‘The Dynasty: UConn Huskies’ Review
The director of ‘The Dynasty: New England Patriots’ is back with another documentary series, now looking at the college level and a tough coach who took his team to the top.
Matthew Hamachek returns with a follow-up to his riveting 2024 docuseries The Dynasty: New England Patriots, this time continuing the fledgling franchise (with Erica Sashin now joining him at the helm) with a much shorter but still highly engaging look at the record-holding reign of a women’s college basketball team. The Dynasty: UConn Huskies is a three-part documentary about the success of the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team from its first NCAA Division I National Championship in 1995 through its recent twelfth title in 2025.
It’s difficult not to compare this installment to Hamachek’s previous effort (which made our list of the best documentaries of 2024). But it’s such a different kind of story, with lower-profile characters and distinct dynamics more relevant to this sport and athletic level. Similar to The Dynasty: New England Patriots, though, The Dynasty: UConn Huskies is a must-watch whether or not you’re a fan or familiar with the subject. It’s almost equally as thrilling and dramatic, if not as epic (despite covering more decades), in its brisk, episodic storytelling.
One thing that separates the Huskies documentary from the Patriots series is the fact that college players are more temporary. The latter story was spread evenly among a coach, his longtime quarterback, and their team’s owner, while the former is more focused on the only constant: Coach Geno Auriemma. Each of the three episodes has one star athlete — Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi, and Paige Bueckers — who is more prominent than the rest for having defined a certain era. Still, with this dynasty, it’s clearer that the coach was most instrumental in achieving their domination.
Auriemma also has the most captivating presence as an interviewee in the documentary, and not just because he’s on screen more. He’s more charming and likable than Bill Belichick, even when he initially comes off as a no-nonsense SOB in an opening bit where he scolds the production. Auriemma quickly falls into a more comfortable mood that gives off tough yet cooperative, and rather cheerful at times. Also, intellectual, as he delivers clever metaphors and references Sisyphus and Caesar, as well as famous Latin phrases.
The Dynasty: UConn Huskies also makes plenty of room for Auriemma’s sometimes respectful rivalry with the late Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, who had a dynasty of her own at the University of Tennessee during the same quarter-century period. I would have liked more on the history of women’s college basketball and how Summitt and Auriemma changed the game, rather than simply hearing that they did so without more background on the topic shown. Auriemma being a male coach in this arena, where women appear to be more common in the role, might also have been better addressed (I think it’s interesting that this is coming to Apple TV at the same time as Ted Lasso Season 4, which sees Ted now coaching a women’s soccer team).
And I could have done without hearing “Just a Girl” on the soundtrack, but it might be an unwritten law that anything involving women proving themselves in the mid-1990s has to license that No Doubt tune. Fans of the Huskies may also have complaints that the Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart eras are not covered enough. But in the end, these documentaries are about characters and narratives, and theirs might not have had enough of either.
When so many anthology sports documentary series exist to stress the significance of this person, that team, or some game, Hamachek has now presented two installments of a franchise that doesn’t need to tell us these teams are important — it’s obvious in their wins. Instead, he reminds us of the personalities and relationships that make these games, tournaments, seasons, and dynastic runs so enticing in their entertainment value beyond the display of athletic skill in the moment. It’s easy to hate a team that wins all the time, but hard to resist their stories when told this well.