All American has a huge problem to fix in Season 2
All American — “Pilot”– Photo: Ray Mickshaw/The CW — Acquired via CW TV PR
The football ridiculousness continues past the pilot episode of All American, and continues to lack authenticity.
Episodes two through six of All American mix in some flashbacks and unconventional football to make things less believable.
Episode 2
Spencer as a little kid scores the game winning touchdown as the time expires. AGAIN. For good measure he spikes the ball without penalty, which wouldn’t happen. Also, it’s Spencer’s second varsity game at Beverly, and despite having a huge football budget with tons of talent, Coach Billy Baker plays Spencer both ways.
The final straw is when Spencer gets pulled on the last play of the game – another last second chance to win (eye roll) – and his substitute goes wide open for an uncontested bomb. Thankfully for a semblance of realism, Jordan throws an absolute knuckleball that goes incomplete.
Episode 3
The unauthorized, full-contact pickup game between Crenshaw and Beverly has an operational scoreboard and someone up there running it. LOL. So does the kid from the AV club also know how to pick locks? Another hilarious part of it is the fact that they’re playing 7-on-7, which means the plays couldn’t possibly be the same as the regular game, but Spencer says, “I know their plays,” and insists on playing defense.
I half expected the following to happen in the second half that got stopped by security guards:
Episode 4
So far there have been two varsity games, assuming Spencer wasn’t a mid-season transfer that would have violated all sorts of rules. The team wins game three because Coach Baker leads a raucous celebration in the locker room afterwards. They’re now 2-1.
Beverly crushes some the MHS Bears if they kept their 42-7 lead at the end of the third quarter (3-1). Then they play a team in blue, which has to be a win because Coach Baker gets interviewed after the game. They’re 4-1 and she asks, “Can you explain your team’s dramatic turnaround?” WTF? Finally, the beat another team in white and Carolina blue bad enough that Spencer gets celebratory fireworks after a touchdown. The team is 5-1.
Episode 5
There isn’t really any on-field action in this episode, but there is the hilarious scene where Layla walks Spencer around the Rose Bowl. We’re supposed to believe that because her father donated the locker rooms, she gets 24-hour, unfettered access to the entire stadium. She also managed to get them to turn on the lights for the entire stadium. Riiiiiight.
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Episode 6
Guess what? They’re down to the last play of the game for the 14th time in the series. Only two seconds left and they need a touchdown to beat Culver. I don’t know what kind of Dollar General football expert they got as an adviser, but he seems narrowly focused. But that’s just for starters.
They win the game on that last play (again), and are now 6-1. The sun is shining at the end of the game, kinda defeating the whole Friday night lights thing, and meaning they had their game midday for some reason. It’s cool though, the old Beverly coach is at the game to talk trash. Apparently his team didn’t play at noon, which is understandable. Presumably the following week, Jordan, Ash, and Coach Baker go scout Malibu at their practice like their the New England Patriots. Of course, they could have scouted at Malibu’s game. It’s awful convenient how the two teams have such divergent schedules.