laker nation hbo fans what's going on elliot here from movie files back again with a brand
new tv review and today we're discussing the first episode of the brand new hbo sports drama
series by the name of winning time the rise of the lakers dynasty your boy's a laker fan
i was really excited for the show watch the first episode and we're talking pros we're talking cons
will i be watching this on a week to week basis should you be watching this we're breaking it all
down here in this review but before we do so make sure you're checking me out on all my other social
media accounts laker nation come and join this awesome community filled with movie reviews tv
reviews i want you to come and join the community so make sure you're subscribed and hitting that
notification bell as you can see on the screen now if you enjoyed this review make sure to give it a
thumbs up but also share this review to all the laker fans you know out there hbo fans you know
out there nba fans you know out there that might like this type of show but more importantly once
you've seen this first episode what did you think let's talk about your pros your cons your thoughts
on the style and the substance the performances what were some things that didn't work for you
all in the first episode and will you be watching us on a week-to-week basis but more importantly
let's talk about these lakers lakers nation let's talk about your fandom when did you first become
a lakers fan if you are a fan of the lakers or the nba in general and if so what's your favorite
team who's your favorite player within the lakers dynasty the lakers run in the nba let's talk about
that in the comments below so for me personally i was beyond excited for the show number one yes i
am a lakers fan i don't follow the lakers as much as i used to especially with the late great kobe
being brian retiring but i still check in on a.d and brian and russ and kind of the turmoil
they're going through right now but i'm still a fan of nba i grew up playing basketball i love
it it's my favorite sport but in particularly the lakers man listen i mentioned how kobe was my guys
my favorite basketball player of all time him and shaq and phil winning those three rings obviously
kobe and powell went in those two rings and then him going out on a high that 61 point game in
utah one of the best moments of kobe's career but i'm a fan but being a fan of the lakers
you got to respect what came before them and that is the first official showtime lakers in the 80s
magic dr buss pat riley i know some things being that i am a fan of the lakers and magic johnson's
the greatest point guard of all time but i didn't know all the things so that's what really got
me intrigued with this show and knowing that adam mckay is behind it i'm a fan of his movie
projects him being one of the executive producers of the best show on hbo which is succession and
then you have max bornstein who i know his work from the monster verse i'm like okay
i'm liking what i'm seeing the cast looks great i'm a lakers fan so let's give this damn thing
a watch and here we are talking about the first episode i will warn you all i guess i should say
this would be a spoiler review to our extent because i hate to say spoilers this is factual
stuff some of this stuff is made up for drama reasons to make it more of an entertaining show
but for the most part you can look up most of this stuff so i guess i'll warn you we'll be talking a
little bit about the spoilers in regards to this first episode but let's get into my thoughts
this first episode which i thought it did such a great job of establishing its tone its style its
entertainment meets a little bit of drama but it's also the way that they capture adam mckay directs
his first episode and the way he captures the 80s and captures dr bus captures a young 19 year old
magic johnson in the showtime lakers i really enjoyed this first episode but we're going to
get into my reasons why starting off with just kind of the synopsis of this first episode is
basically following and meeting dr jerry bust this kind of playboy billionaire as he's in the playboy
mansion and how he's dive into buying his team and how he considers basketball to be on the wrong end
of the entertainment aspect of it and also sharing that with meeting magic johnson 19 year old phenom
coming out of michigan going into the league and kind of what that looks like it's kind of the
basis of this first episode and kind of getting more into it's entertaining it's fun it's breaking
the fourth wall which we'll talk about but it's also some serious stuff going on in this show and
particularly in the first episode again knowing magic johnson's history to a certain extent
that first scene really kind of lets you know yeah we're going to have fun we're going to
dive into some of the more entertaining aspects of the 80s but we're also going to talk about
these characters and what certain decisions how it affected their career so that first
scene magic johnson 1991 in the doctor's office learning about his hiv and if you all don't know
that was one of the three times he retired because and i and i'm really excited to see if the show
tackles how nba players kind of looked at that and how he had to lead the lead and come back to
lee to become a coach and being the player that he you know we know he was and how he ended up being
who he is today so i'm really intrigued to know how the show's gonna tackle that
if it's gonna really because obviously the show right now is focusing on the 80s but
knowing that we flash forward i wonder and i hope they explore that element of magic johnson because
again greatest point guard of all time but i would love to kind of shine a light on that
particular part of his career but going in back into the timeline we're in which is in the 80s
meeting jerry buss played by john c riley who will talk about his performance in a second but
i i know jerry buss later in his career right when he was you know drafting kobe when he's traded for
shaq when he got phil jackson and assembled the team with you know the robert always of the world
the derek richards of the world the brian shaw's of the world i know that version of him i didn't
really know the playboy version of him so seeing him waking up to in the playboy match and just
his his personality he seemed so carefree happy going you know spending money that he might not
have and that that aspect of the first episode of him buying the lakers and how much debt he's in
him going through his divorce was some of the stuff i really enjoyed about this first episode
and again that breaking in the fourth wall when he's breaking down the figures of how
he's gonna buy the team i really kind of enjoy that adam mckay-ism with his first episode but
also switching gears into talking about how he wanted to change the the style of basketball
