[rating=5.00] “Pilot”
It’s a bold move for a comedy to open its pilot episode with a fatal car crash of two unestablished characters. It’s a bolder move to refer to Ballers as a comedy after watching it struggle to carry itself through those long, painful thirty minutes.
Dwayne (do we still have to add “The Rock” in the middle of his name?) Johnson leads the cast as Spencer, a former football star-turned-financial manager of sorts for other sports stars. He’s been at it a year now, but isn’t doing very well at it, according to his boss/co-worker Rob Corddry, mostly playing Rob Corddry. Not that it’s a bad thing, here. The chemistry between him and Johnson has definite potential.
Spencer still has celebrity appeal, despite being out of the game for some time and, according to him, hitting rock bottom (pun absolutely intended). He does dole out financial advice at random, namely “if it flies, floats, or fucks, lease it,” despite the possible backlash that’ll incur as his character just referred to women as a depreciating asset.
With his poorly explained job description and the apparent disapproval of his performance, Spencer is still able to loan another player $300,000 when asked, even if it’s for the flimsiest of reasons, namely “I got a lot of friends,” and “you know how it is.” He also gets flashed by a girl while giving a eulogy for the player who was killed in a car wreck at the show’s beginning.
Following the funeral service, which was held in a stadium, of course, Spencer, and company decide to go out and celebrate their fallen comrade, though not before reflecting on whether or not they should “grab some of them funeral hos,” as one does in a time of grief.
Once they’re at the club, we get the shows best effort at establishing its supporting characters. Charles, no longer playing football, is resoundly rejected by girls. Ricky, however, is a renowned celebrity, who can fornicate with the same girls rejecting Charles right there in the bathroom.
This upsets those waiting in line, one has a confrontation with him, which ends with Ricky beating him on the floor of the club. Everyone has their cell phones out, and almost immediately he’s trending on Twitter, “in the wrong goddamn direction,” according to Spencer. He’s cut from his team in the episode’s few laugh-worthy moments as we’re given a brief glimpse inside the boardroom of the Green Bay Packers.
Spencer, along with Ricky’s agent, Jason, pull some strings and get him a shot at a meeting with the coach of the Miami Dolphins, both of whom are certain he’ll screw it up. Which he does by showing up one minute late to the docks to meet the coach, played by Peter Berg (another excellent moment, by the way), and his boating/coaching cronies.
Of course, Ricky, heeding Spencer’s advice about the utter futility of his career in terms of longevity, stays behind at the docks until the boat returns, which causes the coach to change his mind in about 40 seconds.
Everything works out in the end, except for Spencer, who after taking noticeable steps to wrangle in more clients, apparently only had $300,199 in his account.
While Ballers ultimately failed to give a good sense of these characters or the world they live in, outside of a garish adolescent fantasy (insert obligatory comparison to Entourage here), there were faint hints of an interesting story, namely with Charles, who leaves the world of pro football in exchange for a job at a Chevy dealership. Though it’s apparent he’ll be unfortunately relegated to the background, as the show is hinging itself on Johnson’s charisma as a tentpole for their world built only in broad strokes so far.
