Manti Te’o, the Hawaiian linebacker famous for his hard-hitting tackles at Notre Dame, was a rising star of college football. His name was in newspapers with journalists and fans keeping their eyes on his next step.
He was conscious about his skills. Te’o worked hard as he was reaching his goal of making it to an NFL roster.
Between 2009 and 2012, the Fighting Irish’s linebacker showcased his talent on the field confirming his status of rising star.
At the end of his senior year, Te’o was one of the finalists of the Heisman Trophy, the annual award given to the most outstanding player in college football.
Right when his future looked brighter than ever, the young star faced an astounding situation: his grandmother and girlfriend passed away on the same night.
What might seem to be a traumatic series of events was just the beginning of a never-ending nightmare for Te’o. After months of texts and phone calls, the star player found out his girlfriend of three years never existed.
“Untold: The Girlfriend Who Did Not Exist,” directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku, was released on Aug. 16 as the sixth episode of the Netflix’s documentary series, “Untold” which focuses on stories and scandals.
The series is divided into two parts for a total length of two hours and four minutes.
This episode shines a light on the story of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o and the catfish situation which affected his public image during the 2013 National Football League draft.
Manti Te’o, a football player approaching the college sport environment as a rising star, began a relationship with Lennay Kekua, the name of the online persona created by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who now goes by Naya Tuiasosopo.
Tuiasosopo is a transgender woman who created Lennay Kekua to express her trans identity.
Although the majority of the story focuses the attention on Te’o and the consequences of the catfish relationship, Tuiasosopo fights her own personal battle.
While Te’o faces consequences related to the sports environment and his public image, Tuiasosopo is extremely connected to Lennay Kekua.
Tuiasosopo feels strong emotions for the people she meets online as Lennay Kekua, but at the same time, she cannot go beyond text messages and phone calls.
The duality between Te’o and Tuiasosopo is an important element of the story. Both of these young adults suffered because of the situation but the reasons behind their suffering were opposite.
The first part of the story goes over Te’o’s career, from his freshman to his senior year, as football is the main focus during this episode. The relationship between Te'o and Tuiasosopo works as a background for the whole story.
The rhythm of the narration is slow, and, until the final part of the first episode, it is not easy for the audience to understand how Te’o’s future career is actually at stake.
When Te’o finds out about the catfish, he passes from being one of the most promising young players of 2012 to “the player who got catfished.”
The pressure of the media and the anxiety of Te’o’s personal crisis he experienced are the elements that highlights the second part of the documentary, and is when the story starts to really showcase its main theme: the consequences of catfishing for everyone involved.
Reality works as the engine of the show.
The real people involved in the events take part in the documentary to tell the story and share their personal feelings and memories.
Friends and family members of Te’o talk about their feelings during those months while journalists who covered the story from the beginning explain the hard work behind the investigation.
The result is a strong emotional impact capable of overwhelming the audience through touching sequences. For example, there are scenes when Te’o, almost in tears, silently reflects on his past in front of the camera imagining what would happen if he would never fall in love with “Lennay.”
A secondary element that reflects the realness of the documentary is the presence of “archive videos” showing Te'o's interviews and games.
Although realness is a positive element of the documentary and permits the audience to fully immerse in the story, the lack of artistic expression is evident.
The documentary does not show any other sequences other than the interviews scenes. There are different locations and different people talking in front of the camera, but there are no active scenes of the characters.
The only exception, without considering the already-mentioned real archive videos, is a scene where Te’o is in Hawaii staring at the ocean while his voice in the background speaks about his past.
Although the majority of the story focuses the attention on Te’o and the consequences of the catfish relationship, Tuiasosopo plays a key role in the film.
Even if she is the catfisher, and she negatively influences Te’o’s career, it is easy to empathize with Tuiasosopo because of her personal emotional and social battle.
She wants to be accepted through the online persona she created, and she struggles when she has to get back to her real life.
It is evident that the documentary wants to highlight the struggles and the complicances faced by the young football player and his family, but when Tuiasosopo is under the lights, the narration flow changes.
She is not just the person who built up the catfish, but she is also a victim in this story, and the documentary did a great job showing the importance of her narrative.
The overall product is enjoyable because the story itself is capable of making the audience interested in watching both the episodes. However, the slow narration and the lack of active scenes make the documentary monotonous and poorly dynamic.
“Undtold: The Girlfriend Who Did Not Exist” is a show developed on a solid, interesting and “attention-catching” story. The directors produced a standard Netflix documentary with the “already-seen formula” where empathy toward the main character and his sad story is at the basis of the product.
The show is not the most groundbreaking documentary of the year, but, because of the real story at its core, it is worth watching.
