It has been an utterly disastrous few years for Sunderland.
Earlier this year, Amazon released Manchester City: All or Nothing, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about how City won the 2018 Premier League title.
While it did give fans a look behind the scenes at workings of a top-flight football club (albeit a rather PR-controlled look), what it was mostly lacking was actual drama.
It chronicled a season where City strolled to the title largely unchallenged. They produced some wonderful football on the pitch, but in terms of tension and suspense, it was sorely lacking. One episode even ended on the ‘cliffhanger’ of them losing their unbeaten record six months into the season. The worst thing that happens in the whole show was them losing to Wigan in the FA Cup.
Netflix also has a rival football doc coming soon – but we’re pretty sure their show won’t have the same problem. Instead of following the best team in the country, their show focuses on Sunderland. And they picked a hell of a time to be following them.
After a decade in the top flight, under David Moyes, they took just two points from their opening ten games of the 2016-17 campaign and crashed out of the Premier League.
Sunderland ‘Til I Die follows the club and the supports through the next year, as they returned to the Championship. And, er, spoilers, we guess, but things do not go well at all, with the side ultimately ending up suffering back-to-back relegations.
That certainly seems more interesting than the Man City show.
The trailer for the series has just dropped, and from the looks of it, the show does a good job of capturing what a football club means to a community, even when it is failing so spectacularly.
This isn’t the first time Sunderland have opened their doors to a film crew. Back in 1998, the BBC aired Premier Passions, a six-part series following the club – which is best remembered for Peter Reid’s foul-mouthed team talks.
All eight episodes of Sunderland ‘Til I Die will be released globally on Netflix on December 14th.
