Ballers - Premiering 6/21 @ 10/9 on HBO: "Let's go ball" (pause)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Ballers - Premiering 6/21 @ 10/9 on HBO: "Let's go ball" (pause)

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

I can't even tell if people are trolling these days. The Brink was directed by Jay Roach, known for movies like Meet The Fockers and Austin Powers. The cast was filled with comic actors and the scenes show absurd situations.
The only real question is whether it's trying to be satire or farce, and I think it was leaning heavily to the latter.

Now Ballers to me is a show that doesn't know what it wants to be. A 1/2 hour is always comedy, but Ballers isn't really that funny. Not as funny as Entourage when it was starting out, but similar sort of 'lifestyle porn'. And it's far too light and harmlessly inoffensive to be considered drama.

There have been a lot of shows about football players; drama series and reality shows so It really needs to do more to make it stand out from this familiar territory.

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Jun 24, 2015

# ¿ Jun 24, 2015 23:54

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 13:30

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Doobie Keebler posted:

It does have something to make it stand out: The Rock! I'm half kidding. Whether it's a light-drama or sorta-comedy (comma?) I enjoyed it. Sometimes I'm happy watching a show where I can turn off my brain and have fun for 30 minutes. Especially after True Detective.

Yeah The Rock has charisma, even when his acting is toned down compared to his action movie roles.

It's one thing to turn off your brain; it's another to spend 30 minutes each week watching something that doesn't go anywhere. I guess I think that already being hugely successful, if Johnson and Wahlberg are going to do tv they should aim higher and have more bite or edge to their series.

Here's an example of what I'm saying: we see Spence chewing on a big handful of pills. I'm guessing they're painkillers. But he is still cut like a pro athlete who spends hours per day in the gym; his speech is not slurred or stilted. That huge dose doesn't seem to have much or any adverse affect on him at all.
Now if his drug abuse does become a problem or a plot point (eg he must be stoned to hand over $300,000 to someone who's already blown through millions, or he starts pissing blood and has to deal with health problems), to me the show would be better. If taking the pills is just a daily thing he does without any consequences, that tilts the show to being not much more than lightweight, inoffensive lifestyle porn.

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Jun 25, 2015

# ¿ Jun 25, 2015 12:40

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Tatum Girlparts posted:

Yea I'm really liking the semi-serious tone.

The ex-player is so fat he broke the coffee table! That was so semi-serious I didn't know whether to feel almost bad for him or to semi-laugh.

BlindSite posted:

Painkiller addiction is the worst kept secret in the NFL dude. Most of these guys are taking enough to kill a horse by the time their careers are over just to get through the day.

Yeah but his addiction seems to have no negative effect on his decision making, speaking, fitness etc. If anything, the pills are making him the most rational and even-tempered person in the show. Or maybe it seems that way because everyone else is a whiny bitch man-child.
The other worst kept secret is the long-term effect of head trauma but I guess that won't be addressed at all in this dramedy that prefers to show faceless bikini babes at a hotel pool and expensive cars.

The secondary characters are really poorly written, so far. I realize everyone is only watching for The Rock but that's not a good reason for everyone else to be underwritten stereotypes.
And the McLaren door gag was much better done in Silicon Valley.

ultramiraculous posted:

Billionaire doors open like this:

Or like this:

My car door opens like this:

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Jun 30, 2015

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 12:16

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

This show is a team that signs a top-rated QB to sell tickets and then doesn't bother getting him receivers or linemen so they don't go anywhere but still manage to fill the stadium seats each week.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2015 10:14

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

1st AD posted:

Is episode 3 any good because I fail to find any of this funny yet, also not enough Rob Corddry.

Like except for what's his face working at the Ford dealership and The Rock, I hate everybody on the show.

No, this show was better before Ari Gold moved to London to open a department store.

But Ep 3 must have been the most expensive location for 22 minutes of "is this a sitcom or isn't it?" ever made for tv. That was a nice boat.

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 11:23 on Jul 8, 2015

# ¿ Jul 8, 2015 10:43

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Jota posted:

Where's that guy who was crying because they didn't go into the long term issues of playing football in the first 3 episodes of a new show?

That was me, and I'm on board now. This episode not only brought in health issues it also had more character development.

And a Ferrari kidnapped and left up on blocks.
I am bigger than my problems.

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Jul 14, 2015

# ¿ Jul 14, 2015 10:05

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

I thought he's going to go back to banging #18's mom and really flaunt it in his face.

But it would be nice for management to step in and tell them to grow the gently caress up,

# ¿ Jul 14, 2015 11:30

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

physeter posted:

I'm with you, or at least I hope that's where it goes. From at least one point of view, he's a brain damaged, pill-addicted near failure desperately trying to project an air of success. Would love to see The Rock go a little darkside on this show.

Me too. Johnson and Mark Wahlberg get plenty of money for their movie work, it would be nice to see more from this series than being this light-hearted tit-filled
Entourage Of Pro Football.

Last Buffalo posted:

Nah, they'll puss out of doing anything gritty. This is just Men's health porn like Entourage. You can tell because all the dialog is lazy as gently caress.

They will have more vague values Kenya where dudes bump fists or hug and say "family" just like in fast and furious.

