The Rams' first season back in L.A. was "captured in minute detail by the highly skilled storytellers at NFL Films" for Amazon Prime's eight-episode "All or Nothing: A Season with the Los Angeles Rams," to Sam Farmer of the L.A. TIMES. "All or Nothing" director Shannon Furman said filming the series was "completely different" than HBO's "Hard Knocks," which also comes from NFL Films. Furman: "Teams are a little less uptight during the season throughout the process. On 'Hard Knocks,' if a fight breaks out, that’s a huge story line for us, whereas on 'All or Nothing' that’s probably nothing by the time the show’s airing. The story lines and characters are different." NFL Films Coordinating Producer Keith Cossrow said the firing of coach Jeff Fisher towards the end of the season was the "elephant in the room, and the thing people were going to be most interested in." Cossrow said the crew decided Fisher's firing was "at the heart of the story we wanted to tell." Cossrow: "We wanted to lay that out very clearly in those first five minutes: We have a story to tell about the NFL that’s never really been told before. It’s a story about what happens to those seven or eight teams every season whose coach gets fired, and everything gets turned upside down for all those people." Farmer noted the show does not "show the actual moment the Rams fired Fisher." Cossrow: "It’s impossible to capture everything. You can have 10 cameras rolling 24/7 and you would still miss a thousand important moments. That’s just the nature of the beast." He added NFL Films and Amazon are "talking with several teams" about doing another season of the series, though there is nothing to "announce at this point" (L.A. TIMES, 7/5).
FLY ON THE WALL: In California, Rich Hammond noted the show is "exceedingly compelling and, for the most part, a fair and accurate telling of a season full of drama." The Rams also appeared on “Hard Knocks" last summer, but that "suffered at [the] time because, perhaps in an attempt to attract non-football fans, it attempted to create drama." There was no need "to play up any drama" on "All or Nothing," as "plenty of it already existed." Every story line is "well covered, with narration from actor Jon Hamm and some well-placed game calls from the Rams’ J.B. Long." The series showed that Rams players "did hang together," and rookie QB Jared Goff’s situation was "handled well." The players’ and coaches’ personalities were also "represented well." As for what the show could have done better, it took "some mild liberties when it comes to the editing." Fisher’s "infamous '7-9' speech was not the first team meeting, but actually was an early-camp response to a couple off-field incidents that irritated him." Additionally, some in-season controversies "seemed to get downplayed" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 7/4).
