Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Algiers, America’ on Hulu, a Documentary Series Profiling a Talented High School Football Team in One of America’s Most Dangerous Places

In Algiers, America, a striking new documentary series debuting this week on Hulu, we go inside the locker room and out on the field with the Cougars of Edna Karr High School in the Algiers neighborhood on the West Bank of New Orleans, Louisiana. Behind celebrated head coach Brice Brown, they’ve become a perennial championship contender in Louisiana high school football and consistently turn out top-tier college football prospects, but their players face challenges most other teams don’t. Algiers is plagued by violence, and it’s a specter that frequently hits home for many on the team.

ALGIERS, AMERICA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We first see the Edna Karr Cougars in their locker room, a cacophony of voices and nervous, anticipatory energy buzzing as they prepare for the 2020 4A Championship game against Carencro, a game in which they’ll attempt to win their fifth straight state championship. A coach gives a stirring speech to the team both about achieving their goals and acknowledging the challenges they face off the field.

The Gist: Edna Karr High School has become well-known as a powerhouse in Louisiana high school football. The school–a predominantly-black public school located in the West Bank of New Orleans–consistently competes for state championships against schools with better resources, and frequently sends players to top college football programs. Head coach Brice Brown has been celebrated both for his skill as a leader and his tactical football acumen. But that’s only part of the story. Situated in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in one of America’s most violence-plagued cities, the Cougars’ lives off the field are constantly haunted by the specter of tragedy.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s Friday Night Lights, but real life, and with far heavier stakes.

Our Take: It’s not unusual for people to refer to football in terms of life and death, but most of the time that’s an exaggerated metaphor–wins and losses happen, but life goes on. It’s a bit different at Edna Karr High School, where the reality of life and death hangs over everything the perennially-contending Cougars do. This point is brought home early in the first episode of the stellar Algiers, America, when coaches talk about the recent murder of former standout quarterback Tollette “Tonka” George, who was shot dead weeks after graduating from college and weeks shy of a planned tryout with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.

Celebrated head coach Brice Brown and his staff aren’t just shepherding their team toward the playoffs–they’re in a state of constant concern for their players’ lives, situated as they are in the often-forgotten West Bank of New Orleans, an area plagued by gun violence and ignored by many in the tourist areas across the river.

The Cougars’ story was profiled in the superb 2021 book Across The River: Life, Death and Football in an American City by journalist Kent Babb. The book has the time to flesh out the stories in deeper detail than is possible in a five-part television documentary, but seeing it told on screen brings it home on a different level; we get to know the players and coaches, get to understand that–despite the big stage they often find themselves on, and despite the life-and-death circumstances they often face–these are just high school kids, young people who deserve something better than the world they’ve been given.

This is driven home in a stirring scene with star wide receiver Aaron Anderson, a player who coaches and teachers recognize tremendous potential in. He speaks of his best friend, Jarmal “Mall” Washington, who was killed in 2020. “After seeing him die, I always looked at it like one day that could be me. I just couldn’t get over it.” His mother feels much the same way. “Every day he walks out this door, I don’t sleep until he gets home. You’ve gotta be smart about who you hang with.” She talks about the perils of young men “going left”, getting caught up in guns, gangs and violence.

“That’s why I don’t think about the future. I don’t want nothing bad to happen, so I don’t even want to think about it. You start thinking about it, speaking it into existence, all sort of bad stuff starts to happen. My heart ain’t strong enough.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: We’re back where we started at the beginning of the episode, with the Cougars gearing up for their game against Carenco, but it hits different than it did an hour prior, now that we know everything these players and coaches have gone through to get to this point. The stakes really do feel like life and death, but not in the exaggerated football-speak sense.

Sleeper Star: Coach Brice Brown is absolutely the most compelling figure here–a coach who’s passed up on bigger opportunities, including in the college game, to stay and keep Edna Karr’s football machine humming.

Most Pilot-y Line: “You can’t take for granted a ring, you can’t take for granted a helmet, you can’t take for granted even a football,” coach Brown addresses his team as they’re presented with the previous year’s state championship rings. “Don’t take for granted what we are, don’t take for granted what you do.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Edna Karr Cougars’ story is a compelling American story, and Algiers, America does a worthy job sharing it with the world.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.