Don't take any of this Series literally.. It's loosely based on reality, but not a documentary.. I love the Jerry West character.. I'm sure he was pretty f'in pissed off after losing in the Finals most of his career.
Thought the first episode was really good. Really like the Magic and Cap casting. I'm seeing a lot of backlash on the West embellishments, I'm hoping that is not what the lasting impression of this show ends up being. This isn't a doc, this is a series based off a book and uses that as its blueprint. It did not convert the book to script, line by line. A lot of writers have some strong takes on this thing. Here's Stein's The Athletic's Sam Amick: The league isn't thrilled with it not getting their permission for league and logo usage, either
I did love the scene at the end when Dr Buss was lying down mid court with a bottle in his hand and yelling out about him being the owner and laughing, it kind of depicts the fun loving Buss side, along with being a focus intellectual businessman.
The backlash on how Jerry West has been portrayed is hilarious. You’d think these writers had their literal god insulted. This is a tv show, a dramatized tv show. On top of that every sports movie ever takes liberties or is just plain full of it, so many of them are BS fluff pieces. I’ll take a comedic dramatization over that sanitized nonsense.
On top of that, ok so West's demons were internalized by all accounts. How do you convey that in 5 minutes on TV? You can't, at least not how you can in a book where you can literally spend chapters on it. So you make it external and it makes for better TV. On one of the pods, they brought up has anyone ever seen Rudy, 42, Remember the Titans. All take HUGE liberties. All sports movies do it. Hell, Rocky is based on Chuck Wepner. I doubt he went to Russia to fight a roided Drago and in turn won over an entire country. I also doubt he had a robot he gifted to his brother in law bring them breakfast and played music. Where's the uproar over that?
The difference from those movies where they enhanced their characters , where Jerry west image took a hit
This show is fantastic, one of the best I’ve seen in a while only 2 episodes in. And for those taking it all serious and like it’s blow for blow what happened, come on now, it literally says it’s a dramatization, they talk to the camera/audience, it’s so over the top. No, but really, this show couldn’t have come out at a better time, it’s here to save my Lakers soul that this team has nearly killed this season. I can’t believe Michael Shannon was ever cast as Dr Buss, John C Reilly IS Dr Buss, he’s genius, he’s fantastic, it’s so good. I was born in ‘84, I didn’t grow up with the Showtime Lakers, but my dad told the bones of these stories so many times growing up and this show is so well made that it makes me think of him while watching and fills me with a nostalgia for a time I didn’t even really see. The Lakers C Bags stuff brewing, the Norm and Magic stuff, Jerry West’s journey, seeing Jeanie get her start with Linda Rambis in the same office, this is some awesome stuff, it’s Hollywood, of course it’s dramatized, but I’m sure the actual stories were just as interesting on their own. I kinda get it now too, this current mess, watching it, Jeanie and Linda have been working together for decades, this is a family business to the core. Seeing it put to the screen like this I understand why it’s so hard for her to look elsewhere. I still don’t agree with it, but I GET it now.
"I got you that rebounder" I wonder if Buss was referring to Mark Landsberger. He was like the Kurt Rambis before Rambis, he was a worker, a fan favorite. They made Jerry West into such a hard a**, taunting Norm Nixon in practice, banging broads, sleeping on the floor half naked, I wonder how Pat Riley will be portrayed who was actually a hard a** as a coach.
Wanting Sidney Moncrief over Magic seems ridiculous now, it would had been the 2nd biggest f up in draft history behind drafting Sam Bowie over Jordan, but I can see West point of view here, Moncrief was a better defender, shooter, a more prototype card from that era, west views magic as to tall to dribble. We never seen a 6-9 pure point guard at that time.
Just finished Episode 2. I did not expect it to be this good. It nails the tone to comically recounts some of these things. Even when not dramatized, some were pretty ridiculous in reality (like winning the rights to draft Magic on a coin flip) and the show gets that across. The show is self-aware in how over the top it is and I think it really works, like when they break the 4th wall. Characters just looking straight into the camera giving context to scenes seems like the most efficient way to do this. Kinda like how McKay did with The Big Short. One thing I noticed is that Magic has been portrayed interestingly so far. So far we just watched him get owned by Nixon, annoy his mother and be an a****** to Cookie. I don't have a problem with it, I can see what parts of Magic's character they're trying to establish there. But Magic might have been the most popular athlete in the country in the summer after winning the national championship. I would think he would be riding a little higher, that's all.
Love it! For me, some of the shine of West as The Ultimate Jedi Talent Scout has worn off. I get it, nobody had ever seen a big ball handler before, but Magic was special, even in his basketball infancy. John C. Has been one of my favorite actors, since “Boogie Nights,” and is just killing it as the great Dr. The whole cast is great so far. I’m so glad McKay is directing this- his comedic genius has been on display throughout some of the funniest films over the recent past.
It’s nice even in a fictionalized account to see what’s going on “backstage” since I watched the games on delayed tv or vcr later on
