'The Dynasty': Whether you love the Patriots or hate them, there's plenty in new documentary for you

In retrospect, “The Last Dance” was both the best and the worst thing to happen to the sports documentary genre.

On one hand, the behind-the-scenes account of the 1997-98 champion Chicago Bulls was a revelation, a shot of nostalgia for a long-gone era and an appreciation of one of the greatest teams of all time. On the other, it was a highly curated behemoth that convinced every athlete who’d ever made an All-Star team, every team that broke .500, that they deserved their own loving multi-hour documentary.

Few teams warrant that level of scrutiny or worship. But one that does recently came to the end of its iconic run: the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

“The Dynasty,” a new 10-part Apple TV+ series on the Patriots, is exhaustive, in both senses of the term. Premiering Friday, with new episodes debuting weekly through mid-March, the series traces the entire arc of the franchise’s Lombardi run, from the moment that Robert Kraft buys the team to the last dying days of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era. Much like the Patriots themselves, you’re either on the bandwagon or you’re getting ground into the dirt beneath its wheels.

This is, without a doubt, a documentary for Patriots fans — the kind of Boston lifers who abide by the belief that “when you lose the pacifier, you get your yelling voice,” in the words of one Pats fan. But it’s not just Patriots propaganda; the team’s scandals are included, and Belichick in particular comes in for heavy criticism, both from his players and, by implication, from his own sour attitude and craggy expressions. Brady largely skates, but then, that’s what you’d expect, isn’t it?

“The Dynasty” hits all the familiar beats, from a callow young Brady replacing an injured Drew Bledsoe, to the early Super Bowls, to the two separate cheating scandals, to the dissolution of the two-decade partnership between Brady, Belichick and Kraft. Ten episodes would seem like an awful lot to devote to this team, but it’s only in watching the Patriots’ entire history play out onscreen that you realize just how many stories this team generated, fueled and survived.

There are moments when “Dynasty” hits hard. Episode 6, “At All Costs,” features Aaron Hernandez, posing for a preseason promo, staring at the camera with dead eyes before breaking into a grin. Teammates of the late Hernandez, convicted of one murder and indicted for two others, clearly still struggle with the revelations about the man they knew and the man who died by his own hand in prison. (“I think he’s got such a good heart,” cameras catch Kraft saying to Belichick during practice. Belichick doesn’t reply.)

Like Spygate and Deflategate, the subjects of the episodes surrounding the Hernandez one presented a challenge for documentarians that the Chicago Bulls and “The Last Dance” never faced. To the credit of “The Dynasty,” the documentary doesn’t shy away from the topics — even if certain notable Patriots figures are conspicuously absent with commentary in these sections.

There are fun tidbits, too, like Mike Vrabel profanely shredding then-teammate Tom Brady, or Rob Gronkowski getting in trouble with Patriots brass literally minutes after being drafted. (“I can picture Bill in that draft room being, ‘Why the [expletive] did we just draft this kid?” Gronk says laughing.) Moments like that puncture the dour surliness of Belichick and make all the confetti worthwhile to sit through even for non-Patriots fans.

You already know how the documentary ends: with Brady splitting from Belichick and New England. (The very different emotional responses from Brady and Belichick in recounting the moment tell you everything you need to know about why it happened.) Brady snagged one more Super Bowl, Belichick struggled to make the playoffs. There are 10 episodes in "The Dynasty." There won't ever be an 11th.

If you’re a Patriots fan, you already know you’re going to be settling on the couch every Friday night for the next five weeks to watch this. But even if you’re not, even if you’re fed up with all things New England, “The Dynasty” is worth a watch, just to see how that sausage got made. Whether you love the Patriots or hate them, “The Dynasty” will confirm that you’re right.