HBO
Following the second season finale on Sunday, it has been confirmed that HBO’s “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” has been cancelled.
Creator Max Borenstein confirmed the news on Twitter, saying: “Not the ending that we had in mind, but nothing but gratitude and love.”
Director Salli Richardson-Whitfield added on Instagram: “When you give it everything you’ve got, you can have no regrets. I hope you enjoy the last episode of @winningtimehbo… I can say that at this moment in time I am most proud of the work we did on this masterful show.”
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE FINAL EPISODE
The episode does not appear to be written as a planned series finale and ends with the NBA Final in June 1984 when the Celtics beat the Lakers. We see Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) collapsing and despondent in the locker room showers.
Here is when things get interesting. As Variety reportedly saw a media screener of the finale before the season began and, from their report, its appeared that scene was the original endpoint of the episode.
The actual aired episode adds in a whole new and tonally very different scene jumping ahead a few days in which Lakers owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) and his daughter Jeanie (Hadley Robinson) are at the Forum sharing a whiskey whilst lying on the court.
Reilly’s Buss says: “You know it’s going to be alright, kid. All of it. And you know how I know? Because we f—- own this” before the pair ‘laugh maniacally’ at the sky. Cut to closing title cards informing viewers about the futures of the principal characters. It’s presumed the extra scene and title cards were added after the verdict came down from HBO.
END SPOILERS
The second season of “Winning Time” returned to HBO on August 6th with 629,000 total viewers on Max and linear telecasts – down from the series launch of 901,000 people last year and 1.6 million same-day viewers by the first season finale.
It was suggested the series was in trouble last month when Pearlman went on Twitter to implore folks to check out the second season whilst it was airing.
Source: Variety
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