The world of television is pretty weird right now. There’s a world of NBC dramas set in Chicago, multiple Yellowstone spin-offs with numbers in their titles, and a dating reality show where a self-proclaimed MILF has sex with her son’s friend. (Look it up.) Season 4 of Power Book II debuted after season 2 of Power Book IV. There are so many characters in House of the Dragon that part of my job is to simply explain what happened in a particular episode.
That means I needed some fresh air this summer. But I didn’t expect to find it at Peacock.
Related story
Previously, streamers were registered with “The Place Reruns of The Office.” But viewers are trying to cancel their Peacock subscriptions right after the Olympics begin.
Please wait a moment at the end. It just debuted a new comedy that gives me shades of the legendary NBC mockumentaries of yesteryear.
The six-episode comedy, titled Mr. Throwback (available to stream in its entirety today), follows a desperate memorabilia dealer and vintage store owner (Happy Endings’ Adam Pally) who plays basketball in middle school. The story is about him reuniting with his teammate (Steph Curry, who plays himself). . Chaos ensues after he tricks a famous friend into participating in a fake charity project to cover his financial losses. Mr. Throwback is told in mockumentary style and feels like a hilarious mashup of Abbott Elementary and Uncut Gems.
The story begins with 12-year-old Danny and little Callie. They are sixth grade basketball stars and make national news with Danny’s father being the head coach. But while Curry went on to become a four-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, Danny’s career ended before he even entered high school. He controlled his prepubescent peers because his father had forged his birth certificate, pretending he was 12 when he was actually 14. Now Danny is in dire financial straits. (The title is partially based on New York City’s real Mr. Throwback. I hope he doesn’t owe money to Polish loan sharks like Danny.) So Danny says after the game, “By accident,” he lies to Callie after running into him. His daughter is dying from a terminal illness and (unbeknownst to the NBA star) convinces Curry to help her start a fraudulent charity.
You can guess what happens next. Danny exploits Callie’s wealth and influence and finds himself increasingly entangled in a web of lies. Meanwhile, Curry wisely talks about his basketball career, huge celebrity, and sponsorship deals. There’s a fun cameo by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, mostly to make a joke about getting punched in the face by Michael Jordan (which is true!). The series also stars Ego Nwodim (“Saturday Night Live”) as the CEO of Curry’s media company and Aiden Mayeli (“Afterparty”) as Danny’s ex-wife.
peacock
Parry reportedly got the goal from Curry backstage.
But the biggest draw is Curry. Aside from his appearances in the golf competition series Holey Moley and the select (sorry, Steph!) documentary Steph Curry: Underrated, the basketball phenom is Dillon Brooks. Ever since I kicked him down, I have never seen him look so defenseless and unrestrained. A fictionalized version of Curry, an Undercover boss plays a prank on his employees. He is very competitive and will steal food from children just to eat first. He jokes about combining cardio and golf like he’s playing Mario Golf: Super Rush IRL. He claims he got this idea from Mark Wahlberg’s Conan interview. And when Curry fell into a particularly hilarious shooting slump in Episode 3, NBA on TNT’s Kenny Smith suggested that Curry was “a ghoul?” I asked him if it was possible that he was possessed by something.
Nwodim is just as funny as Steph’s vibrant planner. She works 164 hours a week (!!!) to keep up with her busy schedule of events, including Sasha Obama’s graduation dinner and a “faith-based prank show starring Steve Harvey.” Nwodim, reminiscent of Wanda Sykes’ record label executive in The Other Two, moves mountains and manages Curry’s GDP “Stephenomics” “like a small country.”
The rest of Mr. Throwback goes exactly as you would expect, like ordering at your favorite bar. Danny’s plan fails and he loses almost everything, but he miraculously turns the nightmare into a success story. But this series is short, sweet, and creatively leverages true, once-in-a-lifetime sports talent. Hopefully next time we’ll see one of the great plans Curry says he has in the works. It’s either “Training for the New Air Buds” or the production of a spin-off prequel called “Teen Steph.”
for watchlist
Source link
