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If the Super Bowl is the annual equivalent of a massive summer blockbuster, a seven-game series is an 800-page novel, full of plot twists, complicated characters, exultation and heartbreak. A one-and-done championship game can turn on a single play — a missed field goal, a helmet catch — but over the course of a seven-game series, every player on both teams gets the chance to rise to the moment. It’s why, as the old line goes, the two greatest words in sports are “Game 7.”
As we move into late October and the final act of baseball’s postseason, it’s a fine time to begin considering the historical weight of Game 7s. Prime Video takes on that challenge with “Game 7,” an engaging, enjoyable five-episode documentary beginning Tuesday that covers some of sports’ greatest moments, as told by the players, coaches and fans who lived through them.
The series kicks off with the 2003 American League Championship Series, featuring a couple scrappy upstart squads, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Yes, you’ve probably heard way too much about both of these teams already; New York and Boston have spent generations forcing their own mythology onto the rest of the sports nation. But with two decades’ distance, some of the details of that memorable series have faded, and the first episode does a fine job of bringing them back into focus, like the defection of Roger Clemens from Boston to New York, the futility of the Red Sox in the postseason.
The beauty of Game 7s is that they’re like classical opera, a culmination of all the little details that had been peppered throughout the entire series. So in “Game 7”’s first episode, when you see elements like, say, Aaron Boone joining the Yankees late in the year, or Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez scuffling with Yankees coach Don Zimmer earlier in the series, or New York and Boston fans alike living and dying with every pitch of every game, you know they’ll pay off … and they do.
Maybe it’s the crisp October air, maybe it’s the long-running thread of baseball as America’s pastime, but the two baseball episodes are the strongest entries in the “Game 7” series. The 2016 World Series — Chicago vs. Cleveland, the Cubs’ at-long-last triumph after a century of futility — is exhilarating viewing for everyone except Cleveland fans. You can feel the agony and the ecstasy of both franchises and fanbases. (An energetic Tom Morello, Rage Against the Machine guitarist and long-suffering Cubs fan, is an unexpected high point; the other entries could have used Tom Morellos of their own.)
The archival footage is essential and impeccable; it’s why a “Game 7” episode on, say, Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 World Series-winning home run wouldn’t have worked as well. But there’s nothing quite like hearing Cleveland’s Rajai Davis talk about trying to scale the center-field wall to catch a home run by the Cubs’ David Ross — and then seeing a younger Davis slip as his foot tries to stick in the wall. Tiny details like that are what carry a series — both the TV and the sports kind.
Two separate episodes include Mark Messier, which is not exactly a surprise given that Messier is an executive producer on the series. But the hockey episodes — the 1987 Stanley Cup Final, Edmonton vs. Philadelphia, and the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, Rangers vs. Canucks — lack the energy and vibrancy of the baseball ones. Behind-the-scenes practice and locker room footage and present-day meditations from some of the players involved so long ago will doubtless be entertaining to the fans of the winning teams, but the tension of in-game footage is what carries these kinds of stories.
The basketball entry — the 2006 Western Conference semifinals featuring the Dallas Mavericks against the San Antonio Spurs — is vibrant enough, with Dirk Nowitzki, Mark Cuban and Tony Parker, among others, holding forth on their memories of a back-and-forth series. But compared to so many other 21st-century Game 7s, it’s not exactly a memorable entry. The 2016 NBA Finals, where LeBron James rallied the Cavaliers back from a 3-1 deficit to win the title, is a glaring absence, but other possibilities could have included the 2010 NBA Finals (Kobe Bryant leading the Lakers over the Celtics), the 1998 Eastern Conference finals (Michael Jordan’s Bulls over the Pacers), or the 1994 NBA Finals (Rockets over the Knicks in the O.J. Bronco Chase series).
Perhaps access to subjects complicated these particular possibilities; Jordan and James aren’t exactly lining up to appear in documentaries. Still, for some of “Game 7”’s entries, it’s like a Game 7 blowout — you’re glad the series made it this far, but you would’ve liked a bit more competitiveness at the very end.
“Game 7” starts on Oct. 22 on Prime Video. Check it out while you’re waiting to see if the World Series goes seven. We can always hope, right?