Clipped

Perhaps this real life portrayal mini series has cane out a little later than it should have. The events happened in 2014 and now over 10 years later, we are having this series showing further details. This is being said simply because the interest to this story isn't nearly as high or anticipated currently as it would have had this had been several years ago.

However as a show, it does provide a lot of things in which people who were following the story at the time, are already familiar. Mainly the basics. Most of the newer knowledge dealt with the character of V. Stiviano who is a primary character as it delves into her life further and her role to everything.

The acting from the leads are definitely worthy of watching. The subject matter is definitely serious and overall was engaging in watching and remembering its events. The finale episode was rather anticlimactic and ended somewhat abruptly. Slightly disappointing.

Best episode: Episode 3.

Worst episode: Episode 4.

If you thought this was about how a team wins championships, you'd be wrong. This show is hilarious and legend has it, if you finish watching the series, you're going to get the Clippers curse. You'll get fired from your job, wife will leave you and take half your stuff, and you'll tear an ACL.

None of the actors look like their real life counterpart, but that's ok. The acting is well done, but nothing special to brag about. This is more of a comedy than drama about the worst franchise in the NBA. 0 chips and their fans are a joke.

10/10 would recommend. Just don't finish the last episode to avoid the curse.

Ed O'Neil and Laurence Fishburne are great. The actors who play the basketball players are also good and do a good job passing who they are portraying. I'm sure it was very difficult to find a match to play Blake. Very interesting to see what things were supposedly like behind close doors for the clippers organization. Does explain why they had such a hard time finding success and keeping good players. I watched the first two episodes back to back and could have easily watched another 2. Unfortunately have to wait for the weekly release now to be able to see the new episodes. I have enjoyed it so far.

So far I'm halfway through the series with the last two episodes pending to appear in the future. What I can say so far is that while the production values are high, the underlying true story is poorly told.

Sterling's egomaniacal failure as a franchise owner would have made for a compelling story. But so far it's shaping up to be a banal referendum on his moral character and his tattletale sugar-baby lady of the night being positioned as an anti-hero by being spiteful.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm afraid that this Hulu special will be of the Netflix ilk of progressive grandstanding as if we haven't been beaten over the head with the social sensitivity agenda a million times over. It's lazy and I'm hoping that the concluding episodes of the series focuses on the personal story that us sports fans might have overlooked instead of another trite sermon about how people should be loving people or whatever.

But if you don't, you're going to be bored/lost. It was clearly trying to be like The people vs OJ - American Crime Story, but it didn't quite nail it. Also, everyone knows the OJ story - not everyone knows the Sterling one. This could have benefited from greater direction/editing, however the acting and production value is spot on.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend listening to the Sterling podcast on 30/30. It's almost a required companion piece to the fx show and will make the entire thing more compelling and entertaining.

If nothing else, Lawrence Fishburne, Ed O'Neill, Cleopatra Coleman and Jacki Weaver and a delight to watch.