Alec Estrin
COMPSTD 1100
2021 April 21st
Text Review Assignment: All-American
All American is popular TV series that first premiered on The CW network in October of 2018. The series is loosely based on the life of former NFL player Spencer Paysinger and it follows his high school years as a rising football star. When the show first begins Spencer is playing at South Crenshaw High which is located in South LA and this is where he grew up. This is a neighborhood that is a low-income area and is notoriously known for gang violence. In addition, Spencer’s father left him at a young age so he was forced to grow up fast and be a good role model for his younger brother. An example of the violence that occurs in Crenshaw can be seen in the opening scene of the show which depicts a shooting that occurs at one of the football games Spencer is playing in. Following the shooting Spencer is given the opportunity to transfer schools by the head coach at Crenshaw’s rival high school Beverly Hills High. This is a much safer and higher income area that offers Spencer better opportunities for not only himself, but also his family. At first Spencer is against this as he feels he is betraying his home, but after his mother and best friend Coop urge him to accept the offer, he eventually agrees. For this assignment I plan to focus primarily on the first season of the show where Spencer struggles to deal with his newfound identity as a member of Beverly Hills High, and as a member of the Crenshaw community.
A big part of the first season is Spencer’s intersectionality as a member of both the Crenshaw and Beverly Hills community. Although Spencer knows that Beverly Hills offers him a better opportunities for the future, he still finds it difficult to adjust to the new neighborhood. He struggles as he constantly is going back and forth between the two towns and also it does not help that the other football players from Beverly Hills are not very accepting to him at first. The reason they are not initially very accepting to Spencer is that he is transfer that is not from their neighborhood, and they also fear that he will steal the attention of college scouts from them. In addition, they do not view him the same way that they view others that are from Beverly.
It is interesting as the season goes on and they both get to know each other they are able to build a strong relationship and they begin to not only accept each other for each other’s differences, but they begin to embrace them. They both also begin to realize that they actually have many similarities, and they learn from each other’s differences. I think that what this show highlights is a young man as he tries to navigate his contrasting identities as a kid who grew up without a father in a poor and dangerous neighborhood, and his identity as one that is now also a member of a wealthy and upper class neighborhood. As the season goes on he begins to embrace his identity as a member of Beverly Hills, but he also does not forget where he came from and the people that are important to him. I think that ultimately it illustrates that although people may come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, it does not mean that you cannot form meaningful and powerful relationships with others.
Here is an image of Daniel Ezra (Left) who plays Spencer James and Spencer Paysinger (Right)