Review La Cage (Netflix): the new series by Franck Gastambide hits the void

After the success of Valid on Canal+ and Medellín on Prime Video, Franck Gastambide arrives on Netflix with a new series dedicated to the world of mixed martial arts, or MMA.

Both co-creator-director-screenwriter and actor, Gastambide offers here a strong concept which promises to highlight a sport that is still relatively unknown in France. So, should we look The Cagethis series between the cult film Rocky and the series Kingdom ? The answer in our review, guaranteed without spoilers.

The history of the series

A young fighter who dreams of turning professional struggles to get noticed, until an unexpected fight throws him into the spotlight against a formidable opponent.

Our review

Franck Gastambide's project for a series focused on MMA, almost unexploited on the small screen, was very exciting. The man himself being a notorious fan of mixed martial arts, we could hope for a realistic and thrilling series. Headlining, we find Melvin Boomer, revealed in 2022 in the series The World of Tomorrow.

From this point of view, we cannot blame Gastambide or his team for knowing little about MMA, the UFC and their legendary champions. Each fight staged in the series is carefully choreographed and truly creates the illusion that we are not watching actors fight, but real fighters.

However, the prowess of the series stops there and does not go beyond the gate of the cage. From a narrative point of view, the whole plot feels reheated and only serves as a pretext to tick the boxes of a typical story of the genre: a young outsider fighter who knows nothing other than to fight, a angry antagonist, a recalcitrant coach, a complicated family situation… The characters are thus very stereotypical and the dialogues do not fly very high.

As we have said, the fights are well choreographed, but their staging is unfortunately devoid of panache. Between tasteless shots outside the ring and a camera that constantly revolves around its subjects to the point of making the viewer nauseous, the production of the series is flat from start to finish, never managing to be as nervous and incisive than that, for example, of Ryan Coogler for Creed.

Melvin Boomer, in the lead role of The Cageis pretty much the only actor on the show to really shine. He makes do with the means at hand and a scenario of confounding vacuity. Facing him are a succession of distinguished guests, MMA heavyweights like George Saint Pierre, Jon Jones, and even Ciryl Gane. Here again, their participation is appreciable and will delight the fans, but no one is a good actor. This also applies to Gastambide, who always persists in wanting to be in front of the camera with a performance devoid of nuance.

The other problem of The Cageeverything is going too fast. The story moves forward without taking the time to breathe, to give its characters the space to exist, chaining together twists and turns of plot empty of substance. Even when the series initiates a good narrative idea, like evoking the mental load of MMA on its fighters, it buries it as quickly as it brought it up, just to spend more time on endless training sequences or a shaky romance.

The Cagethese are therefore five disappointing episodes of a series which nevertheless had the opportunity to tell an authentic story around the world of MMA. Instead, it gets bogged down in clichés and conveniences to ultimately serve us a product that sometimes manages to entertain, but above all makes us roll our eyes a lot.

If you like watching UFC matches, you will no doubt be intrigued by The Cage and excited to see MMA be the star of a Netflix series. However, expect to endure the abysmal story that is woven between each fight, until the whole thing knocks you out, exhausted by so much emptiness.

Enter at your own risk The Cageavailable from November 8, 2024 on Netflix.

• Watch the trailer for the series: