Number One on Netflix is a weekly spotlight on whatever is currently the most popular thing on the world’s most popular streaming service. Sometimes it’ll be a movie. Sometimes it’ll be a TV show. Whatever it is, a lot of people are clearly watching, and we’ll try to understand why with a quick review. Today, we’re looking at the new sports comedy Running Point… and the way Chet Hanks steals the show.
Running Point, from creators Elaine Ko, Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen, has a lot going for it. The new sports comedy stars Kate Hudson as the newly-minted president of the Los Angeles Waves professional basketball team, after her older brother/the previous president (Justin Theroux) lands in rehab; the cast is packed with other familiar comedy faces, including Drew Tarver, Brenda Song, Max Greenfield, and Jay Ellis. Yet, defying all odds, from out of nowhere comes rookie Chet Hanks, son of Tom, who grabs the rock and slam dunks it.
(I watched all 10 episodes of Running Point before writing this. I’ve learned a lot of sports jargon over the past few days.)
Technically, Hanks isn’t that much of a rookie, having a more robust filmography at the age of 34 than you’d expect. And not just roles where you have a pretty good idea of how he got cast, like “Student in Library” in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (directed by past Tom Hanks collaborator Steven Spielberg) or “Pizza Delivery Boy” in Larry Crowne (directed by, well, Tom Hanks). There’s his four-episode arc on Maron as a recovering addict, his series regular work on Fox’s Empire, and even appearances on Atlanta and Curb Your Enthusiasm to his name.
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Admittedly, Hanks has a sweet spot, and that sweet spot happens to entail “white boy rapper.” That definition definitely applies to his work in Running Point, where he plays Travis Bugg, a key player on the Waves despite his occasionally embarrassing off-the-court choices, especially his love of rapping on social media.
That said, the character of Travis is actually notable for the fact that instead of coming from a privileged family, he’s a homegrown Florida boy from humble roots. More importantly, what makes Hanks’ work on the Netflix series so legitimately fun is how completely he owns it, committing fully to the role in a way that embraces the character as almost a form of self-parody.
Take his first big scene in the pilot, when he performs some bars for his teammates in the locker room, including “I’m a true shooter like I’m John Wilkes Booth/ Here better grab my hose, I set fire to the roof.” When a foreign-born teammate asks who John Wilkes Booth is, Travis responds “I don’t know, bro. I used Google rhymes.”
Hanks’ real-life commitment to rap, if nothing else, is quite authentic — perhaps his single greatest contribution to pop culture to date was when he offered up a nice clear explanation of the Kendrick/Drake feud to his dad (along with any other white people who might have been confused). Yet the fact that he’s able to make fun of himself here speaks a lot to his self-awareness.
Fun fact: The second episode of Running Point does mention Tom Hanks by name, which means in the alternate universe where this show takes place, the Lakers don’t exist but Chet Hanks’s father does — a real “who played the white guy in Invictus?” moment for the series. And while we’re going over the ways reality bends around a Netflix comedy, of course one should not at all compare the very fictional Waves to the real-life Los Angeles Lakers, even if current Lakers owner/president Jeanie Buss happens to be an executive producer on the show.
Overall, Running Point sometimes struggles to find the tone it wants to hit, especially as it reveals the rougher sides of its characters while still trying to play up the occasional heartwarming moment. It also descends into cliche more often than not (more than a few plot points prove to be pretty predictable), not to mention heavily relying on slapstick as a crutch.
Yet Hudson proves game (like I said, I’m basically an expert on sports talk now), and there’s real potential in this ensemble — especially Hanks. At this point in his career, it’s hard to say that he has much range beyond what we’ve already seen, but it seems like he always understands the assignment when he takes on roles like these, and he isn’t afraid to be the butt of the joke. And those are qualities that will take an actor pretty far in life. No matter who his parents might be.
Running Point is streaming now on Netflix.
