Photo Cred: RottenTomatoes.org
“Sunderland Til I Die” is a three-season docuseries produced by Fulwell 73 about a historic team from England who suffered the embarrassment of relegation—or demotion to the second league—in soccer for the first time since 2009.
The town of Sunderland is in the Northeast of England and is a working-class city that began as a shipping and port town but has become less prosperous. The soccer team has become its only beacon of hope.
Originally, the series was established by the team’s chairman Ellis Short as a behind-the-scenes look at the team and their fight to reach the top division once again and to achieve a takeover of current ownership. Ellis Short becomes for most viewers the true villian of the story.
Small spoiler alert: The season does not go well for them, and they are promptly relegated for a second time.
The next seasons become about the team’s struggles of “getting back to where they belong” and the decisions that must be made by a team with top-level resources and third-level income and competition.
The most recent season is the most hopeful of them all. With the second ownership takeover since the first season, there is a breath of new life and newfound ambition, as the team is now owned by the youngest owner in the soccer world at 24 years old.
The most recent season is a success story of accepting outcasts of other teams to a struggling team and accepting them into a culture of undying fandom and support.
I could not suggest this series enough to anyone, and I would liken it to a real-life Ted Lasso. The players, coach, and board members feel real and likable to viewers, and it is a series as much about personalities as it is about the team playing soccer and fighting for their goals.
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