I've now watched all ten episodes of what will now be the first season and was wonderfully entertained by this audacious, fast-paced show. I love the scenes where Jerry Buss addresses the audience and was sorry that there were fewer of them after the amazing opener. The cast is wonderful. John C. Reilly is perfect as the ever-smiling but often troubled Dr. Jerry Buss, (I doubt Will Ferrell would have been as good). Sally Field is wonderful as his mother and Hadley Robinson as his under- appreciated daughter, Jeannie, (who now owns the team), and Gabby Hoffman as Buss' chief assistant are also excellent. Quincy Isaiah and Solomon Hughes both look and act like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The coaches, Tracy Letts as Jack McKinney, Jason Segal as Paul Westhead and Adrien Brody as Pat Reilly, all do a good job and the many other roles seem well-cast.
I'd give the show a '10' except for the portrayal of Jerry West, which has bene heavily criticized by everyone who knew Jerry and by Jerry himself, who appears to be ready to sue the producers. I've only seen Jerry West on TV but he always seemed like a polite southern gentleman. That he would have to be more than that to be the competitor he was is not surprising. I've read that he had a lot of inner turmoil but not that he was the temperamental, profane, self-involved jerk we see here. It made me wonder how much of what we see in this series is true and how much of it is not. There's such a thing as literary license and that may be necessary to turn the cacophony of life into a story but that doesn't excuse character assassination.
I also question the characterization of Paul Westhead as a weakling who doesn't realize that he's going to have to argue with the referees. Westhead had been the head coach at LaSalle for 9 years before this and had successful teams there. That's not the NBA but Westhead shouldn't have been that far over his head coaching the Lakers. He'd never been an assistant to Jack McKinney before the 1979-80 season yet he's depicted as a long-time McKinney loyalist who is told by Jack that McKinney hired him because he knew that Westhead would never be a threat to his job or to leave for another. This just doesn't seem right.
Postscript: They have now cancelled this show after the second season, which finished with a summary of what happened in subsequent seasons. Thus, the show dramatizes only half of the Laker's dynasty and none of the post dynasty era where Magic acquired HIV, (the subject of the first scene in the premiere) and lost to Michael Jordan's Bulls in Magic's last finals appearance. This is hugely disappointing, but I suppose that it was an expensive show to produce and since the ratings were down, I guess they felt they had no choice. It thus ends with a Celtics Victory. I'll bet Red Auerbach is puffing on his cigar, wherever he is now.
