Running Point‘s spent its first half-dozen episodes bouncing between identities; and from intergenerational family comedy to girlboss sitcom, it has mostly disappointed, relying on tired cliches and flat characters to drive an abundance of bad jokes and superficial observations. However, “The Yips” might be the first time Running Point‘s tried to be an actual basketball comedy with any concerted effort – too bad it’s the most disappointing episode of the season so far, stumbling through its on and off court storylines in concerning fashion.
With the Waves on an extended losing streak (something we never see on the court, or discussed in the locker room), the one board member we’ve met shows up to lay the blame at the feet of the Gordon siblings – primarily Isla, of course, being the woman who promoted Dyson, the G League player now shooting UNDER TEN PERCENT from the free throw line. Running Point oddly makes Dyson’s free throws the only point of focus for the Waves’s failures (there’s whole plot about Isla chasing down someone leaking to the press, but nobody seems to care about it but her) – though an opening voiceover suggests a toxic, flat power dynamic as the show’s legacy, there’s no blame placed on the team’s aging roster, clear lack of a big man (from what I can tell), and any other result of Jack’s leadership and how it affected the team, or its children running it.
Like it has with just about everything else in the series, “The Yips” barely applies its titular concept to its actual stories, rendering the result an exhausting, laugh-free mix of genre cliches and one-dimensional conflicts. In another odd mix of tones, Isla takes it on herself to fix Dyson’s free throws – her solution? Delegate it to Ali, who hires a nameless old Indian woman, who teaches Dyson how to shoot free throws granny style (or as this show seems to insist, like Archie Chambers, though Rick Barry’s iconic free throw routine is right fucking there to be used as a joke). After one brief montage, this of course works – at least, until Travis gets the entire team to clown on Dyson (which is not only ridiculous, but also undermines anything the series tried to say about Travis in “The Travis Bugg Affair”, not that this show cares about consistency).
Before this Dyson subplot reaches its laughably pandering resolution – asshole aging star Marcus shoots a free throw granny-style in game, which Isla explains to us is his way of being a leader to Dyson – it’s rendered completely moot by trying ineffectively to cross so many different tones and ideas, none of which make any sort of sense (Marcus just decides he gets to sit out, and then he’s supposed to be a sympathetic character after one little gesture?). Between the slapstick montage with the Indian woman, whatever Chet Hanks is doing with his shoulders as he mocks Dyson in multiple scenes, and the ploying, Ted Lasso-esque bullshit in the final seconds, “The Yips” proves itself completely inept as a sports comedy, which in hindsight perhaps makes some of its previous entries more palatable, given it kept us away from incredibly misguided, undercooked plot lines like this one.
(There’s also Isla’s role in the plot, which involves her crashing the studio of Sean Murphy’s radio show, where Chris Evert overhears her say “eat my ass”… it’s not good, or funny, or worth talking about, except in the interesting way how the series keeps highlighting her rapport with Marcus. Putting a pin in it for future episodes).
And somehow, the basketball-focused elements of “The Yips” are not even close to the worst part of the episode; after starting off as such a promising presence in the first two episodes, Running Point has turned Jackie Moreno into Jackie Moron-o (sorry, not sorry). For some reason, what began as a quasi-Arrested Development premise has shifted into a full on romantic comedy between him and cheerleader Sofia; she somehow agrees to go on a date with him after his antics in “Beshert” – and after dropping two facts about Celia Cruz found in the first sentence of her Wikipedia page, she’s ready to consider being in a relationship with him… to the point her feelings are hurt after he sleeps with the Instagram groupies (who post videos of him in bed, which… lawsuits?), telling him he’s a “ran through fuckboy” before madly walking off with her dance teammates, leaving Jackie somehow confused as to what’s happening.
At this point, Jackie feels completely unmoored from the series; he doesn’t interact with his sister (and boss), and has now been pushed into a romantic arc with no foundation or chemistry; though his presence provided the first two episodes a bit of levity, Running Point’s done almost nothing with his character since then – and though one can squint and see the stems of a more interesting, engaged story about someone getting a little high on their own family supply, the execution of it through the lens of him pursuing the team’s lead dancer has been incredibly awful, by far the worst element of this season’s middle arc.
After Sofia storms off and Marcus does his little free throw bullshit, “The Yips” decides two nonsensical plot developments aren’t enough, and adds the reveal of Cam as the leak Isla spent the entire episode hunting. In theory, he’s doing this because the team supposedly has the worst record they’ve had in decades – though there’s no basis for that development, simply just a random twist inserted at the end of the episode, in what feels like tacit recognition that the 26 minutes preceding this laughably dumb reveal provided nothing but inertia for the comedy, and needed something to provide some kind of conflict to start building for the final four episodes of its freshman offering.
Like Dyson’s practice free throws, “The Yips” is an epic misfire of an episode; it misses the mark in every regard, thinning out its characters and conflicts, all so it can express whatever the weird mix of acerbic humor and earnest, thoroughly unearned emotional resolutions of the final act (which, by god – if that scene becomes the catalyzing point for the Waves to go on an unprecedented winning streak, I’m going to lose it).
Grade: D-
Other thoughts/observations:
- I can’t get over how Isla called Sean an incel just because he knew one of the Frasier characters. Might be the most dissonant, false note the series has hit (and not just because I’m a known Mad Dog apologist – it makes no fucking sense why incels would watch Frasier).
- PLEASE do not have characters read their text messages in smarmy voiceovers… it is incredibly terrible and distracting.
- Isla paintballing her brothers suggest a more drastic, unhinged version of Isla’s character I wish this series would lean into harder. It would make her decisions more dynamic, and the parallels to her deceased father more engaging.
- The fact the Waves have no locker room dynamic, no team identity, and no real understanding of who they are beyond Marcus, Travis, Dyson, and Badrag the Bad Joke Machine. They are just such an empty presence; which includes Travis, as Chet Hanks’ has completely dissolved into the background after a brief, amusing turn earlier this season.
- Lev gets 15 seconds of screen time to remind us he is a Good Boy who Isla does not fully appreciate.
- The first time I’ve laughed this entire series was when Marcus’s boyguard said he had to give up his Scottish terrier because she “needs a wet climate”.
- Scott MacArthur is trying his damnedest to make Running Point funny, I will give him that.
- Isla mentions the Sephora partnership is going great… what that means, is not explained.
- “You’re different than most guys that usually go after Waves dancers.” Strong contender for worst line of the series so far…. I don’t know what this show is doing with the Sofia character, but she feels like she’s been pulled out of a Step Up sequel to be in a Netflix series.
- Hey, there’s Rob Huebel as Marcus’s agent!