7 Days Out – Netflix Documentary Season 1 Review

Episode Guide

Westminster Dog Show
Eleven Madison Park
NASA’s Cassini Mission
Kentucky Derby
CHANEL Haute Couture Fashion Show
League of Legends

Working in a busy nightclub the week before Christmas always filled me with equal doses of fascination and dread. Seeing the manpower and logistics that go into pulling off a successful night helped give a real appreciation for how much work these events are to get right. Putting up decorations, prepping champagne on ice, making sure the bars are fully stocked, extra security to cope with the numbers and all the tweaking with lighting and the sound system. All this for a club that held a little shy of 2000 people. For an event that lasted 5 hours.

With this in mind, Netflix’s latest documentary 7 Days Out promises to take us behind the scenes and capture on film this fascination and wonder. The result is a much more emotionally charged documentary than it first appears. Instead of focusing on the technicality involved with these events, we catch up with the people – both competitors and organizers alike – for six fascinating and wildly different episodes.

The first episode tackles the Westminster Dog Show where we catch up with the spectators, judges and competitors vying for the coveted title of Best Dog. From here, the series jumps to a restaurant re-opening, a NASA space mission and even an E-Sports championship event. There’s a deliberate emphasis on showing wildly different events here and this helps to keep each episode fresh and exciting. With this stark contrast of activities, there’s sure to be something here that people will warm to. Horse race enthusiasts will love the episode on the Kentucky Derby while video gamers are likely to enjoy the aforementioned League Of Legends episode.

Despite their differences, the six episodes all follow a very similar pattern. After a brief introduction to the event and the people involved, a countdown timer pops up on screen counting down for each of the 7 days leading up to that live event. From setting up the stage and laying the foundation to the final hours before the show itself, 7 Days out provides a brief glimpse at the general set up of each production. Make no mistake about it though, this is a documentary that’s much more focused on the human element rather than the technicality and set up. This is likely to be the deciding factor of how much you get out of this documentary but with so many colourful, empathetic characters, 7 Days Out does well to help you warm to each person.

There’s a recurring theme running throughout the series around family and togetherness and it’s something that really captures what it’s like to be part of an event like this. It’s something that’s captured particularly well in the NASA episode and also the E-Sports segment. Seeing this run throughout each episode is a cleverly worked subliminal way of tying all these events together and it works surprisingly well.

7 Days Out is a fascinating and oftentimes emotionally charged glimpse at some of the biggest live events around the world. While it would have perhaps been nice to see more of the various backstage teams or seen more episodes outside America, there’s enough here to make for a fascinating documentary nonetheless. The six episodes show a great variety of events and open up the tantalizing prospect of a second season. It’s ultimately the people involved with the events that make this such an enthralling watch though and one well worth checking out if you’re at least little curious to see what goes into setting up these shows.