John Stamos plays a big-time college basketball coach, Marvyn Korn, who is fired after hurling a chair at a referee. No other major basketball programs want any part of him
Then his agent mentions a possibility.
“Don’t tell me it’s Division II,” said Korn.
His agent stares at him blankly.
“III?”
Not even. Korn is offered a job coaching a girls’ high school team outside San Diego. Desperate to get back to work, he takes the job.
What ensues is somewhat predictable — the clash between woke teens and a man old enough to be their grandfather over the way he talks to them, and just about everything else both parties do. Korn also clashes with one player’s parent — a major benefactor to the school who is wholly focused on his daughter getting a college scholarship.
Alongside Stamos in the cast is Jessalyn Gilsig as his assistant coach on the Sirens and Yvette Nicole Brown as his principal, and Sophia Mitri Schloss, Nell Verlaque, Tiana Le and Monique Green as his players.
The basketball scenes, and there are many, feel authentic, and the young actresses are athletic. For his part, Stamos is convincing as a basketball coach. He reveals a deeper character than the win-obsessed bully he’s known to be when he shares with his players, during halftime of a game they are getting crushed in, how his own poor play fueled his coaching ambitions.
Anyone who’s watched a movie or series with sports at the center knows full well the team will play far better after Coach’s heartfelt speech. But as the pilot winds down, one does find oneself curious about how the team, and the new coach, will prevail as the season progresses.
David E. Kelley is an executive producer. Episodes come out weekly.
Big Shot is fun, and it’s not hard to get invested emotionally in whether Korn can turn the team, and himself, around. March Madness may be done, but the series offers a bit more entertaining basketball action to watch.
