HBO's Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty scores a second season
It's time to queue up Kurtis Blow's slam dunk hit "Basketball"
HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty will have another season to elaborate on the winning power of the Los Angeles Lakers in the ‘80s. Well ahead of the first season’s finale in May, the Adam McKay and Max Borenstein series has been renewed for a second season.
Winning Time chronicles the lives of the Lakers team on and off the court as they seek to revitalize the sport of basketball. It boast a killer cast lineup that features John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Jason Clarke, Adrien Brody, Gaby Hoffmann, Tracy Letts, Jason Segel, Julianne Nicholson, Hadley Robinson, DeVaughn Nixon, Solomon Hughes, Tamera Tomakili, Brett Cullen, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Spencer Garrett, Sarah Ramos, and Sally Field. The series has built its momentum over the first-half of the season, with a 37 percent increase in viewership between the first and the fifth episode.
In our look at the first season, Noel Murray calls the series “wildly entertaining,” writing:
“Winning Time isn’t heavy or preachy. It mostly shifts between affectionate, wonky, and playfully ironic. This is a portrait of an NBA on the precipice of a major transformation, thanks to new stars and new corporate partners (including Nike, whose failed shoe pitch to Magic is a plot line in one episode). It’s a show about how creating something great and lasting is hard work, and how not everyone involved emerges unbruised. Winning Time is about one of sport’s golden ages, yes; but it’s also about the nebulousness of that very concept. By including a lot of different perspectives, the Winning Time team makes clear that in hindsight, everyone has a different idea about what a golden age was really like—and about when and why it ended.”
“It’s been a thrill to bring Winning Time to life with Adam McKay, Max Borenstein, our phenomenal producing team, and this incredible cast,” says Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President of HBO Programming. “This series not only tells the riveting story of the Lakers’ rise, but is also a look back at a transformative era in basketball, celebrity, and the city of Los Angeles. We can’t wait to see how this team will tell the next chapter of this dynasty.”
Episodes of Winning Time air weekly on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max. There are five episodes left in the first season, with the finale airing on May 8.