Netflix's Cheer quickly became a popular must-watch among users when it premiered in January 2020,
and fans haven't been able to stop praising the athleticism and discipline of the Navarro
squad.
But there's a lot most don't know about it.
Here's a look at the untold truth of Cheer.
Cheer shined a light on the incredibly intricate, often dangerous stunts meticulously rehearsed
by competitive cheerleading squads.
Throughout the Netflix documentary series, viewers watched as the Navarro cheer team
painstakingly practiced a pyramid formation, only to drop flyer Mackenzie "Sherbs" Sherburn
during a run-through, effectively putting the cheerleader on the sidelines for the rest
of the season.
Speaking with O, coach Monica Aldama revealed Sherburn's accident inspired major changes
to the routine to ensure the safety of Navarro's cheerleaders.
However, as Aldama explained, the process of choreographing a safer routine wasn't shown
on Cheer.
Aldama told the publication,
"You saw the falls that we had.
But it didn't show the other thousand times that we were doing progressions and trying
to do easier things before we did the hard things, and all the times we did it perfectly
and all the times that the kids sat out when they were injured.
I do want to make sure the audience does know that we do take great concern and care for
their health."
In the very first episode of Cheer, viewers were provided with a glimpse into a classroom
at Navarro College, complete with an overly enthusiastic instructor lecturing a room full
of visibly bored college kids.
Giving a humorous overview of all-things-Texas, she praises actor Randy Quaid and speculates
about how NASA will be impacted by Donald Trump's "Space Force" before weighing in on
the local cuisine.
"Tex-Mex, it's the best ever.
It's not real Mexican food.
It's a way better version of Mexican food."
Jerry Harris, a fan-favorite Navarro cheerleader, seemed wholly unimpressed during the lecture,
especially when the subject changed to the state's historically conservative values.
But was that just the editing?
In an interview with Vulture, Harris seemed to imply that viewers were perhaps given a
skewed perspective on the Tex-Mex-obsessed instructor.
He told the outlet,
"I think they just caught my face at a weird point...Yeah, she’s very awesome.
She was just describing how it was different, how [Texas] was different back then, and you
guys didn’t hear the part where she was comparing it to the way it is now...That was
why my face looked the way it did."
Throughout Cheer, viewers watched as Gabi Butler's parents micromanaged her life, forced
her to post on social media, and told her what to eat and what not to.
"You need to stop procrastinating on stuff.
You had all day long to do it."
"Okay, but …"
"'Okay?'
You have no defense when you start with, 'Okay.'
So just shut up at that point and just say, 'I'm sorry.'"
Disturbed by what they saw, some fans took it upon themselves to reach out to Butler
directly, prompting the cheerleader to take to social media to defend her parents.
Butler wrote in a post on January 8th, 2020,
"I want to clear something up.
My parents are amazing and have always been there for me.
Every time I have made money from cheer opportunities it has gone into my own account.
So please stop with the negativity towards them.
They are my biggest support system and have helped me to be on top of my game."
In a February 2020 interview with KCRW, Cheer director Greg Whiteley revealed he felt he
owed Butler's parents an apology for the way they were portrayed throughout the docuseries.
Admitting he didn't portray Butler's mother and father in a very nuanced way, Whiteley
revealed,
"It's a very cheap way to move a story forward.
I think there's a better way.
I think even villains become more interesting when you understand why they do what they
do."
According to Whitely, Butler's father has reportedly been known to anonymously pay the
tuition of financially challenged cheerleaders, a good deed never mentioned throughout the
Netflix docuseries.
Social media undoubtedly provides plenty of welcome behind-the-scenes glimpses into the
lives of the stars of Cheer, but one thing it doesn't provide is the meaning behind FIOFMU.
The acronym has been a source of much mystery since Cheer's debut, with the Navarro cheer
team often sprinkling it throughout the captions of their Instagram photos with no explanation.
Unfortunately, it appears inquiring, Cheer-obsessed minds won't be getting an explanation anytime
soon.
When asked about the meaning behind FIOFMU during an interview with Refinery29, Morgan
Simianer responded,
"It is just a meaning behind Navarro.
So, once you go through the program, you learn what it is.
People have been posting on social media about it and I'm like, Y'all are never going to
find out."
There's no question that Cheer was an instant hit with viewers - and the docuseries was
apparently compelling enough to attract the attention and praise of various mega-famous
faces who also found themselves unable to look away from Navarro's journey to Daytona.
In a January 2020 tweet, Reese Witherspoon praised Cheer's Monica Aldama, writing,
"When Coach Monica said she had a lot of career choices but all she wanted to do was coach
these [Navarro College] cheerleaders, I started to think about all the female coaches who
we never see in movies or TV that are changing kids lives.
And I cried again!"
Even Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was impressed by the athleticism and tenacity of Navarro's
cheer team, writing on Twitter,
"[Cheer] had me convinced [that] after 2020 I'm trying out for Navarro Cheer."
In a February 2020 interview with Cosmopolitan, Gabi Butler casually mentioned Broadway star
Ben Platt was a fan of the show, telling the publication,
"We went to dinner with Ben Platt, and he was telling us, 'You know I never truly realized
what cheerleading was about, and this series really opened my eyes.'"
One of the biggest takeaways from Cheer is the admiration the Navarro cheerleaders have
for their beloved coach, Monica Aldama, who often serves as the primary mother figure
for many of the team members.
