The first season of ‘Winning Time: The Lakers Dynasty’ was a drink of fresh water within the sports genre on television. HBO’s fiction, and the word fiction here is important, dramatizes the 80s that transformed the NBA from a small hobby into a true phenomenon, which would gain an international level after the explosion of Michael Jordan in the 90s. But at this point Jordan does not exist and the two protagonists are Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
In that rivalry, which serves to create the most interesting chapter of the duel between the Lakers and the Celtics that still defines the NBA today, is the plot line of the series. If the first season focused on the temporary drama of the Los Angeles team, but their duel with the Bostonians and their idol is the focus of the promotion and the first episode of the second season that is on HBO.
Interpretations help. Although the real figures do not stop describing the characters of the series as caricatures, it is difficult to deny their magnetism. John C. Reilly redefines his career with a captivating and at times repulsive version of Jerry Buss, the man who turned the NBA into a spectacle, Quincy Isaiah heralds the arrival of a screen star by playing Johnson, and Solomon Hughes is capable of convey both the loneliness and the leadership of Captain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
But perhaps no one in the cast leaves as much material to write a review as Adrien Brody’s Pat Riley. Combed back hair, pure ambition and the possibility of exploding at any moment make his character perhaps the most interesting in the series, the second season has the task of narrating his passage from assistant to team coach, and former player looking for a place in the team a key figure in the evolution of modern basketball. Little by little their interpretation continues to grow and rise to one of the peaks of a career that has been silently filled with them.
THE RIVALRY AT THE CENTER OF THE SERIES AND THE NBA
But this second season also makes it clear that this moment is not defined only by what the Lakers do, but by their results against the Celtics. At various times Riley himself points out that a ring is valuable, but that neither those of Johnson nor those of Bird complete the legend if they do not earn it from the other.
This allows more screen time for Sean Patrick Small’s Larry Bird. The real Bird, despite his present-day public presence as one of the league’s funny old wise men, has enough history to have his own multi-season drama. A chaotic family marked first by a divorce and then by the suicide of his father served as a source of inspiration in his career as a player first and then as a coach, more than once the player has spoken of his fear of returning to poverty .
In the series this translates into seeing Johnson not only as a sports rival but as a real risk to his career. Small’s Bird, another rookie like Isaiah, looks at his rival with concern even though the series knows that ironically they are destined to be fairly close friends, After all, the Boston player was one of the first to call Magic after his AIDS diagnosis.
‘WINNING TIME’ MOVES TO THE END OF THE 80’S AND MAGIC JOHNSON’S LAKERS
This second season promises to accelerate the pace at which the story of Magic Johnson’s Lakers is told. At the end of the 7 episodes we should be in 1984, after the first duel in the finals of the Los Angeles team and the Celtics. It will be interesting to see how, as the series progresses, They manage this rhythm as the seasons add different dramas within the team.
But for now the second season will premiere weekly on HBO. It is a must-see drama for any NBA fan, but also for anyone interested in good television.
2023-08-17 05:06:38
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