The Last Dance | |
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Genre | Television documentary[1] Miniseries |
Directed by | Jason Hehir[2] |
Composer | Thomas Caffey |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 10 |
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Cinematography |
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Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 48–50 minutes |
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Original release | |
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Release | April 19 May 17, 2020 | –
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The Last Dance is a 2020 American sports television documentary miniseries co-produced by ESPN Films and Netflix. Directed by Jason Hehir, the series revolves around the career of Michael Jordan, with particular focus on the 1997–98 season, his final season with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The series features exclusive footage from a film crew that had an all-access pass to the Bulls, as well as interviews of many NBA personalities, including Jordan's teammates (Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr) and then-Bulls head coach Phil Jackson.
The series aired on ESPN from April 19 to May 17, 2020, in the United States, while its episodes were released on Netflix internationally the day after their US airings; beginning on May 23, two episodes were aired back-to-back on ESPN's corporate partner ABC. ESPN2 aired an alternate version of the series intended for family viewing, which removed most of the profanity heard in the episodes. The series became available on Netflix on July 19, 2020.
It received critical acclaim, with praise for its directing and editing, and also for the timing of the release - during the initial weeks of quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic when viewers were desperate for entertainment.[3][4] The Last Dance won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
However, the series received heavy backlash from Jordan’s former Chicago Bulls teammates for its accuracy and narratives. Much of the hostility stemmed from the expectation of a documentary exclusively about the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls season, yet unfolded to be primarily a biography of Jordan’s personal life and sports career. It also was criticized for portraying multiple key players of that era in an unfairly negative fashion, while simultaneously giving excessive preferential treatment to Jordan.[5]