Critic Reviews
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It’s such a relief to see a show actually respect, and take advantage of, the television form! Hudson has an eye-catching wardrobe (courtesy of costume designer Salvador Pérez Jr.) and the episodes have a thematic and visual brightness that is an essential component: The show is an easy watch and the aesthetics subconsciously tell your brain “relax, this is fun.”
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This is a comforting and intelligent sitcom. While some of the cast feels overstuffed and underused at first, everyone eventually has their moment and you can clearly see the many directions that things could go next.
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Running Point merrily glides along on sturdy rails, its tart jokes delivered in bright staccato. The show’s affability could prove too cloying were it not for Hudson’s flintiness.
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Kate Hudson is the best part of Running Point, but Kaling, Ko, Barinholtz and Stassen have built a winning ensemble around her, with a story that’s not only a workplace comedy, but one about family, as well.
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It’s a fun show, and that’s saying something these days. The pace is crisp, the chemistry is there, and “Running Point” capably juggles answers to a question I’d never thought to (and still probably wouldn’t) ask: What if the Bluths were sympathetic?
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Running Point won’t be the best TV you see this year. But it goes down easily and boasts so much star appeal that it doesn’t have to be. Give the creative team a bit of time, and who knows? Maybe Running Point has what it takes to grow into the four-quadrant hit it wants to be. But please, a little less Chet Hanks rapping next time.
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The result is a rarity on TV these days: a show that’s fun, dynamic, and likely to please multiple demographics without being broad or stupid.
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“Running Point” is far from perfect but it still has Hudson and she’s sinking three pointers every time.
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The convivial comedy is sleek, fast-paced and witty, with a great cast and a unique setting. Its lack of ambition and depth is mostly overcome by other strengths.
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“Running Point” has its serious storylines, but nearly everything is handled with a sun-baked and relatively light touch, making this an easily digestible binge-series with multi-season potential.
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It's a breezy watch full of mostly memorable characters, family hijinks, and the occasional basketball montage. If I wanted a bit more it's because I see its potential and am hopeful future seasons will build upon this solid foundation.
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This outing feels watered down in comparison to “Mindy,” but it is still awfully good company, and its 10 episodes have an affable, sunny ease. It is also featherweight and ambitionless — not actually funny, but often fun.
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An adorable workplace family sports comedy. .... The shorthand pitch might have gone something like “Ted Lasso” meets “Succession,” but it’s less sentimental than the former, much, much sweeter than the latter and less “naturalistic” than either — by which I mean, it lives in that particular cozy unreality known as situation comedy.
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Perhaps the second season implied by the cliffhanger ending will have more room to grow, even if “Running Point” looks expensive enough for a network-length season to be a stretch. The show deserves it.
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It's a mildly enjoyable sports comedy that could have been more.
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Compared to Kaling projects “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Velma,” “Running Point” has a far more consistent tone, though that isn’t saying much. When the writing gets predictable or the pace lags, it’s the performers who do the heavy lifting.
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In the first season of a comedy series, there are worse problems to have than trying to do too much. .... It’s a functional franchise right now, but there’s a lot of work to do before it reaches championship levels.
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It’s a bit of a strange thing to have a show with a lead performer this watchable stranded in plots that fail to hook the viewer. Hudson is game, if saddled with a Cool Girl archetype. If “Running Point” can figure out how to sharpen the stories around her, the rest of the show can catch up.
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While Running Point is no loser, nor is it the slam-dunk you might hope for from this lineup.
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Running Point has its charm, and Kate Hudson proves she still has some leading lady chops. But its stock characters and superficial storylines amount to a tepid first season that doesn't have the narrative depth nor comedic tenacity to engage and unpack the high-stakes subject of running a professional basketball franchise.
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Running Point wastes Hudson’s star power and the significant comedic talents of its ensemble on uninspired writing and unlikable characters.
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The 10-episode first season is a flattening, often maddening watch, only occasionally rising above generic familiarities to deliver something trenchant or specific about its otherwise generically dysfunctional family.
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There’s a fundamentally generic quality to the comedy of Running Point that feels like what you’d get when you ask ChatGPT to crank out a TV show made by Mindy Kaling.
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It’s a less charming Legally Blonde, peppered with f-words, and with the feel of a show spat out by AI.
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Are you in the mood for a basketball comedy that has some leaden jokes and some even more leaden things to say about sexism and prejudice in the US industrial sports complex? Of course you’re not. Nobody is. But it’s here, it stars Kate Hudson and it’s called Running Point.