This writer at Sportsgrid was also not impressed with most recent, 'especially stupid' episode.
some choice quotes

quote:

What �Ballers� lacks in subtlety it more than makes up for in nudity. That�s gotta be worth something, right?

�Machete Charge� brings us on two distinctly contrived plotlines that rely heavily on characters behaving irrationally and out-of-character...

First we have Ricky Jerret � who is still seething at his teammates for taking the wheels off his Ferrari � changing his tune in the time it takes to walk the length of a supercar repair shop. His attempt at �being an adult� and �finding common ground� with Alonzo equates to taking the douchey teammate to a strip club. Not a dinner at a barbeque place or a trip to a high school football game � a midday jaunt at a �titty bar.�
...
Despite the very believable premise of this (arrest) scene � which undoubtedly occurs in reality all the time � the show can�t seem to avoid using the potential arrest as a vessel for goofy visual gags that make exactly no one laugh. It was unwatchable. Case in point: a cavalier Alonzo does not put his pants on before getting out of the car to talk with the police officer. Haha, get it? He�s having sex! Underwears! This kind of baseline humor is the defining characteristic of �Ballers,� which neither takes the time to be funny nor maintain any honesty about the world it�s depicting. It�s not a drama. It�s not a comedy. It�s lifestyle porn that has to shoehorn a problem and its solution into a 30-second sequence.

�Machete Charge� felt like one of the �Naked Gun� movies minus the parts that make you laugh.

This show spends so little time building obstacles for the characters to overcome, they might as well just hold up a sign explaining what happens in the rest of the episode...

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Jul 24, 2015

# ¿ Jul 24, 2015 10:54

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Last Buffalo posted:

This show feels like it's written by a team of cynical white frat boys trying to talk about the lives of rich black athletes and using Maxim and ESPN as their own points of reference.

Say it ain't so!
Every woman and her wardrobe choice is integral to the overall story arc. For instance in this scene:

Tracy uses her body as a sort of polygraph to compel Spence to admit the truth about not getting an MRI. So it was completely necessary to have a scene at the beach.

And of course what would an NFLer trying to rehabilitate his playboy image be without a house littered with unemployed, hot women just lounging around all day long because why the hell not.

This is not simply eye candy. The inherent subtext is an illustration of the ingrained manner in which commercialization and objectification of women has overridden their natural need for actualization as individuals.

Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Jul 29, 2015

# ¿ Jul 29, 2015 12:07

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Philthy posted:

Navy Guys need their own show. They're my fav part.

The British couple on The Brink should have their own spin-off show. Or the 4 of them could continue having madcap adventures together.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2015 03:35

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Was there any point to introducing Jason the agent's mother's relationship with a younger man trying to get into pro golf?
The show is so short already - 25 minutes per week including the intro credits. These scenes didn't add much comedy or drama, and pushed out some already ongoing storylines like the MRI scan results, and Spencer meeting the 'blackmailer'.
In this football-based series starring Dwayne Johnson, are we really supposed to care about this mom and her non-football-playing boyfriend.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2015 13:16

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Shooting Blanks posted:

One of the big criticisms of Entourage, especially the early seasons, was that Vince was the only person who had any real character development, and arguably Ari. In later seasons the other characters got fleshed out but early on it was definitely the Vince and Ari show, oh and some other guys. Personally, I think the pictures, the MRI, the golf thing, etc. are all attempts to mitigate that criticism from coming up again. HBO knows exactly what worked and what didn't in Entourage, and they're trying to improve on the formula.

Pictures: resolved by Spencer (it's all good)
MRI: resolved by Spencer (it's all good)
the golf thing: resolved? did not involve Spencer, no mention of it in this episode

Philthy posted:

I thought the preview showed something else happening. Maybe next week?

Also, the best show on TV ever has no thread. The Brink is absolutely amazing.

There's no thread because it's too hard to nitpick an all-out satire like The Brink How are we going to post, "It's so unrealistic..." when that's the whole point of the show!?

# ¿ Aug 11, 2015 11:54

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

Does anyone else think the funniest thing on the show so far was finding out that when alone in his car, big tough ex-footballer Spencer likes to sing along with - not Lil Wayne or some other hardcore rapper, but Taylor Swift.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2015 11:29

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

M_Gargantua posted:

There exists a video of me shouting along to Iggy and waving my hands everywhere on one of my friends phones.

People do crazy stuff in cars.

Yeah Iggy's fun to sing along while driving!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opBcpTyG0s4

# ¿ Aug 14, 2015 10:49

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

The Brink was so much fun, this is a shame.
I want to believe it was just too expensive to produce with that cast and the location shoots.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 12:38

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# ¿ May 2, 2024 13:30

Binary Logic: Dec 28, 2000; Fun Shoe

The Duggler posted:

This season is watchable, but just barely.

Something of consequence needs to actually happen

They're sticking with the Entourage playbook in which things always work out for the lead actor of the show (and there are always hot women in bikinis around during business and plot progression dialogue).

# ¿ Aug 23, 2016 11:47

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Ballers - Premiering 6/21 @ 10/9 on HBO: "Let's go ball" (pause)