Running Point: Netflix’s new basketball comedy misses the layup

Photo: Netflix

In the world of sports shows, we usually focus on coaches and players. They’re the ones deep in the game for every crucial moment. The action and drama naturally follow them. Netflix’s Running Point dares to ask the important question: What about the lowly team owner? Sure, all that actual sport is gruelling and fun to watch, but what about the obscenely wealthy people in charge of day-to-day operations? Let’s see what hijinks they get up to!

Running Point is the latest project from Mindy Kaling, along with co-writers Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen. Kate Hudson stars as Isla Gordon, a member of the family that owns the Los Angeles Lakers Waves, a prestigious basketball team for a legally unnamed professional basketball league. Isla’s three brothers hold prominent positions within the company, but her role is limited to community outreach. That changes when oldest brother and president of the company, Cam (Justin Theroux) steps down and appoints Isla as his successor. With the help of her dutiful assistant Ali (Brenda Song), Isla must learn how to navigate the problems that come with running the team.

There are about a half dozen other characters that round out the cast. You have a previously unknown 4th brother, the Waves’ sexy coach, who definitely won’t be getting with Isla, and Chet Hanks as himself in a basketball jersey among others. It’s a lot of characters to keep track of when you only have 10 half hour installments to work with. The cast all do admirable work, but it’s hard not to feel like everyone apart from Hudson is a little underdeveloped.

Basketball fans might instantly recognize the parallels between Hudson’s Isla and real-life Lakers owner Jeanie Buss. They’ll certainly notice her name in the credits as an executive producer. This explains why Isla always appears morally right. She’s the only person worthy of the job and it’s everyone around her that causes problems. It’s a hard act to pull off when you have a cast full of quirky characters. Thankfully, Hudson is more than up to the task. Her charm and energy make Isla someone worth rooting for. It’s almost enough to make you forget about the extreme wealth on display.

Running Point is not a show interested in taking the piss out of the wealthy. This is not Succession, it’s not even Arrested Development. The writers aim for light and breezy, hoping you check everything you’ve ever heard about sports team owners at the door. It’s an approach that potentially works with enough fine-tuning. Unfortunately, Running Point doesn’t have that kind of time. I could easily see this turning into a fan favorite show if the team has the space to work out the kinks. As it stands now, though, this is too scattershot to land anything meaningful.

Running Point is currently streaming on Netflix.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Daredevil: Born Again: Marvel’s original TV hero returns with a mix of new and old

Photo: Marvel/Disney

This review contains spoilers for the first episode of Daredevil: Born Again.

This year marks a decade since the debut of Daredevil and the start of Netflix’s relationship with Marvel Television. In hindsight, the Netflix shows are very hit or miss, but it’s hard to deny their impact. For Netflix, it further established them as the premier streaming service. For Marvel, it provided fans with a darker and more mature take on the MCU, even if the connection between the shows and films was tangential at best. Through it all, Daredevil stood out as the biggest and best of these shows. Now, after 6 years away, Matt Murdock and his friends are back.

Well, Matt Murdock is back. Matt’s friends, Foggy and Karen, don’t have much time in Daredevil: Born Again before they’re killed and moved to the other side of the country, respectively. It’s an awkward set-up that hints at the show’s well documented creative overhaul. In short, the creators originally conceived the revival as more of a standalone legal drama, and they shot 6 episodes before executives decided it wasn’t working. They then installed a new showrunner, and the program became more serialized.

Those 6 episodes are still the bulk of Born Again’s first season with a new pilot episode preceding them. This is literally two shows fused together and while that sounds more chaotic than it actually is, the seams are still visible. In its weakest moments, you can feel the show struggle with being accessible to newcomers while still feeling like a continuation of the Netflix series. That it still mostly hangs together is a testament to the strong writing and consistently impressive acting.

After the awkward opening scenes, Born Again follows Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) still reeling from the death of his friend Foggy. He works at a new law firm and has officially retired the Daredevil persona. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) is back in New York and intent on winning the city’s upcoming mayoral election. There are plenty of shows trying to speak to our current moment, none of them are subtle. Born Again isn’t either, but it finds a villain in Fisk who embodies all the ills of our political climate. Of course, it helps when you have a talent the caliber of D’Onofrio playing that villain.

