I love this series, and devour it every week, but it sure is a mixture of giant positives and negatives.
On the positive side: there are some interesting (if exaggerated) characterizations, some performances are tremendous, and you may have noticed that the guy playing Norm Nixon does an incredible job. Looks like him. Moves like him. That’s because it kinda is him. The part is played by his own son, DeVaughn Nixon, who is not only a good Norm Nixon, but is a good actor in general. He’s an actor who has been around for a long time and lucked into this incredible casting opportunity. How often does a part like that come along? Here’s a great interview he did with GQ.
On the negative side: some of the casting is just bizarre. You may remember Dr. J at 29: 6’7″, handsome, imperially slim. The guy cast to play a 29-year-old Julius Erving is an average-looking 51-year-old man who looks absolutely nothing like him, and at an ordinary 6’2″, looks more like a forgotten Hines brother. About the only possible worse choice would have been to cast Gilbert Gottfried as Dr. J. You think I’m exaggerating. Only a little. He is seen here apparently doing an impersonation of Dr. J as Sherlock Holmes. There’s nothing wrong with the guy. He’s a good actor (he was excellent in a forgotten Matthew Perry comedy series, Mr. Sunshine), but he does not remind one of the young Dr. J. (On the other hand, the stunt double who plays Julius in the game footage is excellent.)
More important than the casting is the liberty the script has taken with the facts. Fans like me know when they’re lying, and it annoys us, especially since we are the target audience for the series. One example: the Lakers are shown being humiliated in Magic’s first encounter with Dr. J. Bullshit. The Lakers absolutely crushed the Sixers by 21 in their first encounter, which was in LA. The Lakers did blow a big lead to lose a 105-104 squeaker in their first game in Philly, but the series reported it as 112-92, and didn’t mention that the teams had already met, with the Lakers dominating. Moreover, Magic was not at all schooled by the Doc in Philly. He shot 8 for 13 with 9 assists, pretty much in line with the averages for his brilliant career (7 for 13 with 11 assists).
That’s just one example. There have been many. For an insider’s take, here’s Kareem’s review of the show. I disagree with the big guy about the show being boring but, as always, he offers cogent analysis.
Anyway, if you want to experience the same great story and characterizations with the accurate facts, I recommend the book that inspired the series. I couldn’t put it down. Another good choice is the recent documentary “They Call Me Magic” on AppleTV.
I immediately noticed that the famous Dr. J “rocks the baby” to sleep dunk was shown to be over Magic instead of Michael Cooper. Just melodramatic for no reason.
Yeah, that might have been the most annoying part of the whole series for me so far. Just pointless.
Kareem’s write-up is fuckin scathing….
This line should tell you how much he hates the screenplay…
“If you gathered the biggest gossip-mongers from the Real Housewives franchise and they collected all the rumors they heard about each other from Twitter and then played Telephone with each other you’d have the stitched together Frankenstein’s monster that is this show.”
Yes, and he’s basically right, but that also tends to contradict his other point about the show being boring. Read that paragraph again. What he’s describing sounds sensationalized, shallow and more than a bit irresponsible – but it surely does not sound boring.
To me the biggest revelation is the guy they got to play Kareem. Talk about your impossible-to-cast role; not only did they find someone close to the right height (6’11” vs. Kareem’s 7’1″), he’s got a passable resemblance and he’s a really good actor. What are the odds?
The guy playing Dr. J is getting a lot of shit, but he suffers because the casting directors and makeup people otherwise did such an amazing job at getting actors to look like the real people. He’s not any worse than that chick they got to play Jennie Buss.
I agree that the real story was more than good enough without Hollywood writers goosing it. Still, for those of us of a certain age, it’s a lot of fun.
I absolutely despise Hollywood’s rewriting of history. They do this all the time. They’re basically treating all viewers as a bunch of ignoramuses, and worse, they are lying. I know they take artistic liberties and create fictional elements, but at this point they act like they completely do not care about history, people or facts. Yet another sign of how arrogant Hollywood has become. They completely deserve the current decline they find themselves trapped in. Hope they enjoy the ride down.
This kind of thing is not even remotely new. You should take a look at the genre of show-biz and sports biopics, which dates back at least to “The Great Ziegfeld” in the 1930’s. Only a precious few have any connection to the truth.
The first loyalty of Hollywood and most of people who make movies there has always been to entertainment, because that is what sells and gives them the money to go on making movies. The truth is often complicated and not what people want to believe, and that does not sell well.
In other words, you are right, but it is a very old story and not something caused by a recent increase in arrogance. I guess I should apologize for nitpicking when you are basically right.