On the mat

Netflix's Cheer goes full out for surprise new season showcasing 2 Texas college rivals

Cheer is back in Corsicana for season 2.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Flip out, Cheer fans. The Netflix sensation is coming back for a second season January 12, and it's doubling down on the Texas-sized drama.

Not only will the new season of the hit cheerleading reality series return to Corsicana to follow the twists and turns of Navarro College's national championship cheer team, but it'll get on the mat with Navarro's biggest rival, Trinity Valley Community College — located just 40 miles up the road in Athens.

Netflix made the surprise announcement on December 28 and described the new season like this:

The Emmy-winning breakout sensation is back and the stakes have never been higher. As Navarro defends its championship crown against a slew of challenges, including their fiercest rivals at Trinity Valley Community College, unexpected events threaten the camaraderie of the team and the season itself.

The biggest unexpected event, as loyal fans know, was the September 2020 arrest of breakout star Jerry Harris on several federal sexual misconduct charges, including soliciting child pornography. According to Variety, which was first to report the news of a new season, “Cheer deals with the allegations against Harris up front, and in an episode that focuses on the misconduct accusations, the brothers who first came forward about Harris are interviewed."

The new season, Netflix says, will also deal with the aftermath of Navarro cheer team's newfound superstardom as "cheer-lebrities" (remember when coach Monica Aldama competed on Dancing with the Stars?) and, of course, the upending of their 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cheer became an instant hit when it debuted in January 2020, and went on to win three Emmys. The new season picks up after Navarro's 2019 victory at the national championships in Daytona Beach, Florida (the culmination of season one). Filming began in secret in January 2020, Variety reports, just before the pandemic shut the world down — and canceled the 2020 championships. Filming picked up in September 2020, just as Harris' legal troubles began. Netflix says:

Against that dramatic backdrop, the nine-episode season expands to showcase Navarro’s fiercest rival: Trinity Valley Community College. As with the Navarro team, TVCC has a charismatic coach and breakout stars whose struggles, triumphs and stories extend far beyond the mat. As both teams push for the 2021 championship in Daytona, familiar faces take compelling detours and new contenders make a name for themselves.

Season one Navarro favorites La’Darius Marshall, Morgan Simianer, Lexi Brumback, and Gabi Butler return for season two.

Viewers also will get to know TVCC's charismatic head coach Vontae Johnson, assistant coach Khris Franklin, and team members like Angel Rice, described in the trailer as "the Simone Biles of cheerleading."

Who will triumph as 2021 champion? Are are there even any other competitors? And will we finally learn what the team motto "FIOFMU" means?

Spoilers like this are easy to find, but why ruin the suspense?

Texas cheerleading is a hot TV topic right now. Cheerleaders in the small DFW town of River Oaks who were targeted by an attacker will be featured in a new crime series on Investigation Discovery TV, starting January 4.

The eyes of Hollywood also seem to be focused on Corsicana. Fruitcake Fraud, a documentary about an embezzlement at Corsicana fruitcake maker Collin Street Bakery, is streaming now on Discovery+.

The new season of Cheer begins streaming Wednesday, January 12 on Netflix. You can watch the official trailer below:

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Movie Review

The Magic Faraway Tree is a whimsical family lark that fails to take root

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids - Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) - are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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