Movistar riders ahead of stage 5 of the Tour de France.
Is season two of Movistar’s Netflix doc worth watching?
The new season of "El día menos pensado" has arrived on Netflix.
The new season of "El día menos pensado" has arrived on Netflix.
Just in time to take advantage of some pre-Tour de France hype, season two of the Movistar docuseries on Netflix has arrived. Fourteen months after “El día menos pensado” (The Least Expected Day) first gave us a glimpse into the inner workings of the Spanish WorldTour squad during the 2019 season, we now get another look at how things played out in 2020.
The first season was well-worth the watch, and I checked out the six-episode run to find out if season two was as well – and I was pleased to find it easy to stay engaged throughout all six episodes.
In short: Season two of the Movistar docuseries is just as compelling as season one.
I started my last review with all the things I liked about season one, but I think it makes sense to get some negatives out of the way first for season two. Two stand out right off the bat, but neither of them derailed my enjoyment enough to put me off of watching.
For starters, you probably already know going in that there just weren’t as many big names on the Movistar roster in 2020 as there had been the previous season. Mikel Landa, Nairo Quintana, and Richard Carapaz all left the team, and there’s no way around the fact that having those marquee riders on the roster made season one a more enticing watch.
On a related note, you probably also know going in that Movistar didn’t exactly light up the road racing circuit in 2020. Unlike in season one, there would be no Grand Tour victory in the cards for the protagonists of season two. Seeing the inner workings of Carapaz’s Giro win in 2019 was a treat, and we definitely don’t get that in season two.
In other words: Be forewarned that there won’t be any really big names doing really big things in season two.
If you can get past that, you should enjoy your time watching, because season two offers perhaps an even more honest look at the inner workings of a WorldTour team than season one did, with the same great production values and slightly less confusing pacing. There are more intra-team squabbles and more frustration (partially thanks to that lack of results), but also plenty of sympathetic moments.
I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll try to steer clear of offering too many details, but I’ll clue you into just a few of compelling moments you can look forward to, should you decide to tune in.
Through six episodes, there are enough moments of tension, surprise, humor, and humanity in the series to keep your attention. With the exception of those wiped GoPros and another season of subtitles that translate the constant use of joder and other not-so-polite Spanish words and phrases into less coarse English, things generally feel a bit less sanitized in season two than they did in season one. The protagonists of the second season might not be as well-known to English-speaking audiences as Landa and Co. were, but they’re just as honest this time, if not more so.
The Movistar women’s team also makes an appearance, but it’s a brief one. In fact, it’s brief enough as to feel like a disjointed entry in the narrative. It feels like the producers could have handled things a bit differently to provide a much more extended look at the women’s side of the team.
The pacing isn’t perfect either, but the all-over-the-place pacing was my biggest criticism of season one, and season two is at least somewhat better in that respect. The series starts with the biggest race of the year and only occasionally makes confusing time jumps, and it’s hard to blame the producers when last year’s Giro and Vuelta overlapped on the calendar.
All told, season two felt just compelling as season one did, and I’d definitely recommend it to any fan of pro road racing. What’s more, we get a nice teaser of the potential for a compelling 2021 season in the final episode. With superstar Annemiek van Vleuten joining the women’s team, elevating the roster to a significantly higher level than the previous season, and Miguel Ángel López joining the men’s squad only a few years after hurling some pretty sharp criticism at his now-teammates, there would be plenty of interesting storylines for the cameras to follow if the series returns for a third season.