Great first episode. Most of us psychos on this board saw a lot of the stuff happen in real-time (Method Man, Aaron's bling, Hackett/Payton drama, etc.) but it was really nice to get a behind-the-scenes look at all of these things plus real-time reactions to some of the practice moments that we've followed along with in the TC thread. I really enjoyed the look into the positional rooms and I hope we get a little bit more of that going forward but this could be something the Jets are pushing back on a bit. Motto for the season: "F*** DEM CROWS".
Hard Knocks is once again the standard bearer for production. Fantastic first episode and only a little bit of that is me being a homer. I’ve been in the industry for going on 12 years and I feel like I’m learning something new about my own job every time I watch an episode. Those poor 1 Jets Drive dudes… I get why they wanted to but running that show concurrent with Hard Knocks is such a massive mistake. The difference is night and day. -Saleh is absolutely the right dude -Sauce and Garrett Wilson are young legit stars and also have great heads on their shoulders -Zach Wilson is handling this about as well as he possibly could -Ulbrich is insanely annoying. Gives off phony vibes. -Hackett is very likable and the players seem to like him a lot -what a fantastic PR job by Rodgers. I’ve talked to a bunch of people on the ground with NFL Films and they said this is a totally different guy to work with according to them. Maybe he’s just at the stage of life where he realizes being a dick does him no favors but who cares, it’s clearly having a ripple effect on the entire organization.
Just finished watching the first episode. I thought it was very well done. Rodgers is a really funny guy. Love that dry sense of humor of his. I really enjoyed watching him with Zach Wilson. If there is any shot at ZW becoming a good QB, Rodgers is the guy to help him. I also enjoyed the segments with G. Wilson and Sauce. These two should be leading their respective units for years to come. Sauce presented himself better than I thought he would. Wilson is very well spoken. Saleh seems very motivational. His opening speech was great. I hope to see him get tough with these guys. It can't always be sunshine and unicorns. Lastly, I learned a new word. Charcoochie. Classic
I have a deep television production background as well deep family history of it. I share your appreciation and learning from these types of productions as well. In my opinion, the Jets production team has improved leaps and bounds over what it was, even just a few seasons ago. I felt like both production teams did a good job avoiding being too redundant in shared content. That said, the first episode of Hard Knocks was lacking. It felt rushed because they had a late start. It was basically all Aaron Rodgers with a little Sauce, Wilson and Wilson sprinkled in. No fights shown? I felt zero intrigue. For such a compelling team, they spent more time with Liev Schreiber than they did with anyone not named Rodgers, Wilson or Gardner? Fascinating approach. Edit: I'll be interested to see if either team caught the Aaron Rodgers moment I saw in person. Sunday. It was wonderful.
I feel like we've spoken about our careers at some point over the last decade but we should again because I've totally forgotten 1JD crew has absolutely gotten better of the years. Way better. There are still some things they do that drive me nuts but those are amplified even more when their product airs 24 hours before Hard Knocks which is the gold standard in docu-follow style shows. Also doesn't help that the 1JD director was on Twitter responding to Jets fans who wanted the team on Hard Knocks saying that the 1JD crew is better because they put out a similar quality product (wrong) with a shorter turnaround (wrong) with less people (that's true). Not a good look. I was just talking to one of my co-workers who is a former seg producer on Hard Knocks... he was telling me how they had to hit the ground running and didn't have the time to set up the stories that you can sink your teeth into. I think the mindset was "let's pacify everyone episode 1 with the biggest stars" and it worked for the most part. They needed time to identify the stories and they'll be able to start setting them up next week.
Haven't watched Hard Knocks in quite a few years... the last may have been when the Jets were on it in '09. While I thoroughly enjoyed episode one... I did notice, like @BroadwayAaron said above, that they featured the "stars" of the team rather than the journeymen... which I thought was Hard Knocks theme. It makes sense seeing that they started late. I've been working in sports television for the last 25 years and was impressed by the production overall... audio post-production in particular. Well done.
I agree. By hard knocks standards it was kinda lame. The best part is watching actual practices, the guys bustin' their asses to make the team, the coaches getting on players for dogging it, etc. Hopefully they make it more like that for the next ones. and yeah, I dont want to see Liev Schreiber, I want to see football
The last time I watched it was when the Jets were on. I have no interest if it isn't my team. I think my favorite part was either the charcoochie segment or Rodgers asking if someone farted Rodgers is not only a funny guy but he seems like a good one as well. It may all be an act but somehow I doubt that. He got a bad rep for the thing that won't be brought up. It was open season after that.
Not a fan of the whole Hard Knocks thing, but I watched the first episode and found it interesting. Saleh’s motivational speech was a little weird. I get that he was trying to make a metaphor about overcoming the “haters” that always plague the Jets, but the eagle/crow story was entirely bull crap. Crows are not the only bird to harass an eagle; many birds will if the eagle enters their territory. And the part about flying high enough to suffocate the crow is ridiculous as well; if the crow can’t breathe neither can the eagle. I think it would have been more effective if he presented it as a fable rather than something that actually happens. Anyway, a minor nitpick and if the players get motivated by it then I guess it doesn’t matter. It just came across as a little strange to me.
Fucking Sauce is impossible not to love. So refreshing to see a young guy at the top of his game so down-to-earth and likable...