I’ve always been amused by sports-themed movies and TV series that exist in a parallel universe with fictional teams, e.g., the New York Knights in “The Natural,” the Miami Sharks in “Any Given Sunday,” and AFC Richmond in “Ted Lasso.” In the breezy and endearing Netflix series “Running Point,” the professional basketball league is known as the ABL, and instead of the Los Angeles Lakers, we have the Los Angeles Waves, which is actually a better name than the Lakers, a moniker the team retained when the franchise moved from Minneapolis to L.A. in 1960.
In that same vein, Kate Hudson’s general manager Isla Gordon isn’t strictly based on Lakers exec Jeanie Buss, even though the similarities between the two are clear, and Buss serves as a producer on “Running Point.” It’s all fiction—and as we’re reminded in the woefully choreographed basketball scenes in Season 2, sometimes it falls far short of verisimilitude. I mean, the hoops sequences in “The White Shadow” back in the day were more authentic.
That’s OK, though, as “Running Point” isn’t a sports drama on the order of “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” It’s more in the vein of a workplace comedy/drama where the actual work takes a back seat to the multitude of running story lines about a group of flawed, believable, well-drawn characters who are constantly in crisis mode because somebody screwed somebody over, or someone came up with a terrible idea, or this person betrayed THAT person, and nobody saw that coming! Add some welcome newcomers to an already stellar cast, sprinkle in a steady stream of crackling dialogue with pop culture references, rely heavily on Hudson’s considerable talents in the lead, and you’ve got a well-oiled, mainstream comedy franchise that arrives just as the real playoffs are kicking into gear.
With an abundance of drone shots consistently setting the sunny Los Angeles tone, Season 2 of “Running Point” kicks off with Isla and the Waves determined to build on the promise of the previous season, where they fell just short in Game 7 of the Conference Finals. The front office is humming, with Isla working (mostly) in tandem with her barely competent siblings Ness (Scott MacArthur), Sandy (Drew Tarver), and Jackie (Fabrizio Guido), as well as her wisecracking, bundle-of-energy best friend Ali (Brenda Song). The roster has jelled, though it’s going to take some time to get used to the new coach: the reclusive, old-school curmudgeon and basketball savant Norm Stinson, played with low-key, masterful aplomb by sitcom Hall of Famer Ray Romano.
What could possibly go…right? Things get stickier in the La Brea Tar Pits as Isla has to deal with one crisis after another. Slick and boisterous and utterly untrustworthy eldest sibling Cam Gordon bursts in fresh out of rehab and immediately starts scheming to regain control of the team. (Justin Theroux is a scene-stealing force as the series villain.) Ali feels undervalued and considers taking a position with Toronto Trappers. (Another excellent fake team name!)
Isla is finally ready to walk down the aisle with her patient, long-suffering fiancé, Lev (Max Greenfield, in an underwritten role), but does she still harbor feelings for former Waves coach Jay Brown (Jay Ellis, in leading-man form), who is now coaching in Boston? Oh, and let’s not forget the bubbling love triangle involving two Waves players and the former child star Zoé Debay (Aliyah Turner), who is on the verge of becoming an A-List movie star.
Add to that about a half-dozen other subplots, product placement images for a food delivery app that could use some good publicity, a cameo by a famous reality star playing herself, a number of familiar faces dropping in for an episode or two, and Isla making a meta reference to a certain beloved rom-com in the Kate Hudson canon, and “Running Point” sometimes feels overstuffed. Sure, it’s fun to see the invaluable character actor Ken Marino hamming it up as Al Fleischman, “The Toilet King of Orange County,” and series co-creator Ike Barinholtz delivers laughs as a “loser cousin” of the Gordon family, and hey, there’s Scott Speedman, and how about that, Octavia Spencer just dropped by!
All that time spent on high-profile pop-ins and meandering storylines sometimes comes at the expense of further developing the core characters. I’d like to see more of Song’s loyal and funny and self-deprecating Ali, Fabrizio Guido’s sweet and increasingly confident Jackie, and Scott MacArthur’s goofy madman-with-a-heart Ness.
Still, thanks to Hudson’s performance as the likable but deeply flawed and self-centered Isla, and the crisp writing that serves up steady laughs in each episode, “Running Point” seems poised to stay in contention for multiple seasons to come.
Especially if most of the action continues to take place off the court.
Full season screened for review. Currently streaming on Netflix.