In the Season 2 finale of HBO’s Time to Win: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Celtics owner Red Auerbach (Michael Chiklis) gets the last laugh. Amidst a puff of cigar smoke and a shower of champagne, Red, holding the newly minted Larry O’Brien Trophy, looks directly into the camera—and into the soul of the owner. Lakers Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly)-and declared : “Leave the dynasties to us.”
In an ironic twist of fate, Time to Win: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty ended with the Celtics adding another championship banner to the Boston Garden rafters, and the birth of “Sad” Johnson. On Sunday night, HBO announced that the episode will double as a series finale. Time to Win ended his run after only two seasons on TV, and only two titles for the Showtime Lakers in the show from their five. Even with its rich and attractive subject matter, the series could not attract a large enough audience to earn a renewal – partly due to the shortcomings of the show and partly due to poor timing. So, even this not how cocreators Max Borenstein and Jim Hecht originally envisioned the series ending, one of the final, lasting images of Time to Win be a defeated Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) sitting on the floor of a locker room shower after losing to Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small) and the Celtics in the 1984 NBA Finals.
The seven episodes of the second season of Time to Win there were highs and lows, but it provided a shocking ending that captured one of the most beautiful NBA Finals ever. The story of the entire season is framed by the thrilling playoff matchup between the Lakers and Celtics in 1984; The first episode begins with Buss’s team trying to escape from a frustrated Boston crowd after being robbed in Game 1 before the show flashes back to four years earlier, essentially picking up where the first one left off. season. The following story recounts the growing pains of the Lakers as Magic led the team to the 1980 title after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) went down with an injury.
In the first six episodes of the season, Time to Win its attention is divided among several storylines, including power struggles between Lakers teammates and coaches, Magic’s growing ego, a new romance that ends in a lawsuit for Buss, the often dysfunctional relationship between Jerry and his children, rears its head. coach Pat Riley, and the origins of Bird. it many of narrative ground to cover a more limited window than the series provided in its first season, which had 10 episodes and narrowed its focus to the 1979-80 NBA season alone. As a result, Season 2 often felt rushed, as if four years had passed at an arbitrary pace, and the story was spread over too many characters.
With the stage set for the 1984 Finals, however, the end of the season slowed its pace considerably. Months passed between the scenes of the previous episodes, but the almost hourly running time finally focused on a series of seven games. There are more basketball scenes than ever before as the show recreates the most famous moments from the hardwood battles, with strict attention to detail. The Magic froze at the end of Game 2 with the clock running. the clothing line in Game 4. Boston’s scorching “Heat Game” in Game 5. The chaos that followed in Game 7.
As memorable as the matchup was, the 1984 Finals was a strange and unfortunate send-off for a show that was clearly designed to last. (After all, the series is called Time to Win now ends with a bitter loss to the Celtics.) Character arcs and plot lines are shortened while an unexpected montage closes the finale to summarize what’s going on with the teams and key figures after the 1983-84 season 13 slides which lasted almost two minutes. Some of the more serious subplots of the season—like Magic and Cookie’s (Tamera Tomakili) tumultuous romance—seem even more frustrating to watch knowing they never have satisfying conclusions on screen. . As Riley (Adrien Brody) told his players in a final pep talk before their Game 7 matchup, they have “unfinished business” in Boston. Unfortunately, it will remain so for these fictionalized Lakers and the many characters whose lives revolve around them as the series comes to an abrupt end.
Time to Win will ultimately go down as a failed effort for HBO, a series full of untapped potential that could—and probably NEED had–a ​​big hit that lasted for several seasons. The show has star power from a stacked cast of actors including Reilly, Brody, Jason Clarke, and, since the first season, Wood Harris and Sally Field. It features the emerging talent of Quincy Isaiah and Solomon Hughes, and it has a unique opening credits sequence, a hallmark of any successful HBO series.
Perhaps most importantly, it has the brand recognition of the Los Angeles Lakers and HBO coming together for a unique, high-budget sports drama series focused on one of the most important seasons in NBA history. As evidenced by the long montage at the end, the road map is there for tons of drama to come in the coming years, including two more finals battles between the Lakers and Celtics, the rise in popularity of NBA, and the Magic announcement that he has. contracted HIV and his first retirement in 1991, effectively ending Showtime’s era.
Although there were a number of issues with the narrative and pacing of Season 2 that may have alienated viewers over time, not enough people watched the latest season from the jump. In early August, The deadline reported with ratings dropping 30 percent linearly and delayed viewing between Season 1 and Season 2 premiere. The Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who analyzes the industry pseudonymously, noted in a recent streaming report that Time to Win had 1.8 million hours watched on streaming the week of the Season 2 premiere, according to Nielsen. That number is only a fraction of the streaming hours that other “acquired” TV shows, such as House of the Dragon or The Last of Usreceived at the Max, and it is only slightly higher than the most recent period of Loud Knocking.
Entertainment Strategy Guy, Nielsen
Several factors other than inconsistent performance quality may have contributed Time to Winlack of viewership this season. For one, HBO decided to start airing the latest episodes in early August, outside of the NBA and college basketball seasons. (In contrast, Season 1 premiered in early March, just in time for March Madness to kick off and ahead of the NBA playoffs.) There was also the timing of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, which limited promotional opportunities. for the series. writers and stars.
And as the Entertainment Strategy Guy wrote to me via email, the movie is already facing the challenge of airing at a time of year when people typically watch less TV. “Historically, July and August have been months for linear TV (although streaming has seen some increases), because people are on vacation and spending time outdoors,” he said. “So it’s not just that the NBA isn’t here to provide a natural marketing synergy — TNT can push Time to Win during their Thursday games, for example—but it’s also summer. So no addition to the NBA and summer, and a drop of 30 percent is about right.
Series cancellation seemed imminent in recent weeks as reports of low viewership emerged, especially when author Jeff Pearlman, who wrote the book Time to Win based on, took to Twitter in mid-August to ask for more eyeballs. “I’m telling you—the future of “Winning Time” hangs in the balance,” he said WRITES. “We need viewers. The strikes are crippling. Please help spread the word. Season 2 is amazing. But … HBO is big on #s.”
According to executive producer Kevin Messick of a recent interview with VULTURES, HBO sent the possibility of a cancellation to the show’s creative team in January, and a plan was put in place when the ax fell. A new scene was filmed in January to serve as an alternate ending—and that’s what we ended up with. The season was originally intended to end with Magic absorbing the Finals loss in the Lakers locker-room shower, a powerful image that would have set the stage for his impending revenge against Bird and the Celtics in the next playoff confrontation. .
However, the series ends five days after the championship, and Jerry has his own version of a Lion King– speech style with his daughter Jeanie (Hadley Robinson) on the floor of the Forum as he explains that this Lakers kingdom will be his one day and that everything is OK because “We fucking own it.†The final montage outlines all the success that followed for the Lakers, including more rings and the trade of Jerry West for a young Kobe Bryant, but it all made for a bittersweet ending to an uneven a series that sometimes touches on grandeur, if only in brief glances. (I could have watched an entire season centered around Brody’s Pat Riley alone.)
if Time to Win managed to attract a later audience, perhaps helped by recent celebrity endorsements from the likes of real Jeanie Buss, there’s always a chance the show’s creators can buy it elsewhere. As Messick said VULTURES, it’s too early to tell, but they haven’t closed the possibility. “I think the plan is this: If the universe wants more Lakers, the universe knows where to get us.” So far, not enough of the universe has been focused on.