“Star-Crossed” is an ESPN documentary that turns the baseball careers of New York legends Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden into a Shakespearean tragedy. The film intertwines sports journalism and readings from Shakespeare to explore the players’ rise to stardom with the Mets in the 1980s, followed by their spirals into substance abuse and legal troubles.

The documentary serves as a compelling character study and cautionary tale, capturing the pair’s fleeting success with the Yankees in the mid-’90s. It juxtaposes talent and temptation, ambition and downfall, using Shakespearean themes to highlight the human vulnerabilities that even heroes cannot escape.