by Charles Kirkland Jr.
A former sneakerhead finds himself drawn back into the madness by an old friend in the Netflix series Sneakerheads.
Devin (Allen Maldonado) is a former sneakerhead. He is now a stay-at-home dad who is trying to get back on his feet while his wife is working and the children are now getting old enough to go to school on their own. One day his old friend Bobby (Andrew Bachelor) shows up with a clue to the exclusive “Zero,” an extremely rare shoe that the two of them almost went broke searching for long ago. With the thrill of the game re-inspired in Devin, he journeys the world trying to find the elusive shoe with a new crew and a deadline.
Sneakerheads is a new six-episode comedy series from Netflix created by Jay Longino (Uncle Drew) and stars Maldonado (The Last OG) and Bachelor (Coffee and Kareem) with Jearnest Corchado, Matthew Josten, and Yani King Mondschein. It is simply a show about the disappointing and disillusioning and sometimes rewarding chase for the impossible. The show is full of disappointments, yet Longino dangles the carrot in front of the characters to draw them (and us) into the next hair-brained search from another paper-thin source to create a series of madcap comedic adventures.
It’s fun to see Maldonado who plays the goofball in The Last OG as a sensible (to an extent) and intelligent man who has goals and a family for which to care. It is Bachelor that plays the goofball in this one. He is the one who coerces the stable and grown man back into the crew in search of the unobtainable.
A sneakerhead is a person who is a lover of athletic shoes. They can look at a show and tell you everything about it including its value. They are the ones who get in lines for the debut of new shoes and have boxes of unworn shoes in a closet. On this show, these sneakerheads are in the business of trading and selling as well. They find exclusive and rare shoes to re-sell or exchange for gifts and favors. At one time, Devin and Bobby were going to have a store together and sell shoes but things soured after a failed expensive search for the rare Nike Zero, a white whale with a very expensive price tag. Bobby re-ignites the fire in Devin when finds a new set of clues and a new crew to help find the elusive shoe. A smart side story that gives the story an unexpected heart involves Devin’s wife Christine (Mondschein) who finds out that Devin has been sucked back into the sneaker world and desperately tries to understand.
Cute and fast-paced (each episode is about thirty minutes), Sneakerheads is an interesting find that speaks especially to those who have obsessive hobbies or are collectors in their own right. It has a lot of heart and humor and actually is very entertaining. Rated TV-MA for language, Sneakerheads is not for little children but is for the child in us.
Grade: B+