Want to watch some fictional tennis drama? Go with Fifteen-Love over Challengers

My recent viewing of the Zendaya blockbuster movie Challengers almost completely ruined my taste for shows and movies about tennis, but AMC+’s Fifteen-Love has restored my faith that the sport can still supply the foundation for great fictional stories.

The 2023 British six-part limited series had me gripped, with cliffhangers at the end of each episode that made it impossible not to binge watch. Cleverly titled, the show explores the power dynamic that can sometimes be venomous between an older coach and a younger athlete and generally has a plot ripped from the MeToo Era’s many headlines.

All the performances are top notch, with true superstar showings by Ella Lily Hyland as tennis pro Justine Pearce and Aidan Turner as young-but-already-legendary coach Glenn Lapthorn. The Guardian described Hyland, who largely succeeds at the athletic role because she was a track star in school, as “dislikable, vulnerable, grief-stricken, a case of forced maturity and arrested development all at the same time.” Turner was in The Hobbit films and was a talented ballroom dancer before his acting career. He plays the smooth coach with a nuance that helps build much of the show’s tension.

What kept me returning (quickly) to each episode was that it is not easy—not just with the two main character but with everyone—to determine who is telling the truth. By the end, it’s tough to love all these jerky tennis players, but it’s still impossible to take your eyes off them.

The characters and the tension are what—in the end—make Fifteen-Love an excellent popcorn rom-com limited series that is watchable in just a few nights. Well worth it.

4.5 out 5 stars