflix exposure at TVCC as well. TVCC were stronger on paper in terms of ability and difficulty but their problem in the past has been execution on the day.

I found season 2 very sad, not just because of the whole Jerry mess, but because Monica seemed to check out from the team to do DWTS. Guess she thought the fame/marketing opportunities was more important. It was funny how we weren’t told how she did though, so I’m guessing she didn’t win.

The new coach seemed far too inexperienced. Wonder why she was chosen? The producers were very careful to show us LaDarius coaching, underlining the point that he had the necessary skills and ability.

It wasn’t long before I started rooting for TVCC. Their coach seemed totally on the ball and was a lovely man to boot.

I think Monica shot herself in the foot.

Was cheer season 1 really popular? It passed me by completely. For a "celeb" to being DWTS after one season of a random Netflix show seems a bit weird somehow.

Watched episode 5 last night. Those boys were so brave to come forward. I find the attitude about it from Gabbi & Monica very strange. Maybe with Monica it could be that she says that she'll be there for the kids always.. and now someone actually does there's this like internal battle.