re: ‘Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty’ Now Playing on HBO

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kinda like it. I remember that day vividly and it is part of the tragedy. So leading off with it is a nice move.

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I wasn’t complaining about it being part of the show, obviously that’s the driving force of the overall plot of the show in the long run

It just felt weird to throw the audience into the deep water of this insanely emotional and important event in the story as the first scene in the show, but then never once touch anything close to that same note for the rest of the episode, going as far as to undercut any scenes that could possibly have tension with either an immediate joke, a 4th wall break, or both just to reassure the audience that this is all still great and fun

Not saying it has to be the Wire or anything, but it needed one more scene atleast to remind you of the actual backbone of the story or atleast remind you that they have that card to play, or it’s going to feel really weird when they try to force it later

If the plan is to stick to that style and narrative technique for the whole show, I think it’s going to wear thin very quickly for people- even the ones who really enjoyed it in the first episode. Which is again why something like Ballers comes to mind, where there’s big names associated with it on both sides of the camera, that’s extremely stylish and looks amazing, and has some really good actors/performances, but ultimately there wasn’t anything below the surface

But hey it’s the first episode, still way too early to be sure of anything and I’ll still be watching