Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty: The Hamburger Hamlet

September 4, 2023 2:29 PM - Season 2, Episode 5

After making his opinion of Westhead known, Earvin gives Buss an ultimatum--leaving West and Pat to pick up the pieces.

Recap, recap, fact v fiction (spoilers abound in all of these).

The last Hamburger Hamlet closed in 2018.

posted by box (1 comment total)

The actual substance of what's being depicted here is compelling enough that I wish they wouldn't try to gild the lily. As I've remarked before, it's a bad sign when you have to flash a “yes, this actually happened” title before a particular scene.

Still, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea in general if based-on-a-true-story stories developed a visual language for exactly how much they're stretching the truth in a given situation. Maybe a green frame on the screen to mean “this is practically exactly how it happened” and a red frame to mean “we basically made this up.” If neither frame is present, ordinary dramatization rules apply.

For instance, I imagine most of the press conference was verbatim, or nearly so, though I'm too lazy to look up the historical footage.

And the contours of the season as shown are pretty accurate, as I can figure — though, whenever an announcer sums up a loss in a montage, they're always speaking as though they're aware of the montage and its function in the plot. Bugs me a little.

The Jeanie subplot would get a very thick red frame. It feels like it was pulled from thin air. And I'm OK with that — I really am — as long as the audience understands it as well. I'm pretty sure that the tennis player she traded away was fictional and just a plot point — because, bro, you can just drive to San Diego if she's so important to you. And her conflict with her new stepmother is maybe a bit too show-don't-tell? I can imagine what some of her reservations with Honey might be, but pretty much everything Honey has said to anyone has been true and thoughtful. She's an easy character to like.

We got plenty of examples last season of how it's not awesome to be the daughter of a chronic womanizer, so it feels like Jeanie can't see the upside of having someone to smooth out her dad's rough corners. (I think Honey is a composite character, so I don't know how this whole thing will end, though I'm sure it'll be spectacular in its own way.)
posted by savetheclocktower at 12:52 AM on September 6, 2023