The Dynasty: New England Patriots Review

Summary

• The Apple TV+ docuseries
  The Dynasty: New England Patriots
  is a remarkable sports documentary that rivals some of the best in the genre.
• The series tells an emotional underdog story that transforms into a Shakespearean drama, chronicling the rise and fall of the Patriots as they became known as the “Evil Empire.”
• It provides unprecedented access to the past and delves into major controversies surrounding the team, including Spygate, Deflategate, and various trickery tactics.

Jeff Benedict’s detailed book about the New England Patriots, The Dynasty, transforms into magnificent life with a new Apple TV+ docuseries in February. Thousands of hours of archival footage, unbelievably candid and entertaining interviews, and the occasional dramatization come together to tell an epic story that amounts to so much more than an NFL documentary. Over the course of 10 episodes, The Dynasty becomes an edge-of-your-seat drama about how an underdog became a villain, how competition becomes an addiction, and how a selfless team fractured into many pieces. It’s a human story, but also an almost operatic one in its scope.

Director Matthew Hamachek and his team compiled a docuseries that ranks among the best sports documentaries of all time — The Last Dance, Hoop Dreams, Senna, Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals, Tokyo Olympiad, etc. You don’t need to be a Patriots fan, or honestly even an NFL fan, to become deeply invested in the story behind The Dynasty: New England Patriots, though this will likely become the authoritative text for any New England fan.

The New England Patriots Give Unfettered Access to the Past

The Dynasty

5/5

Release Date February 16, 2024

Cast Tom Brady , Bill Belichick , Robert Kraft , Drew Bledsoe

Seasons 1

Studio Apple TV

Directors Matthew Hamachek

The Dynasty: New England Patriots marches inexorably forward in chronological order, though it takes time for some liberal detours through the past. It begins roughly with Tom Brady’s first season playing in the NFL — a year which, on its own, could have made a great documentary. He was a fourth string quarterback, picked 199th in the draft, and was forced to step up when New England’s golden boy, Drew Bledsoe, suffered a near-fatal injury on the field. As Bledsoe improved his health, Brady improved his game, and then-Patriots coach Bill Belichik had to make a decision. It would change the course of sports history.

A wide array of interviewees show up, all filmed individually in the same Errol Morris-type void, and provide invaluable commentary and narration that is woven together to form an emotional narrative. NFL stars and coaches from the Patriots and their competitors recount the games and emotions that happened more than 20 years prior. Ty Law is a surprising scene-stealer, a hilarious interviewee with great insight into Brady’s early days.

Bill Belichik and Tom Brady Sit Down for Interviews

Belichik himself is, well, Bill Belichik. He defines stoicism and has never been the best speaker, though a couple of moments surprise. Footage of him from the past, however, is varied and wonderful, from Belichik playing with puppies and chasing his young children around to him screaming profanities on the field and boosting the morale of a young Brady. Robert Kraft comes across as wise and wry, and we get a great picture of the man by the end. His story is almost as interesting as Brady’s.

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And then there’s Brady himself, who has become increasingly comfortable in front of the camera over the years of commercials, cameos, and talk show appearances. He’s charming here, but having walked away from the NFL forever (at least we think), Brady is unafraid to really lay himself bare here. He’s arguably more profane than anyone else, and he’s utterly straightforward about a good deal of things. His family and friends detail “Tommy’s Temper” and the way Brady has an almost violent, aggressive competitive streak. Of course, not everything is fully exposed.

Spygate, Deflategate, Dynastygate

The Dynasty’s first three episodes are genuinely moving and brilliantly edited, telling an incredible underdog story that feels nearly Shakespearean. Or, with one interviewee mentioning God, destiny, and the devil, it seems practically mythical. But like Darth Vader’s tragic character arc, the good guys are destined to become bad guys, with the team soon being referred to as ‘the Evil Empire’ for a variety of reasons. As the series progresses, it refuses to shy away from the multiple major controversies surrounding the Patriots, from Spygate to Deflategate, from falsified injury reports to play clock and formation trickery.

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The Dynasty gathers a wide swath of information about these scandals, much more than the usual sports fan will have ever heard. What Ernie Adams, a brilliant and highly watchable football researcher and analyst for the Patriots, says in the first episode is true:

The media, it’s the group that I call ‘the scribes.’ It’s just a lot of people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, frankly. But there are some experts in New England football. And they all work for the coaching staff of the Patriots. If you’re not in the building, you don’t really know.

Fortunately, The Dynasty brings in the people who do really know, providing juicy details about everything from the notorious to the pleasantly ordinary. This is backed up by an astounding amount of camera footage with surprisingly great quality; the NFL was in the process of digitizing their records at the time The Dynasty began filming, so there is some genuinely good-looking video from the ’90s and 2000s. It’s easy to take for granted that everyone has a camera in their pocket today; you wouldn’t have expected so much footage of every little thing to exist 30 years ago, and yet the NFL records become a priceless tool for The Dynasty to explore the real humanity and drama of this team.

The Dynasty: New England Patriots​ will premiere with two episodes on Feb. 16, 2024, followed by two more episodes on Feb. 23 and each week after. You can watch it through the link below and check out the trailer as well.​​:

Watch The Dynasty

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