Peralta Gems

Last Chance U at Laney College: "a love letter to Oakland"

Written by Aaron Harbour | Sep 29, 2020 4:58:16 PM

We thought we'd share some impressions of the season of the Netflix series Last Chance U which featured our very own Laney Eagles. 

An article on Screen Rant explores what happened to the players once the cameras were turned off. Read it here

And a piece on SF Gate describes the show as "a love letter to Oakland". From the article:

“We were very conscious of the fact that we did not want to pick cliche Bay Area images,” creator Greg Whiteley says via phone. “Even if we were going to include Bay Area images -- the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge -- we were going to include them differently, or more in harmony with our authentic vocabulary.”

Among the not-cliche images: RV-lined roads under Oakland overpasses, rallies with supporters shouting “no justice, no peace, no racist police” months before America’s racial reckoning, and Sav-Mor Liquors’ Black Panthers mural, which provides the backdrop for a streetside drum set performance from local musician Chukwudi Hodge [...]

“Laney seeks to be a force for good in that town,” Whiteley says. “The fact that the show became a love letter to Oakland, it was something that was very organic. To tell the story of Laney it would be impossible to ignore the history of Oakland. A love letter is the natural extension of our process.”