Arrow Up: Home Turf gives a fascinating behind the scenes look at the B.C. Lions. From gender reveals to locker-room drama and playoff heartbreak, it’s all covered.
Some classic soap operas include The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives … and the 2024 B.C. Lions.
In fact, the title of every one of those classic daytime shows would describe part of the season the Lions went through last year.
On Monday, Leos fans can catch the first two episodes of Arrow Up: Home Turf, a multipart documentary that follows three B.C. Lions on and off the field — the magnetic David Mackie, the philosophical TJ Lee and comedic Sean Whyte.
“We were the B.C. Lions soap opera this year,” said Mackie. “I felt like we had a different storyline every week.”
The storylines weave around the three prominent players, following Lee’s triumphant return from his Achilles tear, Mackie’s late-season emergence in a short-yardage role and having to playing through injuries, and Whyte’s record field goal streak and looming life events. There’s also the return of Nathan Rourke to the locker-room and the aftershocks it created, the losing streak that toppled B.C. from the top of the standings, and the emotions that followed a third straight premature — to them — playoff exit.
Viewers don’t just get glimpses into the players’ private lives, but extended trips behind the curtain to see what makes them tick.
There’s Whyte’s cartoonishly football gender reveal and eventual visit to meet baby Mya at home with his wife Ranna, trick-or-treating with the Lees, and date night with Mackie and wife Joanne at Granville Island and Monster Jam.
“I think it’ll be cool — even for myself — to watch, see how they went about it, and hearing everyone’s perspective,” Mackie said of the storylines.
“I think it’s going to show the realities that we face as players.
“(We) all live very different lives, but at the same time, we put our lives on hold for football. There’s so much more to our lives than just making kicks, making tackles and making blocks.
“I think it’s just going to maybe help people connect to us more. We are regular people. We’re humble people, and we kind of do the things that everyone else does in their family life, but then we go out and we put the pads on them in front of tens of thousands of people.
“(I hope people like it because) they can finally connect with us in a different way, as opposed to just cheering for, No. 6 or No. 34.
“I just think it’s an awesome project, and I can’t wait for fans to see you know who we really are. And it’s cool for our families too, to get an inside of who we are in the football world, right? I leave my family for six to seven months, and for them to get to see who I am the locker room, and what a day to day looks like, I think that’s going to be exciting for them.”
If you watched Quarterback or Receiver on Netflix, Home Turf is right on par in terms of production quality. While we won’t be blessed with seeing William Stanback go fishing for the first time, angling for Sturgeon on the Fraser River — “We kind of joke that it’s ruined fishing for him, because his first time fishing, he got an eight-foot dinosaur. I don’t think you’re gonna find anything bigger than that. It was pretty awesome,” Mackie said, laughing — there is the annual golf tournament that is the social event of the season.
“You get 60 football players out there, and maybe 10 of them know how to swing a club, it’s awesome,” said Mackie. “You just get to see the fun side of so many different guys and everyone’s out there just for the sake of spending time with your teammates. Guys that they don’t necessarily speak to or interact with on a day to day; you got a foursome of one DB, young Canadian O-lineman, one linebacker and a punter that don’t have a whole lot of interaction together, but they’re out there playing golf for a couple hours and having a good time. It’s just so much fun to get an entire locker room out and just having a laugh.”