‘The Final Score’ Review: Blood, Sweat, and Football.
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Football is the biggest sport in the entire world. It has more fans than any other sport on the planet, and this year, 2022, it will celebrate its biggest event, the World Cup in Qatar. Everybody is excited about the event, and it seems like Netflix is ready to take advantage of the football fever by releasing shows related to the sport. The Final Score is one of those shows, and it deals with one of the darkest moments in the sport overall. It is a sad story, but also one of determination and hope.
The Final Score is a miniseries developed for Netflix and created by Pablo Gonzalez, and C.S. Prince. The series stars Juan Pablo Urrego, Pepe Cámara, Laura Archbold, Carlos Mariño, John Alex Castillo, Mauricio Pizarro, and Brayan Arboleda. The series follows the story of Andres Escobar, a football player who was killed on the streets of Medellín after having scored an auto-goal during the World Cup of 1994 against the United States of America team. The series deals with how football and crime intertwined in Colombia during the 90s.
The Final Score functions on several levels. On one level, it works as the story of a football team trying to improve themselves as they look to be the champions they want to be. It is a hard and difficult road, but you can see that the players on the field and the coaches on the sidelines have only one objective. To be the best. So, the miniseries can be uplifting at many points in the story, just like many other sports stories are. Following the team from game to game and seeing how they are improving, or not, becomes quite entertaining.
The miniseries also works on another level. One that is a lot darker. You see, while the team is trying to be the best on the field, they are also trying to survive outside of it. Most of the members of the team come from very humble homes, and so, being a football player is not enough for them to pay the bills and put food on the table. Because of it, they have jobs outside of playing the game, and some of these jobs involve actions that might not be legal. It is a dark reality of the time in Colombia, and the show manages to depict it in a very solid way.
The miniseries moves between these two aspects and ends up becoming quite a nice TV drama, one that might open the eyes and perceptions of several people. For those who are familiar with football and the sport in general, the story of Andres will be known, but it happened so long ago that we might find fans that don’t know all the details. This isn’t the most glamorous of football stories, but it is one that needs to be told, as footballers are not only players but also human beings with lives of their own.
The cast is truly one of the strongest points in the show. The miniseries is filled with veterans and new talent, and that serves to create the same feeling that building a team, such as the one presented on the show, must have felt. The costumes and especially the hairstyles, really pull you back in time. The production design is solid as well, but you can see that sometimes some exteriors are just filmed completely naked, and the modernity of today leaks into the 90s setting.
When it comes to visuals, the series chooses to go for a more realistic feeling. The framing and the way the camera moves around the actors feels almost like some sort of documentary, which is pretty nice as it enhances the premise that this is based on a true story. Of course, not everything is faithful to reality, even when it comes to visuals. The miniseries has this strange filter or lighting in each scene that makes the picture look like an old picture. This, of course, is meant to be a creative decision to transport us back in time, but it is quite distracting and just doesn’t look good enough.
The miniseries moves at a very good pace, and we never stay too long on one character or in one aspect of the show. The story is always moving, and there is enough time dedicated to each of the major characters to feel that big developments are coming. The series could use a bit more humor here and there, but the reality of the situation doesn’t really allow for much of a lighter tone.
In the end, The Final Score is a great production coming from Colombia. The miniseries shows two very different sides of the world’s biggest sport, and it might open the eyes of some football lovers to the hardships that these players had to face to represent their country in the World Cup. As the World Cup draws near in real life, it is important to see how the sport affects parts of the world in different ways. This is a serious drama, so if you are in the mood for something like it, and you like football, this might be the show for you.
