The idea of HBO’s sports documentary 24/7 is enticing to hockey fans – especially those of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. Advertised as an inside look at each team’s personnel as they prepare for the Winter Classic, the show promises to offer insights into the people who will play in the big game.The payoff is disappointing, offering little more than vacuous reflections on what it is to play for “a storied franchise” and boys pretending to be grownups, driving fancy cars and wearing fine clothes. And there’s a whole fucking bunch of swearing. They have that vocabulary in common with the coaches. Instead of details on strategy, style or even on their personalities, it’s a lot of “Let’s (fucking) go, boys!” It’s not that much should be expected of these characters in this format – they are hockey player after all – but HBO could certainly do less of the epic music and close-ups of skates and actually make an effort to tell a (fucking) story.
Agreed.
Since when did the “Winter Classic” become a “big game”??? It’s nothing more than a gimic, regular season game (or should I say preseason – given the number of teams that make the “playoffs”) that has no more impact on the season’s outcome than any of the other games the two play against each other.
Besides that – yes HBO’s look was uninspiring – what’s the matter you don’t like watching two guys driving down a snowy road dodging skidding vehicles alone the away?
Believe the hype!
And another thing – what’s “classic” about it?