For any TV writer, there’s a specific delight in jumping into a sophomore season: Characters and dynamics have been established, giving showrunners a bigger sandbox to play in as they deepen relationships and character arcs.
That was certainly the case for the Warner Bros. Television-produced “Running Point,” which followed as the mogul family behind fictional basketball team the Los Angeles Waves, led by Kate Hudson’s Isla Gordon, amped up dynamics both on and off the field under the direction of showrunner David Stassen, who created the Netflix series alongside Mindy Kaling and Ike Barinholtz.
“Approaching Season 2, we really wanted to bring more of what the audience loved from Season 1, and a big part of that was knowing the characters — right away it felt like we just hit the ground running with knowing how to write jokes for these people,” Stassen told TheWrap in a new installment of How I Did It, presented by Warner Bros. TV.
He added that the actors’ real-life bonds and chemistry “brought the show together.”
Part of that meant reviving the rivalry between Isla and former CEO Cam (Justin Theroux) as the older sibling returned from rehab vying for his leadership role back; putting Isla in the hot seat to prove her place, despite the Waves’ loss at the end of Season 1.
“Isla got close Season 1 — we wanted to show that she was great at her job, and that she had she achieved success Season 1, but she is not a quitter … [She’s] as competitive as I think any character I’ve ever written,” Stassen said. “Season 2 is really about giving her more challenges that she had to face, and hopefully taking the team that she was born into to the next level.”
Stassen said he couldn’t have lucked out more with Hudson as the show’s protagonist, likening her leadership on set to Michael Jordan taking 35 shots in a row: “You’re going to be exhausted, but this is how we’re going to win the game.” “We expect her to be funny, lead the story, be emotional, be physically funny, and remember big speeches, and have quick comedic turns,” he said.
“Having someone who can pull off everything you ask her to is such a luxury,” Stassen said. “She’s also really, really smart about story — she and I will have [conversations] before scenes to make sure that this is tracking for her character, and it really always improves the scene.”
In addition to collaborating with Hudson, Stassen leads the “Running Point” writers’ room, which helps with balancing the thin line between comedy and emotion that the series teeters. “In the room, we’re all just natural comedy writers, so we’re always looking to undercut anything emotional with a joke, but sometimes you want to … let the audience feel these real lived-in characters, and so just letting that emotion play out is the right thing to do,” Stassen said.
It’s Stassen’s gut intuition of feeling when “something’s clicking” in the room that leads him to follow an arc pitched by a writer, eventually putting it in the outline and then the script.
“As the showrunner, I feel like my job is to listen to everyone and really filter in the best ideas … but also be ready to make decisions and keep the ball rolling,” he said.
Those decisions extend through his role as a director, enabling him to work alongside the cinematographer, the VFX coordinator and the music team.
Isla finally gets her victory by the end of Season 2 as the Waves secure the championship, closing out what Stassen notes could be seen as a 20-episode arc for a first season, that, in the age of streaming, was separated into two 10-episode installments.
That victory, however, is undercut by the news that Cam and Al (Ken Marino) have bought the crosstown team L.A. Industry, and hired Jay Brown (Jay Ellis) as head coach and part owner, setting the scene for some ripe conflict when “Running Point” returns for Season 3, which was already greenlit at Netflix.
“We thought it was a big swing to have Cam buy a crosstown team, and then I think when I saw the first cut of it in the finale, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s fun,’ and the pushing on Kate’s face and you see her disgust and feeling of betrayal — it felt like it landed and it’s going to launch a great Season 3,” Stassen said.
“Running Point” Seasons 1-2 are now streaming on Netflix.
