With its second season recently dropping on Disney+, fans of Big Shot who binged the newest episodes can't wait for another season of Coach K's antics on the court. In the meantime, there are a host of great sports-centric shows to hold fans over until the next season.
From other Disney programs like Friday Night Lights, Big Shot is in good company among some of the best sports shows on TV. Though there have been plenty of programs about athletes, only a select few are as fun to watch as Disney's hit show.
Diary Of A Future President (2020-Present)
Stream On Disney+
Though it has nothing to do with sports like Big Shot, Diary of a Future President shares its themes of kids trying to make their way through grade school. Elena is the future president, but the show centers around her life as a first-year middle school student just trying to survive.
The show is aimed at a slightly younger audience than Big Shot, but it has enough of the drama and comedy mixture that made it so enjoyable for families. Shows about navigating school life are a dime a dozen, but Diary of a Future President teaches the audience that school can be a challenging but rewarding phase in one's life.
Last Chance U: Basketball (2021-Present)
Stream On Netflix
Though Big Shot features a dramatized story of a high school basketball team, Last Chance U: Basketball uses the documentary format to capture reality. Following the students at an East Los Angeles high school, the show chronicles their quest to achieve their basketball dreams of getting a scholarship to play in college.
For many of the students in the show, a scholarship is the only way they can make it to college, and it is those stakes that help to make Basketball one of the best sports documentaries on Netflix. Perfect as a companion piece to Big Shot, the docies shows the real struggles of student-athletes.
Swagger (2021-Present)
Stream On Apple TV+
Showing another side of student athletics, Swagger draws from the real-life experiences of NBA players to paint an interesting portrait of their rise to fame. The series follows several young people and their families as they navigate the complicated world of the youth-sports economy in an attempt to become professional basketball players.
Eschewing the comedy of Big Shot, Swagger is the perfect series for any young person who is seriously considering a career in professional sports. Coming as one of the best Apple TV+ shows of 2021, the drama in the series is all the more harrowing for its closeness to reality.
A League Of Their Own (2022)
Stream On Amazon Prime Video
Though raunchier and more adult than Big Shot, A League of Their Own is also a clever exploration of female athletics with a fair amount of LGBTQ+ representation as well. Set during WWII, the show follows an all-female baseball team that travels across the country to play their games.
Like the interweaving drama of the teammates on Big Shot, a majority of the story happens off the field in A League of Their Own. Being a remake of a beloved movie meant that the series had big shoes to fill, but it managed to exceed expectations by adding more depth than what was found in the original story.
Bunheads (2012-2013)
Stream On Hulu
Though it is now best ed as a great TV drama that only lasted one season, Bunheads is truly one of the greatest "what if?" scenarios in recent history. The series follows a dancer who gives up her dreams to marry a man in a sleepy California town. Once there, she finds her true calling as a mentor to a troupe of young dancers.
With each dancer getting an interesting arc, Bunheads rivals Big Shot in the amount of dramedy narrative threads it manages to weave in only one season. Co-created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, the series is reminiscent of the cozy and comforting tone of her other creations like Gilmore Girls.
Friday Night Lights (2006-2011)
Stream On Netflix And Hulu
Setting the standard for sports drama TV series, Friday Night Lights was an unavoidable cultural touchstone when it was on the air. In Dillon, Texas, their championship high school football team is the most prized thing in town, and the coach is tasked with keeping everything together week after week.
Big Shot is certainly a funnier show by far, but the two series naturally cover similar ground when it comes to the challenges of life in high school. Though the on-field action takes a back seat to the character-based drama, Friday Night Lights would have been nothing with its football.
All American (2018-Present)
Stream On Netflix
Spinning off into its very own franchise, All American has been one of The CW's best shows for several years running. Spencer James is a star football player at his local high school, but when he is recruited to play for a bigger school across town, he is thrust into a new world that is totally different from the one he comes from.
Taking place in a similar environment as Big Shot, All American goes further in exploring the issues of class that come with athletes from different neighborhoods. Essentially the dramatic equivalent of Big Shot, many of the show's best episodes has tackled deep issues that strike at the heart of what are troubling teens in this day and age.
Ted Lasso (2020-Present)
Stream On Apple TV+
Coaches out of their element is the theme that links Ted Lasso with Big Shot, and both shows have memorable skippers. To help fix a struggling British soccer team, a clueless but optimistic American football coach is hired to turn things around.
Ted's infectious charm can't help but rub off on the audience, and his hilarious interactions with British culture are enough to have viewers rolling with laughter. In the end, Ted Lasso is the perfect sports show because it features all the aspects that make sports fun, the challenge, the hope, and the inevitable heartbreak.
Cobra Kai (2018-Present)
Stream On Netflix
Proving itself to be so much more than a nostalgia vehicle, Cobra Kai took one of the best sports movies of the '80s and expanded it. Decades after the events of The Karate Kid, Johnny Lawrence re-opens his Cobra Kai dojo in hopes of finding redemption.
Making the villain of the film the hero of the show was a smart choice, and it totally recontextualized the movie's mythos. For fans of Big Shot, Cobra Kai offers a perfect mixture of martial arts action and interpersonal drama that gives the sport more meaning.
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (2021-Present)
Stream On Disney+
Big Shot isn't the only sports-oriented original program on Disney+, and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers pulls from a classic Disney sports series. After failing to secure a spot on the highly competitive Mighty Ducks hockey team, a young man forms his own team of rag-tag players.
It would have been easy to simply adapt the original story into a TV show, but the creators of Game Changers decided to give viewers something new that is in the same vein as the original movies. The series is playful and fun, and it establishes a nice balance between on-ice action and off-ice hijinks.
