|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
29
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
|
Critic Reviews
RogerEbert.comAug 4, 2023
Season 2 Review:
This season does a slightly better job of capturing the era's spirit, particularly a man-on-street sequence commenting on the Lakers’ losing streak and the ostentatious party atmosphere of the Forum Club. But other than a passing reference to Reagan, connected to Buss’ strategy of taking on more debt for greater growth, "Winning Time" still avoids conversing with the world around it.
Read full review
The TimesMar 29, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It was not at all what I expected, which was a stats and sport-heavy “groin strain” of a drama from which I would frequently zone out like I do whenever someone mentions golf. It was the opposite: flash, brash, blowsy, cheesy, bosomy (literally), vulgar, “fun” — and extremely pleased with itself, the drama equivalent of a loud, busty barmaid in a seaside postcard.
Read full review
The GuardianMar 29, 2022
The TelegraphMar 29, 2022
Season 1 Review:
If only the show had committed either to OTT comedy – the kind of thing Reilly was born to do – or to serious drama (Rob Morgan, as Johnson’s watchful father, brings a rare dignity to his scenes). But McKay’s attention is on the flashy surface detail rather than the heart of the story.
Read full review
Sep 6, 2023
Season 2 Review:
Winning Time is now a glitzy scroll down a Wikipedia page, lobbing important details at the viewer without much care for nuance. .... What’s frustrating about Winning Time is that it doesn’t offer much more than that potted stereotype—something that’s true of almost every character around Johnson and Kareem.
Read full review
Mar 8, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The coaching catastrophes offer a compelling throughline to the otherwise limpingly paced season, cohering the massive ensemble and complementing the show’s know-it-all earnestness with its can-you-believe-this raconteurism. ... But for my tastes, McKay has entered, with “Winning Time,” an Aaron Sorkin-esque level of directorial obtrusiveness, where a filmmaker’s tics and indulgences keep calling attention to themselves, distracting from the narrative at hand rather than amplifying it.
Read full review
Mar 6, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The equivalent of missing what should be an easy layup, "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" stumbles on the road to greatness, undermining can't-miss subject matter for basketball fans with an uneven, at times farcical tone. Although '80s-style excess clearly accounts for much of the sizzle, this exercise feels like a no-look pass that skips out of bounds.
Read full review
Aug 7, 2023
Season 2 Review:
Season Two as a whole struggles in many of the same ways that the Showtime-era Lakers did during the years being chronicled, only without any creative highs equivalent to that second title run in 1982. Pat Riley eventually learns to slick back his hair, but the show spotlighting him is even messier than before.
Read full review
RogerEbert.comMar 4, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The robust ensemble works so well together, especially Brody and Clarke, they almost pull together the snooze-inducing episodes into something watchable. But the series relies on too many surface-level observations on sexism, racism, regret, and Magic’s promiscuity, and wastes these boundless performances.
Read full review
Mar 3, 2022
Season 1 Review:
What’s revealed to us is usually either banal (the idea that the act of love is like a sport because both have rhythm) or a data-dump that would be better revealed in another way. The soupcon of prurience poured over the top feels — in a way HBO programming rarely does these days — like an attention-getting stand-in for good ideas.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score