It's no coincidence that The Last Dance was released at the height of the Coronavirus quarantine, while everyone is stuck at home, while all live sports are on hiatus until further notice. If the world, of sports and period, ever needed saving, the time is now and Michael Jordan maybe the hero we need. The Last Dance features unprecedented footage from Jordan's final season (the second time in 1998--the series ends before the third time with the Wizards) and cuts back and forth between the final season (the eponymous Last Dance) and his legendary career up to that point from the beginning. The time jumping is a little confusing, but it serves for heightened drama. The really unprecedented access is only the final season footage, so it's sprinkled through every episode. At a time when there is no sports, we were pleasantly reminded of the reason we love sports. It's not just the competition, it's the stories. The playoffs are exciting, but it's Dennis Rodman disappearing to Las Vegas that makes them interesting. In recent years, LeBron James and Stephen Curry may have soaked up all the thunder, in an era that the NBA has gone global thanks to Michael Jordan, but Jordan has returned to remind the world who the boss is. He's a competitor at heart; pushed by his drive to take revenge on anyone that ever "showed him up," even if he had to fabricate the sleight. You don't have to be a basketball fan to enjoy The Last Dance. It's accessible to everyone as a reminder of the outside world we used to enjoy.
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