because again nba is my favorite sport i grew up playing basketball again not necessarily being so
tied into laker nation now but still following the game of basketball it's so interesting to
hear the state of basketball in the 80s and how they were on the verge of bankruptcy but also
shining the light on la i've never been to la la land i would love to go but knowing that los
angeles is especially during that time was more of a hollywood movie star city and not so much
a basketball city was very fascinating so i'm really excited to see how magic and the team
coming together how it switches their narrative again it's still hollywood right but switching
that narrative to say hey we got a pretty good basketball team here let's go to the forum and
see what this showtime lakers is all about so i'm really excited to explore more about that element
of the show but more in particularly again loving magic johnson i love and i didn't really know this
again i don't know if this is more dramatized or if this was real life but the fact that him being
potentially drafted to lakers i won't give that aspect away because that happens a little bit
later in the episode but the fact that it came down to a coin flip between him going to the los
angeles lakers or from my hometown chicago bulls which obviously that would have been
incredibly different i don't know if you know magic and mj would have been playing together
if he would have been drafted by the bulls at that time but that just blows my mind and know
that that was potentially a possibility was very intriguing especially being a basketball fan but
let's kind of get into these performances john c reilly as jerry buss is fantastic again john if
you all do not know this a little bit behind the scenes but adam mckay john c reilly and
will ferrell are really good friends if you all don't know will pharaoh this was the role of his
lifetime he wanted to play jerry buss for a very long time unfortunately his really good fearing
and business partner adam mckay decided to go with their other friend john c reilly and they've
actually have had a falling out so but i will say i love phil uh will ferrell john c reilly
was the perfect fit he really kind of embodies the character getting the playboy lifestyle the
happy personality kind of carefree personality i'm really enjoying what we got with john c reilly in
this role and he was really kind of the standout character for me him and his chemistry with magic
johnson was fantastic but also an actress like jason clark as a jerry west you know considered
to be one of the greatest players of all time especially mr laker himself i personally think
it's kobe but i respect what jerry rest did to the game and i didn't know jerry was such an angry
individual but it makes sense when you think of his career winning that one championship in in 72
and obviously being the logo for the mvp award uh was the logo for many years for the all-star award
but he only has one championship and it's all about championships especially when you're
considered to be one of the greatest of all time so it makes sense why he's always upset because he
always has that being a outstanding player but a player didn't have all the ships to kind of stand
up behind those skills so i didn't know all that stuff with jerry west but i love with jason clark
he has some pretty stand out moments he's not in an entire episode but i really enjoyed what we got
there but this is my first time being exposed to quincy isaiah who does play magic johnson again
playing a 19 year old phenom coming out of michigan having his battles with larry bird which
i'm really excited to learn more about that and seeing it how the show tackles that rivalry but
i really enjoyed his charisma again i don't know if this is his first time acting but i love his
personality i think he embraces what made magic so special which is some of the things
that jerry west didn't like about magic was how personable he was how kind he was
very similar to you think of lebron james he's not always like mr tough guy not talking to the media
he has that more i'm loving life i'm living life type of personality i think he kind of got that
from magic johnson you kind of see that within his first episode but i really enjoyed what quincy
brings to the role what he brought to this first episode and i'm really kind of excited to explore
what we get with his performance in the greatest point guard of all time and maggie johnson
also small role or small uh moment in the show but solomon hughes who plays kareem i liked his one
scene when he was on set film and airplane and i'm really excited to see dynamic between when magic
got on the team and him being the captain at the time and obviously kareem's one of the greatest
players of all time considered to be the greatest sinner of all time i loved his one scene but also
i'm a fan of rob morgan he always knows the assignment he plays you know irvin johnson
senior seeing that dynamic between him and his son and his son going to the negotiating and
how his son navigates you know being the player that he is but it's in the day you're still black
son right you're in these rooms with these white individuals these white owners you got to get what
you can take so i love that dynamic and i think rob morgan like i mentioned is so fantastic so
those were kind of the standout performances and i really enjoyed their narrative
the basketball side of this first episode i absolutely love and the discussion between
magic johnson and his attributes being a six nine point guard and how during that time
that wasn't something you wanted on your team you wanted someone around that six
one six two six three quick you know he can pass the ball obviously he's the greatest assessment
of all time in my opinion but you know him and john stockton jason kidd just to name a few but
he wasn't known as a shooter so that perception of like he's like more of a sinner versus a point
guard i kind of love that and there's a particular scene that kind of dives deeper into the point
guard at that time during the lakers and how he perceived magic johnson i love the basketball
talk in this show and i'm a basketball you know fan and i play basketball i like how they use
the the old footage for the sport but i will be keeping an eye and i might be critiquing on them
actually playing basketball there is a scene where we see magic johnson playing basketball and it was
smooth you know it wasn't a lot of cuts it wasn't i didn't see a stunt devil so i will be keeping an
eye on how this show handles basketball because man there's some shows and movies that try to
do football baseball basketball and it's like oh you can tell that's their stunt that's their stunt
double you could tell that they're cutting it up so much because they don't want the actor to look