Aldama said in a January 2020 interview with Women's Health,
"I wear a lot of hats.
I have to be a mother figure.
I have to be a disciplinarian.
I have to be an advisor, a counselor, so many different things."
Fortunately, she values the close relationships she's cultivated with the cheer team members
throughout the years, telling the magazine,
"We talk in our group chat from last year's team quite often…We're constantly talking
to each other in that group chat throughout the year even though those kids aren't here."
La'Darius Marshall was one of Cheer's breakout stars, quickly earning his spot as a fan favorite
with his no-nonsense attitude, infectious energy, hilarious quips, and endearing friendship
with Jerry Harris.
However, Cheer wasn't Marshall's first brush with fame.
If Marshall looks familiar, it's likely because he was catapulted to internet fame in 2018,
thanks to a viral video featuring the high-spirited cheerleader rooting on the Navarro College
players as they competed against the Georgia Military College football team.
In a 2018 interview with Good Morning America, Marshall said,
"I feel that the video going viral was just a glimpse into my life and how I am all the
time.
Going viral made so many people happy and that's what made me happy, receiving so many
messages...about how I made people's days better and cheered them up.
[It] makes my heart happy."
Navarro cheerleader Lexi Brumback was one of Cheer's other most compelling stars, leaving
fans wide-eyed and slack-jawed with her immensely impressive tumbling skills.
She also came across as a truly unique personality.
In the very first episode of the Netflix docuseries, Brumback even admitted she'd probably be in
jail if it weren't for the Navarro cheer team.
However, by the end of the six-part series, it was revealed that a run-in with the law
had resulted in Brumback being booted from the team, and viewers watched as she seemingly
reverted to her old ways and attended a rave.
Fortunately, Brumback was allowed a second chance and rejoined the team after the docuseries
wrapped filming.
However, while Brumback's story might technically have a happy ending, the cheerleader told
Entertainment Tonight she wasn't totally pleased with the way the show portrayed her lifestyle,
using deceptive editing to make it seem that she was shirking responsibilities to go party.
According to her, the last episode's rave scene actually happened months before Daytona.
"They kind of just made it seem like when I left, that I was just gonna be screwing
up and everything.
And I actually went to school, just not to Navarro."
Throughout Cheer's six episodes, coach Monica Aldama consistently appears to have nerves
of steel.
Despite being faced with multiple injuries suffered by some of her most vital performers,
Aldama never loses her cool.
Instead, she usually keeps her distance, calmly asking the cheerleaders if they're alright
and contacting appropriate medical personnel.
In one particularly memorable scene following Mackenzie Sherburn's fall, Aldama examines
the cheerleader, gently assuring Sherburn by acting as if her injury was fairly minor.
However, while walking past the other cheerleaders to grab her belongings,
"It looks bad.
I just didn't want to say that to her."
Speaking to The Cut, Aldama revealed that her cool and calm demeanor is far from a reflection
of her actual emotions.
Recalling the scary moment captured in the final episode of Cheer's first season, she
explained,
"I know they’re looking to me as their leader, and how I’m feeling is going to radiate
out into them.
I don’t want to have my nerves make them more nervous than they might already be."
Greg Whiteley, creator and director of Cheer, is just as impressed with the Navarro cheer
team as you are.
In a January 2020 interview with Mashable, Whiteley opened up about how filming the Netflix
docuseries opened his eyes to the world of competitive cheerleading.
Speaking about the Cheer cast, he said,
"I think they are the toughest athletes I've ever filmed."
If Monica Aldama's February 2020 interview with Bobby Bones is any indication, the admiration
is definitely mutual.
"The film crew, we became really close with them.
They became like our family.
And they were our biggest cheerleaders.
They would get excited when we would hit the routine and stuff."
After the mega-popular docuseries premiered on Netflix, many of Cheer's most beloved stars
revealed they'd returned to the place where it all started.
Jerry Harris spoke to Esquire, revealing he'd left the University of Louisville to return
to the Texas town.
He said,
"[I] was missing Navarro so much so I reached out to Monica and asked if there were any
openings for me and she said yes, so I decided to seize the opportunity to make myself happy
and do what I wanted to do."
La'Darius Marshall also revealed in the same interview that he'd made the move back to
Navarro.
In a February 2020 Instagram post, cheerleader Gabi Butler announced she was also back at
Navarro for one last hoorah, posting a photo of herself with Aldama and writing,
"Getting the chance to be coached by you one last time is truly a blessing...you are always
gonna be like a second mom to me.
I love you Monica...this ones for you"
Soon after Cheer's premiere, fans began calling for a second season of the engrossing docuseries.
But so far, Netflix has neither confirmed nor denied plans to release a second installment.
However, the streaming service's silence hasn't stopped inquiring minds from questioning the
stars of the docuseries about a second season.
Gabi Butler revealed a maybe unsurprising opinion in a January 2020 interview with Entertainment
Tonight, when she said she thinks a second season would be an amazing opportunity.
"I think it's super hard because season one is so good, so it's like, 'Oh, how are we
going to top season one?'"
"Right."
According to Monica Aldama, the stars of Cheer are still basking in the glow of the first
season.
She told Us Weekly,
"We're just excited to be here right now and have Season 1 and just the love and support
of Season 1.
So, we'll see."
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