The show can begin because a series about a “dynasty” has arrived that has changed basketball forever, and probably American sport as well. The LA Lakers generation of the 1980s is certainly not the best and most successful in the history of basketball, especially sports in general, but the Lakers of the early 1980s certainly contributed to basketball being seen as a show business that could become a real money maker. Today, we know that sport really is a money maker, and the series that Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht created for HBO based on Jeff Pearlman’s “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s” is a great show. time.
Right at the beginning, it is clear to us that the NBA in 1979, when the action of the first season started, was not even a shadow of what it is today. Of course, players like Julius Erving or Kareem Abdul Jabbar enjoyed the joy of balling under the hoops at the time, but basketball was not a sport that was expected to earn special money. But all that changed at the very end of the decade when the league was strengthened by two young players who will become the main rivals of the next decade – Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. We follow in the first season of “Winning Time” exclusively the 1979/80 season, the first in which the then greatest young hope Earvin Johnson was drafted, initially a playful and confident young man who will soon become the biggest sports star.
But the key move will be to change the ownership structure of the club, which was followed by the status of a loser club until the end of the seventies. It will all start when Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) buys a franchise from previous owners with a vision to make the Lakers the most successful and best club in the world. Today we know that Buss was indeed a visionary and his “Showtime” generation marked the 1980s, and apparently he was the first to realize that basketball is an opportunity for show business and that there is a huge amount of money involved. And it is clear that it will not go just like that and we see Buss as a real gambler, gambler, man driven by instincts, and although the series is based on real people and events, of course a lot of dogs are dramatized and adapted to the needs of such fun, fluttering and humorous series.
The first episode of “Winning Time” was shot in his recognizable ironic style by the famous director Adam Mckay, a comedian who in recent years has increasingly switched to a specific combination of drama and sharp satire. Stylistically, therefore, “Winning Time” is very reminiscent of his films such as “The Big Short” or “Vice”, also biographical dramas / satires in which he ironically, wittily deals with some real, serious events and people. The situation is identical here as well, so the characters often break through the fourth wall and address the audience directly and, as narrators, clarify the situation. To further emphasize the impression and authentically portray this crazy and from today’s perspective fun time that we like to look at with nostalgia, the photo is in a retro flair, so it all really looks like it was taken at the turn of the seventies and eighties.
Almost every episode is told from the perspective of another character, and along the way we learn the background stories of the most important characters for this whole generation. Although “Winning Time” seems a bit trivial at times, great dynamics were achieved, and the authors certainly benefited from the facts, because it was a really amazing season for the Lakers. All the most important things we will see in the series, really happened in reality and “Winning Time” follows a timeline that is absolutely amazing. Although immediately after the first episodes of the series aired, there were reactions from still living witnesses of the time and participants in the event who began to lament that this was not the case, it is clear from the beginning that this is not a documentary series and that no one intended “Winning Time”. “make content like the documentary series“ The Last Dance ”about the Bulls of the 1990s.
It is a series that perfectly manages to capture the spirit of the times, it is obvious that all the details were paid attention to when it comes to scenography and costumes, and it is the content that has a spirit of sports romanticism. Nostalgia in the times when in top sports everything was still not exclusively about money, and we are meeting a team here, which we can thank in large part for changing that perception. It is an extremely fun, dynamic and exciting story that glides great in which an impressive cast is gathered, and according to the announcements of “Winning Time” it goes on so that we will enjoy the adventures of the legendary generation of Lakers in the coming years. Rating 8.5 / 10.
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