It’s impossible to ignore the similarities between the Apple TV series “Ted Lasso” and “Stick,” as both follow the therapeutic sports-comedy playbook.
These shows feature tremendously likable actors in the lead role as deeply broken coaches who use the purity and poetry of a sport to build an endearing surrogate family while trying not to unravel from past trauma and paternal baggage. Both series feature amicable divorces, viral meltdowns, tested loyalties, inspirational comeback stories and top-tier needle drops—and both pull off an impressive balancing act that compels us to follow the journeys of not only the leads, but more than a half-dozen supporting players.
We could go on, but we’ll stop after this note: Whereas Jason Sudeikis’ Ted would almost be lost without Brendan Hunt’s wonderfully eccentric and fiercely loyal Coach Beard, Owen Wilson’s Pryce has Marc Maron’s equally protective but infinitely more cynical Mitts. Both Don Quixotes have their Sanchos Panza.
“Stick” isn’t in quite the same instant-classic league as the Emmy award-winning, pop culture-dominating “Ted Lasso,” but Season 2 is a remarkable upgrade from the already engaging first season.
Yes, Owen Wilson is doing his familiar laid-back, soft-rebel-with-a-heart-of-gold thing, but he’s tailor-made for the role. As the second season delves even further into Wilson’s Pryce “The Stick” Cahill’s unresolved past, the series proves to be more than a breezy underdog sports comedy/drama. Wilson does some of the finest work of his career as a 55-year-old man-child, given perhaps his last real chance to embrace opportunity before he’s relegated to a lawn chair on a driving range in Fort Wayne, forever lamenting what might have been. (And who he could have wound up with.) As Pryce puts it, in a crossroads moment: “Maybe it’s better to go through life believing you could have been great than to find out you couldn’t.” But what a waste of a life that would be.
Season 2 finds Pryce with some measure of purpose, thanks to his mentorship of Peter Dager’s Santi Wheeler, a troubled teenager turned sensational golf prodigy who, at 18, is wavering between taking a full ride to Indiana University and turning pro. John Higgins (from the “Please Don’t Destroy” comedy sketch group) joins the cast as the oily, relentless sports agent Jeremy Pierce, who dazzles Santi with splashy Hollywood parties and promises major endorsements if he joins Jeremy’s high-end agency.
Higgins is just the start of this season’s expanded cast. Billy Zane is in prime, slick, unctuous form as Jeremy’s boss. Rhea Seehorn, fresh off her Emmy win for “Pluribus,” adds great spark as Amanda Lydecker, who has known Pryce since they were teenagers and is the daughter of Pryce’s first coach and mentor, Butch Lydecker (Rex Linn), who is living with dementia. (This is a reunion for Seehorn and Linn; on “Better Call Saul,” Seehorn played Kim Wexler, while Linn played Kevin Wachtell, CEO of Mesa Verde Bank and Trust.) With Pryce’s former rival Clark Ross (a returning Timothy Olyphant, flashing that megawatt grin) urging him to make an unlikely comeback at 55, Amanda reluctantly agrees to coach him—but only if he follows her precise instructions for conquering the course. And agrees to work on his mental health as well.
This is our cue for Pryce’s sessions with a sports mindset specialist (Sasha Alexander), which unlock flashback scenes where we witness the complicated dynamic between a young Pryce (Hudson Brooks) and his grifter father (Warren Kole from “Yellowjackets”), and isn’t it something how so many TV/movie characters have grifter fathers? (We just saw that storyline in the Jon Hamm-starring “American Hostage,” and John Goodman will reportedly be playing the grifter dad to Claire Danes’ Aggie in Season 2 of “The Beast in Me.”)
We do witness the occasional pacing problem in Season 2—but it’s mostly because of an embarrassment of riches within the subplots. Santi’s romance with the free-spirited Zero (Lilli Kay) hits some speed bumps, as does the relationship between Mitts and Santi’s “momager,” Elena (Mariana Treviño). Alas, the invaluable Judy Greer is mostly on the sidelines as Pryce’s ex, Amber-Linn, though she is showcased for a set-piece wedding episode.
Just as “Ted Lasso” isn’t really about the football, “Stick” is about far more than the golf—but the scenes on the links are effective, thanks to Wilson and Dager effectively mimicking legit swings, and the use of custom-built mechanical rigs, high-speed drones, and specialized audio and video effects to give us reasonable facsimiles of actual tournaments. (It doesn’t hurt to have the legendary Jim Nantz and retired Master champion Trevor Immelman playing themselves in the broadcast booth.) Season 2 not only avoids the sophomore slump, but it also elevates the material and delivers a richly rewarding payoff.
Full season screened for review. Streams November 4th on Apple TV.
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