I am a big fan of Adam McKay's Oscar winning, The Big Short.
This series is about businessman Dr Jerry Buss attempting to buy the LA Lakers in 1979. Then a struggling team that had not won anything of consequence.
Also Buss was courting rising rookie Earvin 'Magic' Johnson to sign for the Lakers. Johnson and Larry Bird were the hottest tickets from college basketball.
The first episode of Winning Time has McKay using some of the same tricks from The Big Short. Characters talking to the camera, captions on screen. Off the wall and cynical humour.
It quickly informs you of the difference between Bird and Johnson and why Bird was so highly regarded. He was white.
However by the second half of the first episode. It becomes clear all that trickery cannot sustain a ten part serial. Even things like recreating Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's turn in the movie Airplane feels like a gimmick.
Events have to be fictionalised to fit in with the television serial format. Johnson has doubts whether to sign for the Lakers after an encounter with starting point guard Norm Nixon at a party.
It slows the momentum down as the series has to be stretched out. It was still an interesting first episode with John C Reilly being the lynchpin as the crafty Jerry Buss.