More than 25 years after their last championship, the Atlanta Braves won the franchise’s fourth World Series. We review this event in a documentary called 2021 World Series.

Narrated by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, the program mixes ballgame footage and interviews. In the latter vein, we hear from managers Dusty Baker and Brian Snitker, Houston general manager James Click, Braves Holdings LLC Chairman/CEO Terry McGuirk, Braves president/CEO Brian Schiller, and players Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Adam Duvall, AJ Minter, Tyler Matzek, Luke Jackson, Max Fried, Michael Brantley, Austin Riley, Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright, Dansby Swanson, and Will Smith.

After the first 11 minutes give us a very general recap of the regular season, Series leaps straight to the start of the Fall Classic. It goes into details for all six games that led to the Braves’ victory over the Houston Astros.

In general, athletes tend to be less than enthralling interview subjects. Some exceptions exist, of course, but the Bull Durham model holds true, so players often rely on banalities.

That becomes the case here, as the various athletes and managers don’t give us much perspective about the events. Oh, they toss out some decent observations about the games, but they keep things fairly superficial, so we don’t feel like we gain true insight.

Instead, Series attempts to goose the excitement level with a relentlessly urgent presentation. The documentary occasionally gives the viewer a breather, but it usually tosses elements out like the climax of an action movie.

This gets tiresome before long, especially because the 2021 didn’t offer one of MLB’s most compelling Series. While competitive enough to go to six games, it just never turned as exciting as the best Series – especially so soon after the craziness of 2019’s wild Washington Nationals/Houston Astros affair.

That said, the documentary amps up the excitement to artificial levels, and this makes it something of a chore to watch. It doesn’t become a fatal flaw, but it lends an annoying air to the show.

At its best, 2021 World Series gives us a competent summary of the games. However, it lacks the depth to become much more than a collection of highlights, one damaged by an overly dramatic presentation. It’s not a bad show but it could’ve been better.

2021 World Series appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The program came with mainly good visuals.

Sharpness seemed fine for the most part. Some softness crept in at times – in both interviews and game elements – but the program largely gave us appropriate delineation.

No notable issues with jaggies appeared, and I saw no edge haloes, but some shimmering occurred. Source flaws didn’t become a factor.

Series emphasized a natural palette, and the colors seemed largely full and true. Blacks were also fairly deep, and low-light shots demonstrated appropriate clarity. This wasn’t a great presentation, but it felt more than competent.

As for the program’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it offered a subdued soundfield. Interview comments stayed appropriately centered, and effects remained largely stuck in that channel as well.

Music expanded to the five channels in a mostly satisfying manner. Though the score didn’t provide a great impact, it managed to use the speakers reasonably well.

Audio quality worked fine, with natural, concise speech. Music appeared vivid and dynamic, while effects felt accurate. The soundtrack lacked much oomph but it seemed competent.

Four featurettes appear here, and these start with How They Got There, we locate a six-minute, 35-second overview that looks at the important cogs in the Braves’ rise. It acts as little more than a superficial summary that feels like a glorified music video.

During the five-minute, 41-second 2021 Walk-offs, we see a collection of game clips. These show the last at-bats of nine 2021 games that the Braves won in “walk-off” fashion. It becomes a decent compilation though it feels repetitive/redundant as it goes.

Clinching Moments goes for six minutes, 31 seconds and shows the game that clinched the National League East title for the Braves as well as their NLDS win, and their NLCS victory. This turns into another watchable batch of segments.

Finally, we find World Series Parade. This takes up one minute, 44 seconds and displays a quick overview of that celebration. It doesn’t seem especially interesting.

A second disc offers a DVD copy of Series. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

After 26 years, the Atlanta Braves won their fourth MLB championship, and 2021 World Series brings a summary of this event. It offers a warm hug for Braves fans but doesn’t become an especially enlightening view of the Series. The Blu-ray brings generally good picture with erratic audio and minor supplements. This becomes a passable overview but it lacks a lot of substance.

Note that a multi-disc release delivers the ability to watch each and every World Series 2021 game. Though expensive, it becomes the more fun option for fans – and it also includes this documentary, which makes it “one-stop shopping”.