Cheer landed back on Netflix last week as season two hit the streaming service.
Following the huge success of season one, which aired in early 2020, there was little fanfare to announce a second run and with controversy and a pandemic landing in the middle of filming it's easy to see why Netflix weren't giving the show the same amount of pre-show pep as they had done two years prior.
After soaring the Navarro cheerleading squad and their coach Monica Aldama to dizzying levels of fame, season two landed with a drama-filled bump.
Back on mat: Cheer landed back on Netflix last week as season two hit the streaming service but after soaring the Navarro cheerleading squad and their coach Monica Aldama to dizzying levels of fame, season two landed with a drama-filled bump
Covid shuts down Daytona
Cheer follows the champion cheerleaders of Texas junior college Navarro as they train for their only competition of the year - the National Cheerleaders Association's Collegiate National Championship, a.k.a. Daytona.
Season one followed the team and coach Monica as they trained for and then won the April 2019 championship.
Season two picks up in early 2020 in the weeks leading up to the 2020 competition, before the first major upheaval of the series arrives - the global pandemic.
Tough year: Season one followed the team and coach Monica as they trained for and then won the April 2019 championship but Covid puts an end to their 2020 dream
Tune in: Cheer season two streams January 12 on Netflix
What follows is a season split into two. The first four episodes are full of gleeful pep as the squad and Monica giddily navigate their new fame with appearances on Ellen, red carpets, photoshoots alongside their daily practices in Navarro.
But just weeks before Daytona Covid hits, the competition is cancelled and the team is unceremoniously sent home.
The pandemic means an abrupt end to many of the season one fan favourites' cheer careers as the likes of Morgan Simianer and Lexi Brumback leave the college and the mat behind.
Season two then fast forwards a year as a new round of recruits practice for Daytona 2021.
Jerry
Arrest: The first series' breakout star Jerry Harris was indicted on child pornography charges in September 2020
Covid decimated the season one team beloved by fans, but the major shock over the past year has been the events surrounding the first series' breakout star Jerry Harris who was indicted on child pornography charges in September 2020.
Season two dedicates an episode to the charges, interviewing the family whose accusations sparked the FBI’s initial investigation into Harris’ alleged behavior. It also features interviews with Monica and his former teammates as they unpack their feelings about their friend.
'Jerry would've been impossible to ignore because it impacted the team so severely,'
