30 for 30 (TV Series) Vick Part 1 (2020) User Reviews

"One of the greatest "what if" sports stories"

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 6 February 2020]

Vick (2020 release; in 2 parts) is a TV documentary mini-series about the life and times of Michael Vick. As Part 1 opens, it is "November 16, 2007, as Vick is turning himself in early in a prison, as the voice-over comments "this is one of the greatest 'what if' sports stories ever".. We then go to "Newport News, VA", where Vick grew up "in da hood", as he keeps reminding us multiple times throughout the documentary. At a young age, Vick shows amazing athletic capabilities and is referred to as "the next Allen Iverson of the peninsula"... At this point we are 15 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from veteran and accomplished documentarian Stanley Nelson. Here he brings us a look into the amazing rise and subsequent dramatic fall of Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick. Given the sensitive nature of it all, Nelson, himself African-American, can go where a caucasian director would have a much harder time to go. Also this: Michael Vick is brutally honest throughout the documentary. He sees his good fortune (and the millions and millions of dollars that come with it) as the perfect opportunity, make that obligation, to lift a bunch of his family and friends "from da hood" out of poverty and into a life they would've never been able to achieve by themselves. Of course that doesn't excuse the lapse in judgment later on (to be examined in Part 2).

Part 1 (running at about 90 min.) aired last week on ESPN in its on-going 30 For 30 sports documentary series. Part 2 airs tonight, and then of course they will be available on demand an on streaming services. Looking forward to seeing Part 2. If you have an interest in finding out more about this gifted but controversial football player, I'd readily suggest you check it out and draw your own conclusion.

*UPDATE 2/7/29 I saw Part 2 (running at about 90 min.) yesterday, and it focuses heavily on the dog fighting scandal, and Vick's eventual redemption. It makes for compelling viewing, but beware, there is plenty of footage early on regarding the dogs that many will find unsettling if not disturbing.

Quite boring

[JurijFedorov · 4/10 · 13 January 2022]

I couldn't even finish the first episode. It's just boring and lacks proper info for people just wanting to understand how this all works. There is minimal music and the progress is molasses slow. It's a lot of interviews with Vick and family members about how important his family is to him and how he wants to help them economically in the hood and how great a talent he is. It's a lot of bragging and basically making him out to be a hero. I just wanted to understand his career and his huge mistakes. This is not it. The director at the start explains that this doc is about emotional drama and about race. But I kinda figured it would be regular 30 for 30 stuff where anti-Black racism would maybe get 5 minutes in each episode. Not so. They go on and on about his race, his hood, and how White people are unfair to Black people and see them as less intelligent, and therefore Black people rarely make it to the quarterback position as it's a position for smart guys. Which is really nonsensical as just minutes prior Vick himself said he was not smart and had a hard time understanding technical football stuff. It was clear he was physically amazing, but that his intellect was quite low. And yet they anyhow make it out to be some unfair situation where guys like him are underestimated intellectually because of their skin color. A Vick is made out to be this huge hero fighting systemic racism and helping Black people. If that's the Vick you want to meet this may be for you, but you won't find it that engaging.

There are a ton of family interviews and you just keep seeing opinion after opinion with very little progress. This is just way too slow-paced. There is no lead up to the dog fighting at all. They just keep talking about his huge talent and it's a doc that is made to clean his image. And there is another episode? Come on guys, editing is key here. Why did this even get made?

A huge miss by 30 for 30. I wish they would avoid all this low-tier culture war or at least keep it to 5 minutes per episode as they did some years ago. Now it's all about "evil White people". It can amount to whining which it does here. And you are just making out fake bad guys to hail Vick as some hero he just isn't in real life. It should have been a critical doc not propaganda.