D’Onofrio and Cox were the standouts of the Netflix series and they remain so here. Cox continues to make Murdock interesting and charming, even in his current wounded mental state. D’Onofrio finds more ways to showcase Fisk’s barely contained rage. The show clearly relishes giving the Kingpin a new playground as mayor. These are two characters who are trying to bury parts of themselves and thankfully you don’t have to wait long before the cracks appear. You can see the first signs in a scene where the two have a Heat-esque diner meeting. There’s an inherent tension based on the shared past of these two characters and a sense that either of them could lose control at a moment’s notice.

On the “full reboot” to “revival” scale, Born Again definitely falls into the latter category. It’s hard to imagine this series working as well for newcomers. That diner scene is a great example. The incredible performances create palpable tension, but newcomers unfamiliar with the Netflix series will miss the history and nuance. For fans though, this is the Daredevil that you know and love with a bigger budget and a new direction. There’s some obvious growing pains as the show struggles to work with two different creative agendas, but they never completely overtake the narrative. It’s a tricky act to balance, but Born Again pulls it off.

Daredevil: Born Again is streaming on Disney+. New Episodes release on Tuesday.

Final Verdict: Tune In

Watson: CBS tries a Sherlock Holmes-less series to mixed results

Photo: CBS

It’s been over 20 years since House first aired on Fox and you can still see the show’s influence. Taking inspiration from Sherlock Holmes, the medical drama added a mystery element to your usual “case of the week” stories. There’s also the whole “snarky genius who has a crippling drug addiction” thing, but that’s besides the point. It took 20 years to loop back around, but now House is serving as inspiration for a new adaptation of the most famous detective.

To be fair, calling Watson a Sherlock Holmes adaptation feels misleading. The investigator is nowhere to be found in this show. As you might guess from the title, the program follows our dear Watson (Morris Chestnut) as he picks up the pieces in the wake of his friend’s demise. Sherlock may be gone, but he’s left a sizeable amount of money for Watson to start up his own medical clinic in Pittsburgh (by way of Vancouver). This marks the second medical drama set in Pittsburgh this year, which is two more than usual.

This is a Primetime CBS show, which means Watson mainly uses his clinic to solve strange medical mysteries with the help of a team of specialists. (Another House influence at work.) You’ve got the one with a shady past, the one with a southern accent, and the ones who are actually twins with opposite fields of study. They have names, but do you really need to know them? They exist to trade witty barbs with Watson and help him solve the week’s case. We also get appearances from a few Holmes associates like Shinwell, now the clinic’s secretary and Mary, Watson’s estranged wife. Oh, and you better believe Moriarty (a miscast Randall Park) is here stirring up trouble.

Watson is a boilerplate type of show. You more or less know what you’re getting week to week. Morris Chestnut serves himself as well as he can, but Watson the protagonist doesn’t seem nearly as interesting as Watson the sidekick. That’s mostly because of the writing, which leaves us with very little idea of our hero’s motivations. Outside of paying homage to his friend, why does Watson do all of this? It’s a mystery fit for a brilliant detective.

This is a show with a concept that you can see going in many directions. That the writers settle for the most stale option possible is a disappointment. Watson occasionally hints at a more fun and absurd version of itself, but quickly veers back into familiar territory. It’s unlikely this show will influence anyone 20 years from now. This is television as background noise. There’s nothing wrong with that, just don’t go in expecting anything worthwhile.

Watson airs Sundays on CBS and streams on Paramount+.

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Zero Day: Strives for timely and ends up out of touch

Photo: Netflix

This review contains spoilers for the first episode of Zero Day

Two political thrillers in two months? That’s odd. It gets even more peculiar when you discover both shows involve the president, a shady tech mogul, and a 1st episode twist. Now, I’m not suggesting Zero Day and Paradise are copying each other’s homework. Current TV production makes that hard to pull off. Instead, these both feel like shows attempting to speak to our current time. Where Zero Day falters is in its understanding of that moment.

