If you put the recent TV series “Ted Lasso,” “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and “Succession” in a Content Blender with the 2003 Kate Hudson rom-com “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” and hit the PUREE button, you’d get the frothy and funny and sweet-natured Netflix sports comedy series “Running Point.”
Hudson delivers a sparkling performance as the newly appointed president of the fictional Los Angeles Waves pro basketball franchise, who runs into a full-court press nearly every day on the job, whether she’s navigating her way through the machinations and schemes of her three brothers (who all work in the front office), handling the egos and problems of various players, butting heads with other big-market team owners, or trying to balance her personal and professional life.
With David Stassen as showrunner and executive producer, and sitcom all-stars Mindy Kaling and Ike Barinholtz as executive producers and among the writers, “Running Point” stars Hudson as one Isla Gordon, who has distinct parallels to Los Angeles Lakers president and co-owner Jeanie Buss (who in fact is also an executive producer on the series.) Jeanie’s father, the late Jerry Buss, was a dynamic and colorful figure who loved a good time as much as he loved his Lakers. The fictional Isla’s late father had similar traits. (Isla even posed for Playboy at one point, as did Jeanie.)
“Running Point” is relatively light on the basketball action in favor of the classic workplace comedy setup, where a myriad of wacky characters with one or two distinct personality traits trade pop culture-laced one-liners while getting into all sorts of pickles. Credit the writers for juggling multiple storylines and affording showcase moments to not only Hudson but the wonderful team of supporting players — and there are many.
When Isla’s brother Cam (Justin Theroux) flames out in spectacularly public fashion and has to resign as president of the Waves and enter rehab, he stuns the family by appointing the overlooked and underappreciated Isla to the post, over the protestations of siblings Sandy (Drew Tarver), who will remain chief financial officer of the Waves, and Ness (Scott MacArthur), the general manager who has an emotional age of about 12.
Fortunately for Isla, she has her own support team, including best friend and chief of staff Ali Lee (Brenda Song), who comes from the South Side of Chicago and has no time for pleasantries, and her fiancé Lev, a handsome and likable pediatrician who is always in Isla’s corner, though he wishes she took a little more interest in his world. (This is the part of “Running Point” that plays like a 2000s rom-com, with the seemingly perfect couple encountering some major speed bumps, and the wisecracking BFF on the sidelines, sublimating her own life so she can always be there for the heroine.)
Another employee with a prominent storyline: Fabrizio Guido’s Jackie Moreno, a popcorn vendor who is suddenly given the opportunity of a lifetime, and we’ll leave it to you to discover how this comes about.
As you can see, there’s a lot going on before we even get to the team’s coaching staff and roster. Jay Ellis plays the respected head coach Jay Brown, while the British actor and former track star Toby Sandeman is the LeBron-esque veteran superstar Marcus Winfield, Uche Agada is the green but promising rookie Dyson Gibbs, and the towering former European pro basketball player Dane DiLiegro is Badrag Knauss, who looks like a “Game of Thrones” warrior but is quite sensitive and thoughtful.
Then there’s Chet Hanks in what is almost a semi-autobiographical role as the cartoonishly egotistical and terrible rapper of a point guard named Travis Bugg, and while Hanks looks more like an MMA fighter than a basketball player and I’m not convinced he could excel at a Pop-A-Shot game let alone at the pro level, the performance is not without its moments. Travis is a nightmare with serious issues, but we come to feel some measure of empathy for the guy when we learn his full story.
“Running Point” has its serious storylines, but nearly everything is handled with a sun-baked and relatively light touch, making this an easily digestible binge-series with multi-season potential.