From the jump, Winning Time: The Rise of The Lakers Dynasty is enthralling. 

The show follows a middling professional basketball team in a league on the verge of collapse, bought by millionaire businessman Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly).

 Head Coach Jerry West (Jason Clarke) is a loose cannon in every sense of the phrase. The fact that he lost so many championships years ago is still tearing him apart. He often takes it so far over the edge that his competitiveness turns into comedy, and is ultimately what makes him quit. 

With Buss wanting to create a more stylized era of Laker Basketball, he drafts Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) to lead the Lakers back to any kind of legitimacy.

Sweeping vistas, smooth soundtracks, and an unmistakable city are brought to life by great actors and editors alike on a mission to recreate 80s Los Angeles. 

They make the show tick, with there being little to no downtime. Like “ShowTime” era basketball, Winning Time is always moving. Memorable imagery and the occasional old school camera filter make each frame jump off the screen.

The drama of simply owning and operating an organization is exciting enough, but paired with some great actual basketball makes Winning Time truly different in its variety of storytelling methods. Along with mere trash talk, the players have to prove themselves on the court and back up what they are saying. 

The days of shows where people sit in a room and talk about nothing is now an ancient fossil. Winning Time takes a far more modern approach. Monster slams and flashy passes heighten games, while quick camera cuts and smart editing make conversations feel like basketball, with their own flow and purpose.

With how much the Lakers have been struggling lately, it’s refreshing to get to take a look into a more successful Lakers organization during the 80’s. Although it’s not always pretty, Winning Time is a celebration of Laker basketball and all things NBA, but at the same time does not sugar coat some of the harsher realities of the league.

The story of the “ShowTime” Lakers alone could make for a good show, but here the showrunners don’t pull any punches and they dive deeper into its characters. It shows what made the Lakers the “Lakers.” They don’t just have fans, they have celebrities. Their cheerleaders don’t just cheer, they dance. And they don’t just have basketball players, they have superstars.