Summary
The Cage is a familiar take on the underdog sports drama, but the French Netflix series still holds some surprises, and its close association with the UFC lends it some authenticity and a few deep cuts for fans.
The underdog sports drama never stops being popular, and Netflix’s The Cage fits the mold shaped by classics like Rocky and great contemporary efforts like Warrior. You’ll see strands of both in the DNA of this five-part French series from Sylvain Caron and Franck Gastambide, but it also manages to carve out a bit of space for itself thanks to a very close association with real-life MMA in general and the UFC specifically — two of the company’s biggest ever stars both feature — and a handful of quite surprising plot turns that add some character and thematic depth and set up a second season if this one proves popular.
The unavoidable irony is that while The Cage is marketed very directly at staunch UFC fans — like me! — it’s also us guys who’ll find the most to nitpick. Anyone who is cursorily familiar with the darker sides of certain fighters’ careers, for instance, isn’t going to buy into the idea of them lecturing the protagonist, Taylor (Melvin Boomer), about rising from the ashes and achieving his full potential. There are also cameos and oblique references to certain fighters, coaches, and gyms that I got a kick out of but that most people probably won’t. Nobody is watching this to see Tristar head coach Firas Zahabi, though I’m thrilled he’s in it.
For that reason, I’ll keep all the nerdy namedropping to a minimum. All you need to know as a viewer is that there are a lot of MMA fighters in this, and some of them are quite famous, but the plot draws tons of attention to who they are anyway and often provides handy video packages that Taylor just so happens to be watching at the time to explain it. So, don’t worry about all that.
As for Taylor himself, he’s a more interesting starting point. A talented amateur with perhaps a little more confidence than seems warranted, he’s compelled to crowbar his way through the regional and then international MMA scene to help out his uncaring mother and her dodgy boyfriend, Regis, who are both in financial strife and are being hunted down by violent loan sharks. This primarily manifests as an ongoing rivalry with a local champion named Ibrahim, though there are deviations for bouts across Europe, all shot with a keen eye for drama and pleasingly authentic choreography, just as long as you don’t get hung up on minor details like how long someone can hold out against a choke submission or how much punishment someone can take before the referee waves a fight off.
Georges St. Pierre and Melvin Boomer in The Cage | Image via Netflix
You’ll recognize the broad strokes of The Cage. An unknown fighter gaining sudden viral notoriety by knocking out an established champion in a sparring session is lifted directly from Warrior, which was itself a contortion of the brash champion versus local underdog conflict at the core of Rocky and Rocky II. There are multiple training montages, usually with a current or former UFC champion involved, and even the old will-he-won’t-he dynamic crops up when Taylor is asked to throw a match, which feels more reminiscent of Snatch than anything else.
It’s in the finer details that things break away from tradition. Taylor’s relationship with his mother and her awful boyfriend takes a bold late turn, and his quiet, understated rivalry with a jealous friend named Niko yields a few surprises too. It isn’t just that these things are unexpected, but also that they’re deployed in unexpected places, undercutting the usual rhythms of a from-the-ashes sports drama. The Cage isn’t content to just let Taylor win everything without consequence, even in a bold ending that tees up Season 2.
If you couldn’t tell, I liked this show quite a bit, though don’t go in expecting the smoothest ride. Some of the writing is clunky, and since the cast leans more toward professional fighters than professional actors, the performances can be questionable at times. This and a few plot contrivances or abandoned side stories prohibit The Cage from being as good as it could be, but it’s still pretty good — and for fans of MMA, it’s as close an approximation of the sport as we’re likely to get on TV for a while.
