Ballers follows the story of ex-Miami Dolphins star Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who has taken to a career of personal financial management in his post-football life. Spencer was recruited by his boss and buddy-cop Joe Krutel (Rob Corddry) to utilize his connections to pro athletes to grow the financial management firm's practice. Johnson and Corddry connect very well on-screen together and many of the show's best scenes involve their interplay.
Strasmore has two good friends that receive season-long story arcs. Ricky Jerret (John David Washington) is a slot receiver who, despite his relatively advanced age, has plenty of NFL talent left in him. Jerret's a loose cannon and his off-the-field problems are constantly getting in the way of his career. He's got a good heart on him and a fiery, intense personality, but often his rash behavior gets in the way of his good intentions.
Strasmore's other friend is Charles Greane (Omar Miller), a teddy bear of a former offensive lineman who's struggling to find fulfillment after football. Much of Charles' storyline focuses on his relationship with his wife Julie (Jazmyn Simon) and his adaptation to a considerably lower-excitement job at a car dealership.
Ballers insists that it falls under the category of a "dramedy", but it has roughly the same amount of drama as a typical episode of Full House. There's plenty of moments in the show that will make you laugh (many of them involving Corddry), but the biggest problem with Ballers is that everything that happens has low stakes. These are privileged people who have made millions of dollars in their careers. Any financial tragedy that befalls them is borne of their own incompetence.
For example, Spencer is a charismatic, fully competent man with a well-known name. Can his life ever really be in hot water if he doesn't succeed at Anderson Financial Management? What about Ricky Jerret? He owns a gigantic mansion along with a not-so-secret and equally sized "funhouse". What are we supposed to feel if he's unable to continue playing in the NFL? Why should this matter?
The glorification of wealth (which, don't get me wrong, is a necessary aspect of any TV show about professional athletes for realism purposes) makes it tricky for a show with the premise of Ballers to resonate with an audience, and while there's plenty of plot lines they could have explored to make this show more interesting, Ballers shies away from anything remotely challenging. For example, we're constantly shown Spencer popping pills and experiencing a particularly haunting flashback to a particular hit he put upon an opposing player. With all the issues of concussions and brain trauma surrounding the NFL, seeing an ex-player struggle with the ramifications of that would have been very compelling. Instead, Spencer goes to the doctor and finds out that his head is completely fine and that he's experiencing psychological problems. The psychological problems, as Spencer realizes, are coming from guilt about that big hit he made that keeps flashing before his eyes. So what does he do? He apologizes to the guy he hit and takes him to a Marlins game to have him throw out the first pitch. Problem solved, no lasting consequence.
Several of Ricky's storylines are equally problematic. He's got a teammate, Alonzo, who doesn't like him because Ricky has been sleeping with a woman who, unbeknownst to Ricky, is Alonzo's mother. Ricky cuts it off (not in the least because of that realization), but Alonzo still engages in an escalating series of pranks and hateful activities. How does Ricky eventually solve the problem? We use an overdone sitcom trope of Ricky setting up a situation for him to "save" Alonzo and enter into his good graces. The hoax works, and we barely see any of Alonzo for the rest of the season. Another story involves Ricky pissing off his girlfriend by being ignorant of her feelings during the "Alonzo's mom" controversy. So what does he do? He tries to buy ridiculously expensive jewelry to repair the damage. Given how nice and neat Ballers wrapped up pretty much every problem that surfaced during this season, I'm surprised that didn't work.
One principal criticism of this show that I've heard is the pervasive Entourage-esque sexism. This may seem like a controversial thought, but I don't think that this is a valid criticism of the show's quality. Current and former professional football players have a long history of a culture that objectifies and mistreats women. If the show were to ignore that, or portray a cast of football players that act with utmost kindness and respect towards women, it would unfortunately ring hallow. I was often put off by the show's portrayal of its female characters (Julie excepted -- she's awesome), but for the show's more mindful viewers, that's part of the point.
Despite its flaws, Ballers is a really easy watch and I never found myself particularly bored while going through the first season. I just don't think that it's a very good television show. You can have a successful comedy without hard-hitting drama (see Seinfeld, Arrested Development), but the show needs to have an excellent/unique sense of humor. I watch The Big Bang Theory and Silicon Valley -- both are comedies that are funnier than Ballers and somehow have substantially more dramatic weight, despite both being extremely lighthearted shows. In retrospect, I'm not sure what was so compelling about Ballers that kept me going. I do think that Johnson, Washington, and Corddry are pretty good actors, so maybe that's it. It's just a shame that they're being held back by mediocre and unambitious writing.
Season Grade: C
Bullet Points
- Awww hell no. They've got my man Bunny Colvin mixed up in this show?
- So, what was the point of that nonsense with Jason and the golfer guy dating his mom?
- That scene where Dan chucks the baseball at the cameraman when throwing out the first pitch was simply awful. The throw looked fake as all hell -- nay -- FAKER than all hell, and I'm not sure why the show wanted to glorify drilling some random dude with a baseball.
- There were a LOT of NFL players that guest starred in this show, plus Giancarlo Stanton! I recall Antonio Brown, Victor Cruz, Julian Edelman....and that's probably it for people whose pictures I remember from fantasy football profile photos.
- I'm not sure whether I'll watch Season Two.
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