Winning Time Season 2 Is a Fast Break Through Lakers History: Review

The post Winning Time Season 2 Is a Fast Break Through Lakers History: Review appeared first on Consequence.

The Pitch: The story of so many sports franchises is one of epic successes and equally epic failures, and the legacy of the Los Angeles Lakers is no exception, especially in the 1980s. Season 1 of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty provided a star-packed look at the team’s 1979-1980 NBA season, with the HBO drama digging hard into creating a portrait on the cusp of greatness; Season 2, meanwhile, explores what it means not just to win, but how success means you need to keep winning.

As with Season 1, there are a lot of players on this court. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) is still learning how to connect with the fans. Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) still loves his long-time paramour Cookie (Tamera Tomakili), but his issues with womanizing create some real consequences. Team owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) wants to keep building his empire and make his children happy, though a new marriage might complicate factors. Coach Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) has some bold new ideas about how to play the game, though others are skeptical about his so-called “System.” No one seems aware that in the year 2023, many of their real-life counterparts will speak out actively about their portrayal in this series, but history belongs to the winners — or in this case, the storytellers.

The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat: The biggest difference between Season 1 and Season 2 of Winning Time is, well, time. That first season told the story of a year in the team’s life in 10 episodes — Season 2, meanwhile, is seven episodes long and encompasses four years, ending with the events of the 1984 playoff series between the Celtics and the Lakers. (Won’t share any details on what happened there, but the spoilers are available on Wikipedia, should you be curious.)

As one might anticipate, this results in a somewhat different approach for the season, though one compelling aspect of Season 2 is that it doesn’t surrender too much of Season 1’s detail-obsessed vibe. Instead, the focus becomes a little narrower, the number of characters in the spotlight smaller, and in some ways that works to the show’s otherwise sprawling advantage.

On the other hand… it’s still four years worth of story told in seven episodes. “Condensed” is a word that comes to mind, when considering the pacing of the season. “CliffsNotes” is another phrase. Things do slow down enough for the climatic playoff series between the two long-time rival teams to get the weight it deserves, but the show’s breathless energy doesn’t allow as many moments to land as you’d want.

Don’t Hate the Player… While the cast doesn’t get much chance to shine, given how quickly things have to move here, Quincy Isaiah stands out for all the different dimensions of Magic he’s asked to play, including moments when he’s not even the real man, but a figment of someone else’s imagination.

Winning Time (HBO)

We also get more exploration of Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small) as a person as well as a player, with time and attention given to his “origin story” (so to speak) as well as his relationship with Celtics coach Red Auerbach (Michael Chiklis) — while not the warmest or most engaging character, there’s a poignancy to Bird’s relationship with his father that adds immediate relatability.

Also, Season 2 is largely a story of two coaches, and Jason Segel isn’t afraid to lean into Paul Westhead’s ill-fated embrace of the spotlight, while Adrien Brody tears into Pat Riley’s transition to head coach like… well, like he’d been waiting for over a season to dig deeper into one of the NBA’s most famous figures.

On a technical level, Winning Time remains a fascinating experience to watch, thanks to an aesthetic established by Adam McKay with the pilot that’s continued to evolve since then. By using real vintage ’80s-era cameras to film the series, the blend of pre-digital video, film, and modern-day technologies has created a singular style which aims to communicate authenticity; this is what archival footage from the era looks like, after all. It’s not exactly beautiful, but it at least feels real.

As for that realism, only hardcore NBA scholars will be able to create a full rundown of what the new season gets right or wrong. However, HBO did send the press a thorough breakdown of each episode and the events it depicts, listing the show’s sources for the events being chronicled. Many of those sources were memoirs written by the players themselves — brought to the screen with maybe just a little dramatic license from the writers. The fourth wall, long since shattered during Season 1, remains in pieces on the ground, thanks to direct camera address, fantasy sequences, and on-screen graphics boldly pointing out “THIS REALLY HAPPENED.”

The Verdict: This next chapter of Lakers history succeeds at ripping through some dark years, even as the shine of its stars is diminished by their lack of screen time. However, its greatest strength persists, that being its deeply felt love for the era it’s exploring. It’s a story told with the same zeal you might hear in the voice of a friend who just read a great book about the NBA and needs to tell you about the wild facts they’ve learned. As it goes in real life, your enthusiasm for hearing those details will be largely driven by your overall interest in the topic, but the vibrant depiction of these events ensures one thing — this show is never in danger of being boring.

Where to Watch: Winning Time premieres Sunday, August 6th on HBO and Max. New episodes will debut weekly.

Trailer:

Winning Time Season 2 Is a Fast Break Through Lakers History: Review
Liz Shannon Miller

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