Running Point Season 2 Airballs Its Championship Shot
I sat down for the full ten episode binge of Running Point Season 2 the day it dropped because I genuinely enjoyed the first season and its chaotic blend of family satire and basketball drama. What I expected was a sharper smarter follow up that built on Kate Hudsons breakout turn as Isla Gordon and the Gordon family circus running the fictional LA Waves. What I got instead was a bloated overstuffed mess that coasted on goodwill from season one and celebrity cameos while delivering zero meaningful growth or fresh laughs. This season is not just safe it is lazy and it proves that Netflix knows exactly how to manufacture another season of something passable enough to keep the algorithm happy but hollow enough to forget by the next morning.
The story picks up right after the heartbreaking playoff loss from season one with Isla now firmly in the presidents chair determined to lead the Waves all the way to a championship. Her brother Cam Justin Theroux bursts back into the picture fresh from rehab but still secretly using and immediately starts scheming to claw his old job back. He embezzles team money blackmails his siblings and teams up with a sleazy mega donor to stage a boardroom coup. It is the exact same power struggle we saw hints of last season stretched across an entire year and it grows more tedious with every episode. The writers keep piling on the betrayals and secret recordings and last minute saves as if escalating the family drama will somehow make it funnier or more compelling. It does not. By the finale when the siblings finally confront Cam with evidence of his drug test cheating and boot him out I felt nothing but relief that the repetitive loop had ended not satisfaction at any real character payoff.
Kate Hudson remains the only reason to keep watching. She brings genuine warmth and vulnerability to Isla even when the script forces her into yet another crisis of confidence or romantic entanglement. Her chemistry with the cast especially Brenda Song as the loyal but fed up chief of staff Ali is still the shows brightest spot. Song gets a solid subplot about demanding respect and briefly leaving for another team only to return after a heartfelt reconciliation and she steals every scene she is in. Ray Romano as the new head coach Norm Stinson is another highlight. He plays the curmudgeonly basketball savant with dry deadpan precision modeled after real legends like Gregg Popovich and his scenes with the players actually feel like they belong in a sports story. Those moments stand out because everything else around them feels so contrived.
The rest of the ensemble fares far worse. The Gordon brothers Drew Tarver Scott MacArthur and Fabrizio Guido as Sandy Ness and Jackie are written as one note cartoons of incompetence and resentment. Their bickering stops being funny after the third episode and turns into white noise that drowns out any actual basketball stakes. Justin Theroux chews scenery as Cam but the character is so cartoonishly villainous and unrepentant that his redemption teases and relapses feel manipulative rather than earned. The romantic subplots fare even poorer. Islas broken engagement to Lev Max Greenfield and lingering feelings for Jay Brown Jay Ellis are handled with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and the love triangle never generates real tension because the show refuses to let anyone make a decisive choice until the very end. Even the championship run which should have been the emotional core gets buried under endless boardroom intrigue and product placement.
What kills this season most brutally is the writing. Mindy Kaling David Stassen and Ike Barinholtz seem content to recycle the same jokes about rich people behaving badly and family members stabbing each other in the back without adding any new insight or sharper edge. The humor lands flat more often than not relying on pop culture references and quick celebrity drop ins like Lisa Rinna playing herself that feel desperate rather than clever. The basketball itself looks glossy in drone shots but never authentic the players move like extras and the game sequences lack the tension that made shows like Winning Time thrilling. Instead we get montages and voiceovers that tell us the Waves are fighting for it all while the real story stays trapped in the front office. By the time the finale rolls around with Marcus hitting the game winning three and the Waves hoisting the trophy the victory feels unearned because the season spent so little time making us care about the team on the court.
Running Point Season 2 had every advantage a quick renewal strong cast and a built in audience from season one yet it chose the path of least resistance. It plays everything safe coasts on Hudsons charm and Romanos gravitas and hopes the championship glow will paper over the cracks. The final twist with Cam Jay and the donor launching a rival LA team called the Industry sets up season three but after this outing I have zero interest in seeing where it goes. This is Netflix comfort food at its most cynical polished enough to stream in the background but empty enough that it leaves you wondering why you bothered. If you loved season one you might find enough familiar rhythms to enjoy a mindless rewatch but do not expect anything better. This season does not elevate the show it exposes how thin the premise always was. Skip it unless you have absolutely nothing else on your list and even then lower your expectations to the floor. The Waves may have won the title on screen but Running Point Season 2 lost the game the moment it stopped trying to be anything more than average.
