Stream It Or Skip It: ‘All American’ Season 6 on Netflix, Where The Sports Drama’s Core Characters Prepare For What’s Next 

All American Season 6 streams on Netflix after finishing its run on the CW last May. Already announced is an upcoming seventh season for the sports drama, where romantic relationships and life off the football field have always gained the most yards. But star Daniel Ezra will be moving on, and who knows what other dramas will unfold in this season’s 15 episodes? Streaming it all at once on Netflix feels like a good way for All American fans old and new to engage with the vortex – that’s what the interconnected friends and lovers at the center of this series call themselves – and the significant time jump that opens this season. Alongside Ezra, All American also features Samantha Logan, Bre-Z, Greta Onieogou, Michael Evans Behling, and Cody Christian, with a few ringers added to Season 6 to heighten the relationship drama, as if it wasn’t super high already.  

ALL AMERICAN – SEASON 6: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Time jump alert! Titles tell us it’s been one year and three months since the events of All American season 5, and by all accounts, wide receiver Spencer James (Ezra) had a monster season on the football field. He’s in consideration for the Heisman Trophy, and there is a lot of chatter about the upcoming NFL draft. 

The Gist: Spencer, of course, has also been apart from his girlfriend Olivia (Logan) while she studied in London for the last year and change. And though he’s planning a big party to welcome her back, he also worries their relationship might not be the same. For Jordan (Behling), Olivia’s twin and the starting quarterback of the Golden Angeles University Condors, there’s some jealousy over the attention paid to the team’s star wide out. (“You’d think Spencer spent all last season throwing passes to himself.”) But Jordan’s also got his impending marriage to Layla (Onieogou) to obsess over, after they got engaged at the end of Season 5. And while the vortex all still reside at the beach house in Malibu, there’s a new addition: the baby son of Asher (Christian) and his girlfriend Jaymee (Miya Horcher). 

Asher and Jaymee’s adjustments to life as new parents isn’t the only adversity afoot in All American season 6. With financial assistance from brash new business partner Ryan (Brian Borello), Layla has transformed the crew’s old Slauson Cafe hangout into her sleek namesake cocktail lounge. The grand opening will feature a performance by Patience (Chelsea Tavares), girlfriend of Spencer’s BFF Tamia “Coop” Cooper (Bre-Z), but it’s been a year since she was onstage after being attacked by crazed stalker Miko (Courtney Bandeko). Patience has been away, too, working on her rehabilitation. But the Miko thing is ongoing, because the court case is wallowing. “Am I pissed that the security camera footage got thrown out? Yes. But I am alive to tell what that bitch did to me. And best believe I will.”

There will be friction on the gridiron, too, as the Condors prepare for an important new season. (Lots of talk about dinners with financial boosters, and an emerging change to the coaching staff.) Spencer and Jordan both dream of winning a championship, and what opportunities could come after, which creates a lot of stress. But so does Olivia’s return from London, and how she was changed by a life abroad, away from their insular group in Los Angeles. Layla asks her friend if she’s nervous to see Spencer. And Coop asks him the same thing about Olivia. Nerves? Who said anything about nerves?   

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The CW’s All American spinoff All American: Homecoming premiered back in 2022, but the network axed the series in the weeks before its current third season began airing. Meanwhile, Bel-Air, the dramatic reimagining of early ’90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, will return for its own third season this August after hitting a stride with season 2. And the first four seasons of crime drama The Family Business, starring Ernie Hudson and Valarie Pettiford, stream on Netflix ahead of its return to BET for season 5.   

Our Take: Spelivia! The fan shipping for Spencer and Olivia has only grown since their romance began in season 3, and with her return to LA and his NFL draft stock rising, All American season 6 is all about seeing whether these kids can make a go of it together. It’s also a snap to see why there’s so much fuss, since whether or not you’ve ever seen an episode, Spencer and Olivia’s reunion moment is an absolute sizzler of chemistry between Daniel Ezra and Samantha Logan. The mutual honesty expressed in the Spelivia relationship is also tied directly to the breadth and depth of this series, which despite its large ensemble cast has always found time to spend with each of its couples, and their evolving sets of wins, losses, and challenges.

With Ezra departing after this season, All American will become a different show. And to that end, its Season 6 time jumps are key to establishing what characters and relationships will help sustain interest going into the unknown. If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, having all of it available to binge on Netflix feels like the perfect setup for even more Spelivia shipping, and to build support for the next couple on All American’s depth chart.    

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: What a way to reconnect. With all of their personal, professional, and emotional dramas, the crew unites at the beach house for an old-fashioned group sleepover. But keep it down, because the baby’s asleep. 

Sleeper Star: Chelsea Tavares is terrific as Patience in All American, and her storyline – stabbed by a stalker, with a hefty amount of trauma stemming from the incident, and the case against her attacker stuck in the courts – brings a different note to All American amid all of the relationship dramas.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m hoping your distraction isn’t a sign of things to come,” GAU coach Kenny Boone (Mustafa Speaks) tells Spencer. “You changed this last year, for the better. You’ve matured, on and off the field. No distractions, or drama. I’d hate to see you regress. There’s a lot riding on this year. Not just for the team, but for your career.” 

Our Call: STREAM IT. The relationships at the center of All American have definitely been fully seasoned and done changed radically since the series began way back in 2018. And in its sixth installment, some of that growth will find fruition. But it also sets up a leap into all of the unknowns and cast upheavals of All American Season 7. 

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.