bad so i will be keeping an eye on the basketball but so far the basketball elements in the show are
handled pretty well i will say as far as maybe get into some of my criticisms the breaking the fourth
wall is a very adam mckay type of thing to do and it's hit or miss some moments i found it to be
entertaining some moments it kind of took me out of the show but it wasn't really heavily involved
in the second half of the show which i appreciate it because i really wanted to get engaged in a
narrative so again breaking the fourth wall is hit or miss for me in general but i think so far in
the first episode it was more heavily involved in the first half but then they kind of let it go and
kind of had more of a cohesive story in the second half but getting back into one basketball moment
in this episode matty johnson versus the starting port point guard during that time for the lakers
that i don't know if that was dramatized because magic like fallen i mean i know
they were wearing like you know street clothes but i'm like i don't think that homeboy would
have broke magic's ankles the way that he did so i don't know if that again if that was just
added in for the sake of the show if that really happened especially the way that that moment
made magic question should he go to the league should he go back to college which is another
thing that i don't know if it's real if it's just written in for the show for drama purposes
that scene was was a little bit too over the top for me but going back into another thing
that i liked about the show and this might be my favorite moment of the show so far our first
episode at least i should say the moment where uh johnson senior and his son are talking to
jerry buss and at the time uh you know cook was jack kent clook the slave type mindset that these
owners had during that time and and obviously kind of still do during today's time especially in nfl
more so than nba and there's still some you know some issues racism issues in the nba but not as
much as the nfl but that conversation that they have where magic at first he comes in he's eating
the food he's not used to the the fish that he's giving them but then once it gets down to
the how much i'm going to be paid i want to be paid the same amount that larry berg has played
i'm better than him you know we're coming at the same time same age group but you're going to give
me less why is that and then when you know cook says boy i'm like and again it shows you the show
is flashy it's fun it's entertaining but it also can be very serious about tackling certain subject
matters such as racism and how this white owner looks at this back black basketball player as
like i own you you're gonna do what i say and you better be thankful we're giving you anything to
play basketball for the los angeles lakers so that scene to me really stood out it touches on today's
you know mindset of owners but also you know how magic johnson at 19 was very aware of his other
peers even though he's black i'm just as good if not better than those white players and i need to
be paid just as much or the same value as them so i love that conversation i love that mindset
of a young magic johnson which makes so much sense to him now being the billionaire you know
i believe he's still a co-owner of the dodgers you know obviously the he's in the movie industry with
only movie theaters and production companies so it kind of shows you he's always been that person
even at a young age but that was definitely one of my finer or favorite moments in the show and
also tackling that same owner cook how he handled his women uh in in the sport and how obviously
nowadays we see how women are you know very important to the nba and also obviously wnba but
how women like dr buss's daughter you know is a co-owner of the lakers and how things have kind of
changed that narrative so i love the show it can be fun it can be entertaining but also can talk
about some serious stuff which i appreciate it which speaking of sirius if you all know
for basketball fans donald sterling was in this first episode and boy what a creep he was a creep
then he's a creep now i mean what a terrible individual but that scene just kind of goes again
to show you that that slave owner type of mindset that some of those white owners had had and still
have today unfortunately but again wrapping all it up you know i love the stock footage the film look
of the first episode how they captured the 80s who was the hit actor at the time who was some of the
best singers who were some of the best athletes in the sport i loved all that stuff the title of
the show of the first episode being swann and how metaphorically it speaks to all these characters
everyone from jerry buss to cook to magic johnson to all the other players involved they're all
like calm on the surface but they're paddling like crazy under the water and i love that metaphor to
tying it to all these characters especially jerry buzz one main criticism adam mckay i always know
him to have like very sharp writing very clever writing again going back i know he's not the main
writer and he's not even i don't think a writer on succession but i know him to have those type
of isms where it's like very quick witty type of dialogue it wasn't all that witty for me in this
first episode it wasn't all that clever in the dialogue i do like the style i like the flow of
the show but i was expecting a little bit more the writing to be a little bit more sharper and who
knows obviously we still got many more episodes to explore that and i'm excited to do so but um i'm
hoping for the writing to get a little bit more stronger but wrapping up my last thoughts again
i don't know if this was dramatized but when magic the fact that jerry kind of set magic up
to walk in the locker room making his way to the court and envisioning himself to be
a laker and envision himself starting showtime laker i like how they kind of ended the episode
there but again i like the style the flow of the show how it captures the time the behind the
scenes of the nba of the 80s of matty johnson of jerry buss i enjoyed all that stuff and uh overall
i was pretty entertained again i guess it makes sense because we are talking about the showtime
lakers but hey that's my thoughts on the first episode what worked what didn't work what i hope
to see moving forward and i will be watching this moving forward but the question i have for you all
will you be watching this and if so do you want me to cover this on a week to week basis you want
this to be a weekly sunday evening discussion let me know by liking it sharing this video leaving
your thoughts in the comments and of course like i said if you're a part of the laker nation nba
hbo fandom come and join this community by subscribing hitting that notification bell thank
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