Senna review – turns everyone in the Formula One driver’s life into a flat cartoon

This dramatisation of the sportsperson’s life seems to be on a quest to follow every single trope of racing dramas. The car sequences are thrilling, but it’s a bland eulogy whose characters are woefully underexplored

Bio-dramas – so vulnerable to cliche when they celebrate sporting heroes – are hard to get right even when they’re not competing with a definitive documentary on the subject. Senna, Netflix’s drama about the life and premature death of Brazilian motor racing superstar Ayrton Senna, arrives in the shadow of Asif Kapadia’s 2010 documentary feature of the same name, so it starts with a disadvantage. It has, however, six hour-long episodes to play with. What deeper new angles can it find?

Unfortunately, the answer is: none. This is a straightforward eulogising of the great sportsman that makes him seem more straightforward a character than he actually was, and relegates everyone in his life to a flat cartoon. The race sequences are thrilling and the narrative is too naturally exciting for the series to be boring, but whenever the roar of the engines stops, the dramatic momentum dies.

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Senna review – turns everyone in the Formula One driver’s life into a flat cartoon

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