Basketball lovers are in luck at the moment of platforms. During the 2020 quarantine we were able to enjoy the documentary series The Last Dance about Michael Jordan’s career on Netflix, and as soon as he landed in our country, the HBO Max platform premiered the series Victory Time: The Lakers Dynastyand that revolves around how it came about the success of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 80s. The series, however, has been canceled just a month and a half after the premiere of the second season, and with this, one of the fictions about the world of basketball comes to an end.
WHY HAS ‘WINNING TIME’ BEEN CANCELED?
‘Time of Victory’ has been one of HBO’s big bets and one of its highest quality fictions in recent years. The series, which revolves around the creation of the Lakers dynasty with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabar as the main protagonists, has, however, been canceled after a considerable drop in viewership in the premiere of its second season. Although it is true that the production company had it planned and that is why the final chapter is a dignified although hasty closure that was prepared “just in case.”
The weather that accompanied this premiere of the second season has not been the best. It happened in August, without basketball in the United States, and in full strike of actors and scriptwriters which has made the promotion void. These, without a doubt, have been reasons that explain the drop in audience, which, however, has complained on social networks about the end of a quality series. It should be noted that the first season had good audience numbers as it coincided with the NCAA playoffs, widely followed in the US, which created the best possible context.
The greatest rivalry in the league. #WinningTime pic.twitter.com/iyG1i7hvzC
— Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (@winningtimehbo) September 19, 2023
‘victory time’ season 1 review
Promising Beginning: The Magic Johnson Story
Victory Time: The Lakers Dynasty starts strong with its first chapter, directed by Adam McKaydirector of films like The big bet o Don’t look up. In this first episode, we can already see what will be the hallmarks: frenetic pace, characters addressing the camera and a grainy computer image simulating videos from the 80s. It is precisely this technical aesthetic that manages to transport us at first glance to 1979.
The series begins with a flashback to the future, in which we see Magic Johnson in a hospital consultation, in the early 90s, when he was diagnosed with the HIV virus and that meant the end of his basketball career. And we start directly to the moment in which Jerry Bussa mogul known for the Playboy scene, decides to enter the NBA by buying the Los Angeles Lakers.
Frame from the series at the time of Magic Johnson’s presentation as a Lakers player. Photo: HBO
Yes, in the first episodes of Victory Time: The Lakers Dynasty basketball is testimonial, but it focuses on giving us a good context before the action. It is interesting to see the work prior to the first season of these ‘Showtime’ Lakers, that of the offices and the technical direction, and those first moments in which two stars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar y Magic Johnson.
And in addition, these first episodes do a good job of hooking the viewer and in this the good characterization of the characters plays an important role. The similarities are reasonable and the cast is perfectly chosen, with more established actors such as Adrien Brody, Jason Clarke, Jason Segelo John C. Reillywith others less known but who do a great job, such as Quincy Isaiah such as Magic Johnson or Solomon Hughes, who debuts with the role of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The ‘Showtime’ Lakers arrive
Once the context chapters have passed, basketball finally arrives and with it the moment of most action in Victory time: the Lakers dynasty. With the start of the preseason we are already experiencing the most entertaining moments, with those first scuffles between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie Magic Johnsonand whose relationship also goes through ups and downs during the season and becomes an element of attraction around which the series revolves.
Frame from the series showing Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar before starting a game. Photo: HBO
‘Time of Victory: the Lakers dynasty’ also does not let Magic Johnson’s rivalry with the other ‘rookie’ star of the season pass by as it was Larry Bird, on the Boston Celtics. It is true that subjectivity prevails here, and we see a fictional duality of good Johnson versus Bird’s rural tough.
All of this encompasses the moments in which the series emulates iconic games of those Lakers, and which easily becomes the best of this fiction, especially for basketball lovers. The production and recreation is so good that they make it live to the fullest and be what is most enjoyed from the other side of the screen. They say that good things come to wait, and in Victory Time: The Lakers Dynasty It is like that, but the best thing is that he comes and does it ten.
Nostalgia for 80’s basketball emerges
Definitely, Victory Time: The Lakers Dynasty It is a recommended series for lovers of basketball and sports in general, but mandatory for those who enjoy the NBA spectacle and are Lakers fans. It is true that licenses are given, as usually happens in fiction projects, but it manages to perfectly convey the beginning of ese Lakers del ‘Showtime’ in the most Hollywood style.
But, without a doubt, what works the most Victory Time: The Lakers Dynasty It’s nostalgia. And it is that his good setting, characterizations and technique They take us directly to that California of the 80s and that Los Angeles Lakers basketball. And not only that, they also perfectly convey the entire atmosphere of luxury and excess that surrounded Jerry Buss.
And what better than a series that allows us to relive those basketball moments of the 80s, which meant a before and after in the NBA and the sport of basketball in general. For many it will take them back to their adolescence, their childhood and for those of us who were not lucky to live through that time of basketball, it will bring us closer to everything that that meant and what surrounded a legend like those Lakers. Let the showtime begin!
2023-09-19 22:11:12
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