Sunday, December 18, 2011

Flyers/Rangers 24/7 HBO Series - Ep. 1

So ... 1 year ago, HBO stepped into showing everyone (fans and non-fans alike) the inside workings of the NHL.  This year seems to be much of the same, just with the Flyers and Rangers, on their way to the Winter Classic in Philadelphia.

This show is still absolutely amazing, however I just don't feel it this season.  I say that because I have no love/hate relationship with this series.  It's actually quite refreshing to just watch it as a tv show, and not look any deeper into anything that's going on.  I like how HBO has changed the one on one interviews a bit.  Last season, HBO had some kind of Big Brother "closet confession" type of look to their interviews ... this season, it's a much better version.  I don't like how the coaches have such a big part of the first episode.  I know that both coaches are big parts of the team, and both are very opinionated.  However, neither of them play the game.  I feel like HBO figured out, from last season, that both the Pens and Caps coaches were show stoppers.  This season, they've decided to force that upon everyone.

The Giroux concussion came off quite sadly.  That guy is having a great season, and something freak has him out.  It's not like seeing Crosby's concussion in the Winter Classic of 2011, because Giroux seemed more together, but it's still pretty sad to see the training staff having to tell Laviolette about the extent of the injury.  Bryzgalov is hilarious ... in a "I'm not quite sure what's so funny" type of way.  I honestly feel like Ilya doesn't find anything wrong with what he's talking about, but man he's an interesting person.  Ryan Callahan's family ties to Buffalo was cool.  It's nice to see families showing up, in a suite, in order to watch their child, grandchild, nephew, etc. do what he loves.

All in all, I feel like this year's 24/7 will be just as well done as last season was.  The music throughout is spot on, the camera work is fantastic, and the production of the series is just plain amazing.  It's a great series, for the big time hockey fan, the casual hockey fan, and the random sports fan alike.  It's really the way that sports should be shown.  I'm looking forward to the Flyers/Rangers game coming up this week.  Those games are where the series are perfect.  HBO really shows, one single game, in the closest access than any fan will ever have.