Running Point review: a winning comeback but comedic letdown
Running Point is a lesson in resigning to mediocrity. Once we enjoyed rewatching scenes and episodes and seasons of the hit shows Netflix offered. We bingewatched series after series, escaping life uninterrupted for at least half the day. Show after show would have us hooked as soon as they dropped. Now we are grateful for the forward option so we can skip through its shows that are at best lukewarm entertainment.
Running Point is a new addition to the handful of comedy series on Netflix. It is loosely based on the Los Angeles Lakers’ owner Jeanie Buss who took over her father's basketball team after he died in 2013. The title means nothing to people who know nothing about basketball. That it is a sports based show means even less to people like me. Kate Hudson is the face of the show and seeing her on Netflix is the only factor that was intriguing because… well, where has she been since she played Mathew McConaughey's insincere girlfriend?
When I saw that RP was produced by Mindy Kaling and Ike Barinholtz, I committed the sin of expectation. In the modern world, there is no space for such transgression. You can't have expectations, nobody’s got time to meet your basic standards. So good thing I was chastised and my expectations were brought down by the second episode. I was fond of writers/ comedians Kaling and Barinholtz for their collaborative The Mindy Project, so I expected a glimmer of the same quirky humour and endearing characters. But Running Point is the residue of previous brief successes that are juiced for extra mileage. Its cast includes actors who have already been done and dusted since the roles they became known for. The story is yet another girlboss coming of age arc. The comedy is nothing fresh, it’s even half-arsed. But ultimately, you can watch the show and not get too irritated with it for some reason.
Mindy was a loveable South Asian-heritage representation in Hollywood back in the day. She has come a long way and recently got a Hall of Fame star simultaneous to RP's release.
While Mindy Project was cute and relatable there is nothing relatable about RP. Unless you're Jeanie Buss, president of the LA Lakers, and inspiration for Isla Gordon, the lead role. Kate Hudson plays Isla. After her father dies, her eldest brother is incapacitated to fulfil his role as president of the LA Waves. Laid up in the hospital, he tells his two brothers and sister Isla that he was in a car accident because he was high on crack. “Crack?! Really?” asks Isla in disbelief. “Yes, crack. And I love it. Okay,” he states bluntly. Now facing rehab, he surprises everyone more by choosing Isla over his brothers to fill in his shoes.
Isla must step into and conquer a man's world. Ali (Brenda Song), her BFF and chief of staff of the basketball corporation, warns her firmly, “On behalf of all women, never ever make a mistake. It looks bad for all of us” after landing a job this big. This arc is sort of Kaling's signature, girlboss culture and women empowerment at work. Kaling is one of contemporary Hollywood's biggest token of first generation Indian-American representation in comedy. She has come a long way. From a supporting role in The Office to starring and co-creating Mindy to Never Have I Ever and Late Night co-starring Emma Thompson, she also pops up in an episode of Meghan Markle’s self-aggrandising Netflix documentary as her real-life friend. So maybe this is the phase in her stardom where she has made it big enough to just use her name for cameos and credit purposes. Because Running Point does not have any memorable one liners to become a cool pop culture reference. The writing is basic. You can call it relatable for the simple American viewer or accessible for a Pakistani viewer who uses English cusswords as a crutch to speak English coolly. The story, although loosely based on real life, is a familiar trope on TV. A woman in a man's world but for comedic effect it takes on gender inequality casually so as not to be in your face.
Compared to Kaling, Kate Hudson is a has-been. But she carries the entire show on her shoulders. Comedic timing, screen presence and just good acting, she has it all down pat. In fact, the way she breathes life into a limp script and blah jokes, one wonders why she isn't seen on TV more.
Isla is the youngest of three brothers and has felt invisible to them mostly. She knows basketball as good as any man in her family and more than a couple of them. But who cares, she's just a girl. Her brother Ness is the token lovable loser sibling who can't be taken seriously. His marriage is a bit shaky and he ends up crashing at his younger brother's for some duration of the show. Sandy, younger to Ness, is their gay half-brother who takes the Waves’ finances seriously to the point of being anal. As uptight as he is, he is easily fooled. A scene in the show that comes to mind is when Sandy has a date over at his place only to be locked in his shower and robbed by the date - before he even gets screwed.
Cam (Justin Theroux), the eldest, is the successor of the Gordon basketball empire. After getting “rear-ended” in the car accident, he decides to step down to get a grip and chooses Isla to take over the presidency to the shock of everyone and mostly Isla. Much later, viewers discover his was not a benevolent bequest. Meanwhile, Isla slowly but surely builds self confidence and learns to stand on her own feet as the CEO of the family enterprise, no matter what adversity and madness is thrown her way. This makes Cam insecure but it wins over everyone else who was critical about her steering the company being a woman.
Sidekick and cheerleader Ali and fiance Lev (Max Greenfield) have stereotypical roles, supporting Isla wholeheartedly. Lev's encouragement and patience is too good to be true. In some scenes, you wait for him to break, either into a joke or a hissy fit. But he is loyal to the core and to the bitter end. Their relationship is sweet though and one feels a little sorry seeing Isla eff it up. Ali is smart, sassy, and believable as a best friend. She is adept at putting out fires and doing damage control for the Waves’ and her friend. The element of friendship is an important one in girlboss shows and I'm here for it. Sadly, nothing in the show runs so deep that you can quote it later or recall it.
Coming back to the quintessential mediocrity of the show and its entertainment value. The 10 episodes are buoyed with inconsistent editing to keep up a good pace. The scenes go by quickly where Isla is doing “big-man” work, like player trade-offs or getting sponsors for the Waves, or any other business strategising that basketball fans would be interested in. The same goes for holding Isla's personal relationships under the scanner. Just like we wait for Lev to break, we wait to get more about their relationship. There are other story arcs that are dwelt upon with forced attention. A wayward player who is performing poorly and gets an addiction, a calm yet headstrong coach and his family life embellish the episodes where the show loses its plot. Meanwhile, the discovery of a stepbrother, who works the stands at the Waves stadium, is a funny little problem for the dysfunctional Gordon siblings.
With trite tropes and run-of-the-mill roles, season one of RP just hovers on the comedy barometer as an amusing show. Hudson carries the show on her shoulders and brings freshness to a ho-hum role with a very predictable story arc. The rest of the cast fill the roles as ‘extras’. Even if you are not a sports fan, you can watch the show when you don't know what else to put on.