Netflix hails this as the first TV show to star Robert De Niro and they get their money’s worth. De Niro is front and center from the opening shot. He is former President George Mullen, an extremely popular figure who left the White House after a single term. Mullen is the centrist-ideal of a president, a man so pragmatic that you have no clue what his actual values are or if they even exist without poll numbers attached. He soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involving the titular cyberattack that causes mass chaos and untold deaths. Oh, and he also appears to be experiencing signs of dementia.

Zero Day is a show with many faults. The biggest thing holding it back is how desperate it is to say something about our current political climate despite having nothing of value to add. It wants to believe that a former president can simply give a speech to a crowd of angry onlookers and rally them to his cause. That this same character agrees to help with what is basically a new version of the Patriot Act doesn’t seem to be treated as a betrayal by the writers. He is a good man, we’re told, so it’s okay if we entrust him with untold power.

Almost everyone we encounter in the show agrees. Most characters can’t go a few minutes without reminding us how great of a man Mullen is. The only people who hold any ill will towards him are his daughter, who is also in Congress, and a right-wing media personality that Mullen inexplicably keeps watching.

Zero Day boasts an ensemble cast full of big names. Jesse Plemons brings as much depth as he can to Mullen’s personal aide. Lizzy Caplan has the thankless role of being the aforementioned daughter who despises her father to an almost comical degree. The likes of Connie Britton, Dan Stevens, and Angela Bassett fill the rest of the cast out, just to name a few. The problem is that despite the stacked cast, nobody outside of De Niro and occasionally Plemons, has much of anything to work with. These characters exist as roles to be filled in a story first and actual people never. Their purpose is to get you from one tedious plot twist to the next.

This is a show striving to be timely with ideas that felt more at home 20 years ago. It’s The West Wing meets 24 with all the tortured speechifying and actual torture that comes with those programs. Zero Day believes that what we all need is one strong-willed man to unite us. It’s telling that we never actually see that unity. The writers seem as confused by the current state of things as the rest of us. No wonder they seem so focused on the past.

Zero Day is currently streaming on Netflix

Final Verdict: Tune Out

Common Side Effects: A thriller, a comedy, and even more

Photo: Adult Swim

What’s immediately striking about Common Side Effects, besides the stunning animation, is how many genres it operates in. At its heart, the show is a conspiracy thriller and stoner comedy mixed together. As it goes along, though, distinct elements creep in. A dash of buddy cop comedy, a sprinkle of film noir, all adding to a sense of unpredictability from scene to scene. It feels fresh, not just for an animated series but for TV as a whole.

Common Side Effects is the newest animated series from Adult Swim. Created by Steve Hely and Joseph Bennett of the great Scavengers Reign, the show actually shares many of the same animators. The series follows Marcus and Frances, two high school friends who reconnect by chance. Marcus has discovered a mysterious mushroom that cures any illness or injury, which puts him in the crosshairs of the DEA and big pharmaceutical giants. As it turns out, Frances works for one of these companies and may have some ulterior motives in helping Marcus.

The cast expands outward from there, including Frances’ boss voiced by Mike Judge, using his Hank Hill voice for evil. There’s also DEA agents Copano and Harrington, two good natured goofballs who are on the wrong side of this conflict. The supporting cast is full of weirdos and malicious politicians, all of whom feel just unique enough to avoid falling into parody. Most of these characters are background players, but the writing never makes it feel like they exist solely to move the plot along.

The animation is where Common Side Effects really stands out. At first glance, you’re likely drawn to all the humans with their oversized heads and tiny mouths. Their designs are intentionally off-putting. The real splendor of the animation comes from the natural world. The lush colors of nature create an immediate dissonance from the drab cityscapes. Something that goes unnoticed by most of the characters. It’s only when the natural interrupts their lives that they take notice.

Common Side Effects is not a slow show. It moves a tremendous amount of plot along in just 22 minutes. It is, however, a deliberate show. Every scene filled with purpose, even if it is solely to introduce us to a character’s doped out brother. The show’s disparate tones should not work together but do thanks to the care put into this collection of weirdos. Strong character work and confident world-building remain an undefeated duo.

Common Side Effects airs Sundays on Adult Swim and streams on Max..

Final Verdict: Tune In