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Wrestling doc Monster Factory will body-slam you with truth [Apple TV+ review] ★★★★

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David Goldschmidt (aka Goldy) and Hurley A. Jones Jr. (aka Bobby Buffet) in “Monster Factory,” premiering on Friday, March 17 on Apple TV+.★★★★
David Goldschmidt (aka Goldy) and Hurley A. Jones Jr. (aka Bobby Buffet) are just two of the wrestlers we meet in Monster Factory.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review Monster Factory, a surprisingly inventive docuseries about wannabe pro wrestlers, is Apple TV+’s best sports docuseries yet. Over the course of its six breezy and beautiful episodes, set at a wrestling farm school in New Jersey, we meet a cast of eccentrics who share a common dream: to throw people around for a living.

They want to become stars, to go down in pro wrestling history. And with cantankerous Danny Cage as their coach, these ne’er-do-wells learn everything there is to know about wrestling — and they teach us, too.

Binge on award-winning documentaries with best-of-web pricing on Curiosity Stream

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Binge on award-winning documentaries with this best-of-web pricing on Curiosity Stream.
Enjoy a lifetime's worth of great documentaries from Curiosity Stream for just $169.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Netflix (and pretty much any other streaming service) may be the most effective and entertaining way ever invented to kill time. But time is precious, and there’s only so much of it we can spend watching scripted and mindless TV. For those that want more out of their binge-watching sessions, there’s Curiosity Stream.

Real Madrid: Until the End shoots and misses [Apple TV+ review] ★★☆☆

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The new three-part documentary debuts March on Apple TV+.★★☆☆
How do you tell an exciting sports story when there's not much going on?
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review New Apple TV+ sports documentary Real Madrid: Until the End chronicles one of the world’s most popular football clubs during a treacherous 2021 and 2022 comeback season.

Missing their star striker, reuniting with an old coach, dealing with their best player’s injuries … there are many hurdles for the team to overcome. This three-part series won’t play particularly well for people who aren’t already invested in the fortunes of Real Madrid. But it proves fairly informative and entertaining even to the layman.

Wannabe pro wrestlers go mano a mano in Monster Factory documentary trailer

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There's a school for aspiring pro wrestlers that teaches you everything from building the stage to mugging for the cameras? Who knew.
There's a school for aspiring pro wrestlers that teaches you everything from building the stage to mugging for the cameras? Who knew.
Photo: Apple TV+

You might love pro wrestling and find documentary films tiresome — or vice versa. Either way, the new trailer for the upcoming Monster Factory documentary series on Apple TV+ may be for you. It tells the stories of those yearning to get into the ring.

Just the fact that a school trains aspiring pro wrestlers on every aspect of getting into the business is interesting. And so are some of the contenders trying to change their lives.

New Apple TV+ trailer showcases Real Madrid soccer club’s epic season

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The new three-part documentary debuts March on Apple TV+.
The new three-part documentary debuts March on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ kicked off an upcoming documentary series — Real Madrid: Until the End — with a trailer Wednesday. In it, soccer icon David Beckham raves about the famous Spanish soccer club’s remarkable 2021-2022 season. It was loaded with drama and plenty of come-from-behind victories on the way to the club taking the Champions League title.

The three-part documentary series premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 10.

Make or Break rides a wave of human drama in second season [Apple TV+ recap] ★★☆☆

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Surfer Kelly Slater catches a wave in ★★☆☆
Which surfer will reign supreme?
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewMake or Break, Apple TV+’s surfing competition series, returns for its second season this week, throwing us right back into the personal lives and challenges facing the greatest wave riders in the world as they prepare for a world championship.

Who will be crowned the best? If that question excites you, you’ll have a fine time with this by-the-numbers surfing docuseries.

Make or Break season 2 trailer shows pro surfers desperate to win

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Our reviewer wanted less talking and more surfing in season 1. Maybe season 2 will deliver.
Our reviewer wanted less talking and more surfing in season 1. Maybe season 2 will deliver.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ brought back surfing competition documentary Make or Break for a second season that starts February 17. The trailer pumps up the surfers’ desperation to win the coveted World Surf League Championship title.

“Season 2 … I guess we weren’t that bad,” one surfer chuckled. Sure, the show is back, but in the trailer it looks like some of the surfers could be done for good if they don’t do better.

Super League: The War for Football details a sordid cash grab [Apple TV+ review] ★★☆☆

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Aleksander Čeferin, president of the Union of European Football Associations, in a still from four-part Apple TV+ docuseries ★★☆☆
Aleksander Čeferin, president of the Union of European Football Associations, faces a major battle in Super League: The War for Football.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewNew Apple TV+ documentary series Super League: The War for Football examines a dark and very recent chapter in the beloved sport’s history when the bubble threatened to burst.

Capitalism’s slowly tightening stranglehold over the sport meant that some owners saw the potential for growth that meant cutting off not just more than half of the European teams, but the thousands of fans of those teams. This is the story of the people who saved football … for now.

Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me paints portrait of poisonous fame [Apple TV+ review] ★★★

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Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me★★★
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me shows the private side of a public life
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ ReviewIn new Apple TV+ documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, we take a trip into the center of the pop star’s world to discover her journey has been nothing but hardship surrounded by impossible highs, which makes coping with her fame something like a near-impossibility.

Narrated by Gomez herself and directed by Alek Keshishian (Madonna: Truth or Dare), this revealing, well-intentioned and often quite beautiful documentary gets us inside of her turmoil and the whirlwind of both her fame and her illness. It’s important for people to know that being America’s sweetheart is no picnic, and that the machinery of fame is parasitic and unyielding. Hopefully, someone, somewhere will pull the brakes on throwing kids into the show business maelstrom.

Louis Armstong’s Black & Blues takes a bold look at a jazz legend [Apple TV+ review] ★★★★

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Louis Armstrong’s 'Black & Blues' review: A wealth of archival footage gives us a rare portrait of jazz legend Louis Armstrong.★★★★
A wealth of archival footage gives us a rare portrait of a jazz legend in Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.
Photo: Apple TV+

TV+ Review New Apple TV+ documentary Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues takes a lively and appropriately soulful look at the man who invented popular music in America as we know it today.

The film, which premieres today on Apple’s streaming service, brims with expert testimony from witnesses, fans, friends, and family of the incredibly influential jazz musician. It’s bolstered by a cornucopia of rare archival footage and photographs that root Armstrong firmly in history.

Louis Armstrong is too big a subject to think you could ever fully capture him, so director Sacha Jenkins treats this project as just one man’s look at another man. It’s remarkably successful.