Photo credits: TVInsider, HBO
As a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, anytime I see a new show about the Showtime Lakers, I am always interested because I wasn't around to see the greatness that was Magic, Kareem and Worthy. Now when the first commercials about this show came out, I told myself I wasn't going to watch it just because of the people that they chose to play certain athletes and characters in the show, just for reference it's a turn off for me personally, when I see people that don't look like the character they are portraying. After a couple of days, of the shows release and actually sitting on the idea of how good the show could potentially be, I came to realize that I was wrong about this idea within the first episode.
Throughout the first 3 episodes, for whatever reason the people at HBO decided it would be ok to make Magic Johnson this sexual deviant, who has sex with any girl that walks near him, and then make Kareem come off as this other worldly athlete who cares about nobody or anything, other than himself. Winning Time has to be one of the biggest not safe for work (NSFW) shows that you can watch today. Besides the cussing and out of pocket characteristics they give to the characters the show is filled with nothing but sex for a majority of the first 3 episodes. At some point I was trying to convince myself that they will get to the basketball side of things but the only ounce of basketball being played throughout the first couple of episodes comes in the form of Magic Johnson schooling the new boyfriend of his future wife, Cookie, at a random church event, then he turns around and fly's to LA, where he gets schooled by Norm Nixon at a Dr. Buss party.
Winning Time has the potential to be a great show once they cut out the sex, and that's what happens in episode 4. We finally get to see, Dr. Buss hire Coach Jack McKinney and Showtime is created right before the 1980 NBA Season. Throughout episode 4, we see Magic go through the trials and tribulations of being a rookie in the NBA, as he is forced to bring Kareem orange juice and a newspaper at the crack of dawn every morning during training camp as well as an inside look of how bad the players were before they were able to figure out how to make Showtime basketball function. As someone who wasn't born during this time, episode 4 is a great learning experience because many people may not know that it was Jack McKinney who was the originator of the fast paced offense the Lakers would end up using during their title runs. This episode also shows a new bond being formed between Norm Nixon and Magic Johnson that viewers can look forward to since Nixon's character hasn't been to found of Magic since he was the Lakers potential first round pick.
Once you get can get passed the sex, cussing and characters, Winning Time to me personally has the potential to be another great HBO show. Now that we are finally getting to see the basketball side of things it is a nice relief to see something different within the show. You can currently watch episode 1 of Winning Time for free on HBO Max and view the other 3 episodes with a subscription.
Comments