Sports documentaries tend to follow predictable narrative patterns - tales of underdogs overcoming insurmountable odds to achieve upsets, stories of the dedication and focus it takes to be a champion, the spectacular fall from grace of heroes who flew too close to the sun.
Nowhere is the black and white view of a world divided between winning and losing more clearly hammered home than in sports.
Creator Mickey Duzyj's eight-part docuseries Losers is thus a refreshing alternative to the narrative focus and moral lessons of most sports documentaries as its focus is not on the tragedy of loss in the arena but rather what we can learn from those who have lost.
Combining the traditional approach of interviews with his subjects, their friends, commentators and colleagues along with archive footage - Duzyj also adds a quaint and appealing animated element to his stories that gives the series an empathetic and endearing quality.
The series covers a range of sports and events from across the globe and so we have not only the stories of a failed US heavyweight and a lazy, talent-wasting Brooklyn street basketball player but also the tales of a Canadian curler, an Italian endurance runner and a cursed soccer team from the British seaside town of Torquay.
Some of these stories will be more familiar than others - boxing aficionados are well acquainted with the rise and spectacular fall of heavyweight contender Michael Bentt and his subsequent re-emergence as trainer to Hollywood celebs; golf watchers still speak about the dismal failure of Frenchman Jean van de Velde to secure a certain British Open win on the 72nd hole.
WATCH | The trailer for the sport documentary Losers..