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Post by masterofallgoons on Aug 19, 2020 19:22:35 GMT
Has anybody else seen this show? It would have been worth a watch in the best of times, but in the absence of our normal sports viewing world it was even more engaging.
It's about fringe, local competitive sports around the world with each episode dedicated to a different event. In some cases they were things I'd heard of like the Highland Games in Scotland, or Roller Derby in Austin, Texas; in others they were things I peripherally knew existed but wasn't aware of the organizated competition like women's wrestling in India or Freediving in the Philippines. Then there were the oddities that I'd never heard about like the Italian sport that combines Rugby and Bare knuckle boxing, or the WWE style event in the Congo, or the game that resembles Polo but uses a goat carcass instead of a ball (I can't remember the country at the moment).
There are 8 episodes at about a half hour each and Mark Strong makes for a quality narrator. It's worth the time if you're looking for something to watch, and it seems like it could go on for multiple seasons. I'd bet there are plenty of these sorts of events that most of us know nearly nothing about all over the world.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Aug 19, 2020 20:33:26 GMT
or the game that resembles Polo but uses a goat carcass instead of a ball (I can't remember the country at the moment). I remember reading about that. Isn't it Afghanistan? Or maybe Pakistan.
I will check it out, it sounds interesting.
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Post by masterofallgoons on Aug 20, 2020 0:52:35 GMT
or the game that resembles Polo but uses a goat carcass instead of a ball (I can't remember the country at the moment). I remember reading about that. Isn't it Afghanistan? Or maybe Pakistan.
I will check it out, it sounds interesting.
Kyrgyzstan, as it turns out. Just checked the episode listing on Netflix. |
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Aug 20, 2020 13:25:46 GMT
I remember reading about that. Isn't it Afghanistan? Or maybe Pakistan.
I will check it out, it sounds interesting.
Kyrgyzstan, as it turns out. Just checked the episode listing on Netflix.
I just watched that particular episode this morning before coming to work. Great stuff. Reality is stranger than fiction sometimes. If George R R Martin had created this sport in his Game of Thrones books, people would have thought "how does this guy come up with such crazy ideas".
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Post by masterofallgoons on Aug 23, 2020 15:41:39 GMT
Kyrgyzstan, as it turns out. Just checked the episode listing on Netflix.
I just watched that particular episode this morning before coming to work. Great stuff. Reality is stranger than fiction sometimes. If George R R Martin had created this sport in his Game of Thrones books, people would have thought "how does this guy come up with such crazy ideas".
True. It seems wild and ancient and also like a fantasy at the same time. There was another episode set, if I recall, somewhere in Asia where the flooded rice fields are used for a race where the oxen (I think) pull a jockey behind them and they basically are water skiing behind their carriages. It's the same kind of crazy thing. Not as wild as the other other one, but clearly an esoteric and old tradition carried on by a small group of people in a very specific place. But that first episode with the bare knuckle rugby boxing in Italy was every bit as insane too. |
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Aug 23, 2020 16:42:02 GMT
I just watched that particular episode this morning before coming to work. Great stuff. Reality is stranger than fiction sometimes. If George R R Martin had created this sport in his Game of Thrones books, people would have thought "how does this guy come up with such crazy ideas".
True. It seems wild and ancient and also like a fantasy at the same time. But that first episode with the bare knuckle rugby boxing in Italy was every bit as insane too. Funny you should mention it, as I watched it just this morning and I was going to write a post about it. That is just madness! Guys just pummeling each other! The ball almost looked like an afterthought! |
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Post by masterofallgoons on Aug 24, 2020 19:28:59 GMT
True. It seems wild and ancient and also like a fantasy at the same time. But that first episode with the bare knuckle rugby boxing in Italy was every bit as insane too. Funny you should mention it, as I watched it just this morning and I was going to write a post about it. That is just madness! Guys just pummeling each other! The ball almost looked like an afterthought! It really did. Crazy that such a game still exists, especially because it's not in a third world country or something. I also thought it was kinda cool that you were born into your team and could never switch. |
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