Swagger (season 2)

Swagger is one of the better shows on streaming that no one ever seems to talk about. The Apple TV+ drama - which focuses on teenage basketball prodigy Jace Carson (Isaiah Hill), while grappling with everything that being one happens to entail - isn’t on the same level as Friday Night Lights (another show whose quality, sadly, far exceeded its buzz)… but it’s basically the next best thing to that pantheon series and its incredibly successful blend of coming-of-age melodrama, athletic competition, and tight-knit community saga.

Season one followed Jace as a 14-year-old, playing for his AAU team in the DC suburbs (the show was loosely inspired by NBA superstar Kevin Durant - who's credited as executive producer - and his upbringing)… with “Swagger” serving as both team nickname and the show’s guiding philosophy in terms of how one faces the challenges and adversities of life. Season two actually time jumps over three years, picking up with Jace on the cusp of his 18th birthday and starting his senior year at prestigious Cedar Cove Prep, where he thankfully (and perhaps conveniently) still plays with all his prior middle-school teammates we grew to know and love. It’s also pretty much a plotting formality that he’ll somehow be reunited with his former coach, mentor, and father figure Ike “Icon” Edwards (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) on the court before the season premiere is finished. 

Unfortunately, Swagger saw its second season slashed from ten episodes to eight, and one can feel the slightly truncated strain. Creator Reggie Rock Bythewood has a lot on his mind; he and his writing staff perhaps try to cram one too many issues into the margins of each episode. Certain characters get the short shrift - Shinelle Azoroh, so good as Jace’s mother Jenna in season one (the fiercely protective steward of her son’s NBA dream, though not always necessarily in the best way), is still very much present, but feels less instrumental (likewise, Caleel Harris seemed like an early breakout star as point guard Musa… until he was curiously exiled to California as part of the first season’s Covid storyline. Just as his character must contend with reduced minutes on the court in season two, he feels like an actor who never quite regained his place in the starting rotation). On the other hand, Solomon Irama remains an absolute standout as the soulful Phil, while Shannon Brown proves a fine addition as sophomore CJ - struggling to live up to his father’s legacy as an NBA star, amongst other burdens weighing heavily on his shoulders. 

For better or for worse, much of the second season is a reckoning tied to a specific incident from the first season… in which Jace learned his BFF Crystal (the Joey to his Dawson, played by Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis) was being molested by her basketball coach, leading to him and his teammates carrying out a vigilante assault. The creative decision makes sense. The dramatic fallout (Jace sees everything he’s worked towards suddenly teetering on a knife’s edge as D-1 offers are swiftly revoked) touches upon so many of the social issues the show is concerned with. A bracing episode built around a visit to a youth detention center for a pickup game underscores that a single mistake can derail an entire future, no matter how promising… particularly in a society where young Black men aren’t typically afforded second chances. But our affection for these characters is so great, there’s a protective urge to push back against the storyline. Logical or not, it’s dramatic territory we aren’t necessarily keen to venture into. ​

Nonetheless, Swagger remains, on the balance, an enormously entertaining show. The basketball scenes are filmed with a thrilling, free-flow immediacy (the aforementioned pickup game is shot and staged in a single take of smoothly choreographed technical virtuosity)… the real-time social media updates (reflecting the fickleness of athletic adulation) an innovative flourish. Those who heart Jace and Crystal (and really, why wouldn’t you? Hill and Wallis have terrific chemistry) will be delighted with the arc of their relationship. The core of the show though remains the bond between Ike and Jace (the former desperate to ensure the latter avoids his own missteps as a one-time b-ball messiah), with Jackson and Hill both outstanding. Hill in particular has a quiet magnetism that anchors the drama - it’ll be interesting where his career goes from here. The second season builds to what feels very much like an emotionally satisfying series finale… we could, of course, theoretically follow Jace on to college, but with the characters all pursuing different paths, this feels like the end of the show as we know it. The measure of closure is nonetheless gratifying. As Swagger makes clear, the NBA may be the destination, but the journey itself is far more compelling.