All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspurs, Amazon’s latest entry in the All or Nothing series, is a doozy of a documentary series. It’s a no-holds-barred expose of Tottenham Hotspurs football club; a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go behind the scenes to see what the players, coaches, and staff are like when the (football) cameras aren’t on them. It’s raunchy, it’s raw, and it’s real, scintillating drama.
At least, that’s what Amazon (the show producers) would have you believe. The reality is All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspurs is a fairly pedestrian docuseries which occasionally dips its toes in interesting conflicts, but mostly avoids creating controversy. It does all the usual things well: it’s well shot, the characters pop, and it gives viewers a chance to see what life as a footballer is really like (spoiler: it’s basically just eating chicken and riding exercycles for 9 hours a day), but the lack of real drama means it ultimately ends up being little more than an interesting ad.
If you were hoping the series was going to show you what the world of football is really like, kill those dreams now. The show does play up a couple of arguments between the players, and head coach Jose Mourinho’s eccentric character is put on display for all to see, but the docuseries never touches on genuinely controversial topics – controversies around the firing of staff during the pandemic, the Tanguy Ndombele saga, and the wage subsidy are all conspicuously absent. In their stead, we get a lot of scenes of players volunteering. Wow, aren’t Tottenham so nice.
