The Florida Gators docuseries Swamp Kings, which premiered on Netflix yesterday, was one of the most highly anticipated projects of the summer.
But after people started watching it, they realized that it apparently isn’t living up to the hype for more than a couple of reasons.
Everyone was looking forward to reliving the Florida Gators dynasty from 2006 to 2009 while also hearing more about all of the scandals and stories that were happening behind closed doors. The team had unrivaled success in its years with Urban Meyer and quarterback Tim Tebow, winning national titles in 2006 and 2008.
However, Swamp Kings was brought to life by the documentary production company “Untold,” which made people assume that though the successes of the team would probably be mentioned, the focus would be on the team’s infamous roster of criminals and murderers.
But that wasn’t the case.
Fans were expecting to be shocked by the inside look at the Florida Gators football team, but have instead been presented with a documentary that just focuses on how great the Urban Meyer-led Gators team were.
Many are upset that the docuseries sets out to almost act as a public-relations piece in favor of Urban Meyer, and that the two usual focuses of that Florida Gators era – Tim Tebow and Aaron Hernandez – are almost afterthoughts.
Katharine English, the director of Untold: Swamp Kings, says that leaving out some of the scandals and negativity from the series was very much on purpose:
“There had been a lot of negative press about the team, and obviously not all of it would ring true with the players themselves. And they didn’t really want, and nor did we, a rehashing of previous stories.”
Umm…that’s kind of why we were all planning to tune in? I had actually set aside time to binge the whole thing, but I’m not as excited to dive into Swamp Kings after seeing some of the scathing reviews for it online.
Social media has been on fire about it, mainly calling out the fact that the series seemed to be pro-Urban Meyer when many blame him for many of the behind-the-scenes issues that the Florida Gators dealt with.
Take a look at some of the thoughts and reviews pouring in on social media below:
Between Manziel and the Florida Gators, these sports documentaries are turning into infomercials.
No depth. No hard questions. No sensitive topics. And nothing substantial outside of a few interesting stories.
Streaming content is valuable — but we can't let this happen.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) August 23, 2023
OK, finished binging "Swamp Kings" on 1.5 x speed and man, how disappointing.
Just off the top of my head, things omitted from the doc include: pic.twitter.com/4frxqV4xYh
— Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) August 22, 2023
Enjoying Swamp Kings from a nostalgia aspect, but it's far from investigative deep dive we thought that it might be.
It's more of an Urban Meyer propaganda piece with some cool behind the scenes video, but no real new info.
That being said, it's fun to relive glory days #Gators
— Jake Winderman (@jakewinderman) August 23, 2023
Netflix should be pretty embarrassed about the “Swamp Kings” Documentary.
0 hard hitting questions and is essentially a 4 part Urban Meyer Propaganda piece.
It also just ignores key stories & Players during that time, such as:
* Pouncey Twins
* Aaron Hernandez
* CAM NEWTON…— Clark Fahrenthold (@CFahrenthold11) August 23, 2023
I think we all thought #SwampKings was gonna be focused on the epic scandals of Florida football.
Instead it was just about how really good they were under Urban Meyer.
Meh.
— Justin Mendes (@MrNFKGSA) August 23, 2023
I mean, it probably should have been expected: There’s no way Meyer or all of these players were going to participate in a documentary that made them look bad.
But there’s so much material that they left out that it’s a little disappointing we’re not going to get the full behind-the-scenes look.
