Stream It Or Skip It: ‘All American’ Season 5 on Netflix, The Latest Installment Of The CW’s Popular, Still Surviving Sports Drama

Season 5 of All American drops on Netflix in its entirety after finishing its run on the CW earlier this month, in a content-sharing agreement that dates to before the CW’s recent decimation under the linear network’s new ownership. All American has also already been renewed for a sixth season, so all of the acquisitional tomfoolery aside, now’s a great time to stream a binge session with the relationship-heavy sports drama on Netflix. If the executives in charge of this sort of thing would do the same, maybe they’d realize why shows like this can be so satisfying, and better respect their staying power. 

ALL AMERICAN – SEASON 5: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: It’s a hazy Los Angeles morning on Christmas Eve Eve, and separate from one another, Spencer (Daniel Ezra) and Olivia (Samantha Logan) are each considering the empty pillow beside them to the tune of John Legend’s “Ordinary People.”

The Gist: During a Kwanzaa celebration and opening mic gathering at Slauson Cafe in Crenshaw, many of the intersecting relationships at play in All American are brought to bear in the same room. Spencer, the Golden Angeles University Condors’ star freshman wide out, has arrived with his friend and injured QB Jordan (Michael Evans Behling), whose broken hand is out of a cast but still tender. But also still tender is his breakup with Simone (Geffri Maya Hightower), who’s back from Bringston University on Christmas break. Layla (Greta Onieogou) confronts Clay (Deric Augustine) – they’ve fallen out over his assumption of the boss level at her father’s record company, thereby shutting her out of the family business. And Keisha (Netta Walker), also back from Bringston for break, is concerned about how Cam (Mitchell Edwards) seems different and more distant when he’s home in LA. (Cam, a football player at Bringston, has some setbacks in that department that he’s unwilling to share.) But the question on most of these friends’ minds is simple: are Spencer and Olivia still a thing?  

Coop (Bre-Z) declares it a “kind-of” situation. “You two are the most together ‘not together’ couple I ever met,” Spencer’s best pal says. But with the Condors’ appearance in the ATL Bowl right around the corner – in which he’s starting as a freshman – and Liv’s burgeoning career as an investigative journalist – she’s chasing a story about the irregularities surrounding Coach Garrett (Sean Carrigan) and the D-1 Condors program Spence is a huge part of – there’s been more space between them than usual.

With the help of Jordan, Asher (Cody Christian), and JJ (Hunter Clowdus), Spencer’s decided to throw a Christmas Eve Eve party at the beach house they rent. You know, holiday cheer and all of that. (It might also guarantee him some face time with Olivia.) Naturally, JJ’s good-timing instigator ways pair up every potential couple, fallen out couple, and frenemy as Secret Santa partners, and the encounters that ensue conjure up new dramas to contend with. But also afoot over this Christmas break is Coop’s decision to pursue or not pursue pre-law at GAU, a move Laura (Monet Mazur) encourages her protege to make. And when Laura returns home to Billy (Taye Diggs), her husband tells her that the evidence he’s been examining with Olivia concerning Coach Garrett could have serious ramifications for the Condor football program.  

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Netflix also features both existing seasons of the All American spinoff All American: Homecoming, which follows the adventures of Geffri Maya Hightower’s Simone as she pursues a tennis career at Bringston University. (Will Homecoming see a third season? Who knows?) And there is something shared between All American and Bel-Air in their LA settings, the interplay between people at different levels of income, and especially in powerful performances from both series’ respective leads in Daniel Ezra and Jabari Banks.

Our Take: With so many relationships percolating at the center of All American, it’s both quite easy and profoundly difficult to pick a favorite ‘ship to follow. On the easy side of things, there is the sensitivity and chemistry shared between Daniel Ezra and Samantha Logan as Spencer and Olivia, chemistry that’s so electric, even all of the characters in the series seem to feed off of it. But after five seasons, the amount of stuff all of these people have gone through has really piled up, so it’s handy to keep a few mental notes. We’re talking shootings – at least two – paternity accusations, quickie marriages, even more quick divorces, sudden job changes, and on the gridiron, clashes of competitive spirit and competing egos. Not only that, but there have been the usual rounds of who hooked up with whom in the past, and who’s loving (or not loving) after who in the present, which crosses and crosses again the threads that connect this tight-knit friend group. It’s the kind of melodramatic intersection between attractive young people that the CW has always done well, and after all of the fallout from the network’s unfortunate dissolution, All American continues to stand as a prime example of its traditional brand.   

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: When Spencer and Olivia finally have a chance to speak honestly with one another after all of the events of All American season 5’s opening episode, it’s with the blend of hesitance and bold statement-making that any couple with mutual respect and love for one another would recognize. Everyone in their social circles seems to assume that these two are together for good. But when it’s one to one and heart to heart, Spence and Liv must speak their personal truths.

Sleeper Star: Everybody needs somebody like Coop in their life. Calisha “Bre-Z” Murray plays Spencer’s ride-or-die BFF with a charming blend of personal pride and real talk chipiness – she’s the pal that tells it like it is, even if she sometimes strays from taking her own advice.

Most Pilot-y Line: Together? Not together? If Spencer and Olivia’s relationship is confusing for their friends, it’s even more of a mess for themselves. “I don’t even know how to start that conversation,” Spencer admits to Coop early on. “I don’t even know if that’s a conversation she wants to have. Maybe in her mind, she moved on already. At least, in this ‘limbo’ thing, technically, we still together.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Come for the contemporary collegiate sports overlay and across-the-board cast attractiveness, but stay for the righteous levels of ‘shipping occurring in All American Season 5. It’s a stew CW programming has always thrived in stirring, which for viewers makes it all the more rewarding that All American seems to have risen above the cancellation bloodbath. 

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges