A game of love all, serve all

Tennis is beautiful. Grace and power, athleticism and attrition, creativity and elegance, all highlighted by how instantly-given the way a fluorescent green ball falls inside or outside a white line-it can turn. It is anyone's game.

- RAJA SEN

Netflix sensation Formula 1: Drive To Survive highlights young millionaires doing their best to get into the top teams, because only the best machinery is actually capable of winning, but the greatest tennis player in the world and the 150th seed play with basically the same racket. One might wear a snazzier wristwatch, certainly, but when on court, it's a prizefight.

The turmoil within tennis-where unseeded players come out of nowhere to win tournaments-is obviously compelling for slick documentarians James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin, who made Formula One popular in the US and beyond traditional motorsport audiences by focusing on (then exaggerating and then, finally and inevitably, manufacturing) rivalries and conflicts, underdog stories, myths of champions and challengers. Break Point (Netflix) starts out with a great hook: With Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal injured and on their way out, and anti-vaxxer Novak Djokovic denied visas to travel and compete, the door is open for new blood. Whose time is now?

The new series flies by fast as a power serve but it's a struggle for anybody who loves the sport: It explains rules of play with rudimentary simplicity and, in its haste to package highlights, it never stays on the matches long enough. We go from dramatic moment to dramatic moment, underscored by voiceovers about struggles and mental toughness. The Fl series eventually became cartoonishly sensational but remains extraordinarily well-produced, allowing us to watch F1 cars in 4K resolution for the first time. This one is edited so hyperactively, from so many angles, that the actual games never look stunning.