Apple TV+'s Swagger is one of the rare TV shows that feels fully formed from the jump

The Hollywood Reporter

"Though it’s set in a niche that’ll be foreign to most viewers — elite youth basketball in the Washington metropolitan area — creator Reggie Rock Bythewood constructs a world so richly realized that there’s no doubt in our minds it existed long before we were invited in, and will continue to exist long after we leave," says Angie Han. "Add vivid characters and sharp storytelling, and it takes only a few episodes for Swagger to establish itself as one of the best new series of the year." Han adds: "Swagger takes 'show, don’t tell' to heart in a way that too few other series do. Bythewood and his writers often pass over the obvious lines, trusting the actors to communicate through loaded gazes or pursed lips as well as their words. The show has style to spare, but its most striking flourishes exist not to show off for their own sake, or to fulfill some tired expectation of what 'prestige TV' is supposed to look like, but to serve the story at hand: The frame might zoom in to horror-movie proportions to convey a character’s fear, or the audio might become muffled as one player becomes laser-focused on another. And Swagger‘s enthusiasm for the sport comes through loud and clear in its game scenes. The camera weaves through intricate choreography of the players to let them show off their moves (and, to my admittedly basketball-illiterate eye, these young actors do look like they can move). It captures some of the pleasure of seeing bodies in motion that watching real sports provides, even as the scripts capture the heated drama and intense pressure that can also come with the game. The series is touted as being inspired by the adolescent experiences of executive producer (and NBA star) Kevin Durant, and while I can’t speak to its technical accuracy, there’s a worn-in quality to its ecosystem that suggests someone working on the show has thought through every inch of it. But Swagger is equally concerned with what happens off the court. The series does not shy away from harsher, darker realities of its characters’ lives. There are storylines about child abuse and sexual assault. Cyberbullying exists as a low but steady thrum on social media. The threat of the coronavirus (the series begins 'Before ABC: Ahmaud, Breonna, COVID') begins as background noise until suddenly it’s front-and-center. Likewise, an incident in the pilot — Jace is confronted by police simply for taking out the trash while looking like a tall Black man — suggests that police brutality casts a shadow over the kids’ lives. Later in the 10-episode season, this becomes a major focal point."

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• Swagger remixes all the things that made Ted Lasso great and transplants it into a new context: "Durant, in press coverage, has cultivated a reputation as an unusually pensive and intense figure, and Swagger attempts to address not merely how a generational talent is fostered but how a person comes into consciousness," says Daniel D'Addario. "In transplanting a loose outline of his personal story to the near-present day, the series allows itself to comment on recent police violence, as in a sequence in which 14-year-old Jace is cuffed simply for taking out the trash, with cops claiming resemblance to a carjacker. Elsewhere, characters deal with the enforced absence of incarcerated parents or pressures from coaches who demand they be given guardianship rights. Swagger is direct and clear when it comes to what it wants to communicate about the pressures facing its ensemble. It’s also fairly blunt about what will get them through: Unity and the sublimation of star talent to a greater endeavor. It’s a message we’ve heard before, but this show’s clarity of purpose suggest it’ll reach, and be a balm for, an audience of young sports fans seeking to know what, beyond talent, makes a Durant. The answer, Swagger suggests, is hard work, clear guidance, and an ability to see beyond oneself. For a show about a singular figure, its team spirit stands out."
• Swagger is a show trying to be and do too many different things at once: "Apple TV+ describes the series as one that explores the world of youth basketball, and the players, their families and coaches who walk the fine line between dreams and ambition, and opportunism and corruption," says LaToya Ferguson. "And it explores all of these aspects to a fault, to the point where it’s multiple versions of Swagger at once, never quite achieving a great version of even just one."
• Swagger works when it’s not being forced into a formula and plays its own game: "By the time the season closes, Swagger has added so many potential distractions that it verges on overwhelming," says Steve Greene. "There’s the impending threat of legal trouble, coaches reckoning with their relationships with their own fathers, and all the potential complications that come with attention from a big-time shoe company. Swagger doesn’t always find the most natural ways of weaving this through Jace’s basketball journey, but in some cases it feels like that’s kind of the point. Even when Ike is asking his team to have some on-court mental fortitude, it’s impossible to ignore some of the developments happening beyond the walls of the gym. One episode in the middle of the season — co-written and directed by series creator Reggie Rock Bythewood — is both a rapid response to the events of 2020 and an overview of how the events of last year only highlighted wounds that were already there. Swagger might have one manufactured conflict too many, but when it settles into the stories that come naturally from these kids dealing with an uncertain future, it shines. Almost as if it’s heeding the advice of its coach calling from the sidelines, Swagger works when it’s not being forced into a formula and plays its own game."
• Creator Reggie Rock Bythewood wanted to use Kevin Durant's life as inspiration -- not "Let’s fit into Kevin’s life": Using Durant's backstory, Bythewood envisioned a broader framework to explore more immediate topics and themes. “What does it look like now for (a young athlete like) Jace, who’s growing up in this day and age, in social media – what would that be like?” he says. “Then later on, as you get into deeper to the season, what happens when the pandemic hits? What happens when we’re in the aftermath of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor? It would’ve felt inauthentic in a contemporary setting to not reflect that.” Durant adds that his goal was always to use his backstory to illustrate the many life lessons he learned from the sport of basketball. “Most of my teammates today all came from the same environment — poverty, crime, not a lot of activities — so we were drawn to sports,” says the NBA All-Star. “It was able to create some structure for us so we can move on and advance in life. We owe a lot of that to the game and where the game has taken me. I wanted that to come across to people.”