Running Point Season 2 premieres April 23 on Netflix.
By Elazar Abrahams
Season 2 of Running Point feels more assured in the best way. Season 1 did the foundational work of establishing the world, the family dynamic, and the premise of a workplace comedy set in the front desk and executive suite of a professional sports team. Now that the show has that baseline, Season 2 can actually have fun with it.
The biggest improvement is confidence. The characters are defined now, and the show trusts their rhythms enough to stop over-explaining and start escalating. It leans harder into the corporate absurdities that come with sports ownership, the chaotic power dynamics of running the fictional (and definitely-not-the-Los-Angeles-Lakers Waves), and the goofy ways ego, legacy, and money collide when everyone thinks they’re the smartest person in the room.
The returning cast is still the engine, and Kate Hudson continues to be the revelation of this whole project. She’s always been a movie star, but Running Point makes a strong case that she naturally belongs as the lead of a sitcom, which is not something most people would have predicted. She’s got the timing, the looseness, and the ability to sell a ridiculous line while still feeling like a real person with real pressure on her shoulders.
What makes Season 2 especially fun is that creator Mindy Kaling basically called up a bunch of famous friends and slapped them into the show. Almost every episode has a fun guest star, but they’re actually used well, not just as stunt casting.
Two of the best examples are Ray Romano and Ken Marino. Romano plays Coach Norm Stinson, a grumpy, gifted veteran coach, and Marino plays Al Fleischman, a diehard Waves fan that trying to buy his way into the family’s orbit. Both roles are pure comedy fuel, but they also nudge the season’s story forward instead of sitting off to the side as distractions.
The season-long arc is also compelling for sports fans, following the ups and downs of the Waves basketball season in a way that gives the story real stakes. The show understands that while the reputational, financial, and familial aspects might be better suited for the comedy aspects, you can’t make a series about basketball if you aren’t focusing on what goes down on the court.
That said, the plotting can feel rushed by the end. This is a half-hour comedy, not an hour-long sports drama, so no one should expect meticulous realism about every game and every opponent. But the last two or so episodes move with a kind of whiplash energy, and the way the show jumps into the playoffs and then barrels through each round can feel a little too accelerated. It’s also one of those seasons where so many ups and downs get packed in that you can’t help thinking a few threads could have been saved for a future season. I respect the ambition, but the writers are throwing a lot at the wall. Focusing on just a couple of the scenarios here would make for a cleaner binge.
I give Running Point’s second season an A-.
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