Series / Running Point

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Running Point is an American sports comedy series created by Elaine Ko, Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen.

Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson)'s interest in basketball has been overlooked all her life by the men in her family. After her eldest brother Cam (Justin Theroux) causes a scandal, he asks Isla to replace him as President of their family's high-profile basketball team, the Los Angeles Waves. Despite the skepticism, Isla tries to prove she was the right choice.

The cast also includes Sandy Gordon (Drew Tarver), Isla's younger half-brother and Chief Financial Officer of the Waves; Ness Gordon (Scott MacArthur), Isla's second older brother who is the Waves' General Manager; Ali Lee (Brenda Song), Isla's best friend and Waves Chief of Staff; Jackie Moreno (Fabrizio Guido), the Gordon siblings' newfound younger half-brother; Jay Brown (Jay Ellis), head coach of the Waves; Lev Levenson (Max Greenfield), Isla's fiancé, a successful pediatrician; Travis Bugg (Chet Hanks), point guard of the Waves; and Marcus Winfield (Toby Sandeman), long-time Waves star player.

The series released on February 27, 2025, and the second season released on April 23, 2026. It has been renewed for a third season.

Tropes

• Actor Allusion:
  • In the second episode Ali mentions Tom Hanks, whose son Chet stars in the show.
  • Brenda Song (Ali)'s real life husband Macaulay Culkin appears in a Celebrity Cameo, and a flashback in season 2 shows Isla and Ali watching My Girl, one of his films.
  • After breaking up with Lev the night before their wedding Isla mutters that it's "how to lose a guy in 10 minutes", alluding to a movie in her actress's filmography.
• Ambiguous Situation: In "The Yips," when Cam leaks the rumors about Marcus being traded, what is his intent? Is he trying to sow dissent and undermine Isla's position for his own eventual comeback? Or is it a Batman Gambit to get her to toughen up and force her to solidify Marcus's place on the team?
• Amusing Injuries:
  • Isla is prone to these: Repeatedly walking into a glass wall; smashing her knee on Cam's "drug drawer"; getting smashed to the floor by a couple of players as she walks to her seat; tipping over on her stationary cycle; getting her eyelid caught in an eyelash curler; falling off her seat at a restaurant; and getting punched out cold by Bonnie.
  • Ness gets a couple, too, when he takes a paintball to the throat, and popsicle stick in the eye.
  • Cam in traction after his accident, with multiple casts and bandages, is funny. Hugging him makes it hilarious.
• Arc Words: "Gordons don't lose."
• Berserk Button: Despite her differences with her brothers, you do not insult Isla's family. In "Joe Pesci," doing so earns Cran Merrickman (of Snoozepedic) a verbal beatdown, before Isla destroys the "Marvin the Mattress" standee.
• Brief Accent Imitation: In "Game Seven," Isla gives a pre-game motivational speech themed around the players' admiration of John Wick, which includes a strikingly bad imitation of Keanu Reeves.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The team doctor has developed a quirky sense of humor, and is quite jaded about the team's frequent STD's. He can diagnose chlamydia by sight, and (allegedly) gonorrhea by smell, giving Jackie's crotch a sniff.
• Buy Them Off: Standard procedure for embarrassments to a wealthy, high-profile family.
  • This is initially the plan with Jackie, offering him as much as two million dollars to keep quiet and disappear. His lawyer cousin encourages the deal, but Jackie eventually decides meeting the family is worth more to him. It's not mentioned whether Jack Gordon paid Jackie's mother to hide the truth.
  • The Dutch family that Cam hit with his car went back to the Netherlands with a million dollars and signed NDA's.
• Celebrity Cameo:
  • Actually a significant plot element, but a non-speaking role. Red Panda appears as a half-time performer at a Waves game in "Beshert."
  • Celebrity stylist Law Roach appears in both seasons since he's dressing Isla for her engagement party and wedding.
  • Women's tennis legend Chris Evert is Sean Murphy's guest when Isla interrupts his show in "The Yips."
  • Scott Disick appears in "A Special Place in Hell," first trying not to be noticed by Bonnie and her camera crew, and later congratulating Isla on the team's win.
  • Macaulay Culkin shows up during Sandy's Grand Romantic Gesture complaining that he's taking time away from Billie Eilish's national anthem. He appears again during the finals in season 2 asking Dyson to move out of his seat.
  • Reality TV celeb Lisa Rinna appears in "Triangle of Badness", having overtaken Sandy's house for her show.
  • Jake from State Farm has courtside seats in "MVP: Marcus Very Pissed".
• Chekhov's Gun: Travis Bugg's pain meds. His mother managed his use of them very carefully, denying his requests for a larger dose, but then she got sent back to Florida.
• Commonality Connection: Not surprisingly, in "The Yips," Jackie and Sofia bond over their shared Hispanic (he Mexican, she Salvadoran) working-class background. It also turns out that Sofia's grandmother owns a restaurant loved by Jackie and his mom.
• Complexity Addiction: In "The Streak," when Assistant Coach Tony gets his chance to step up to the top spot during Jay's suspension, he insists on running a play he calls "Five Screens" which Badrag says "looks like Jackson Pollock" on paper. The play isn't shown, but it goes horribly wrong, with Isla commenting that "Badrag almost lost an eye," costing them the game.
• Contractual Purity: In-Universe. The second episode has the Waves getting dropped by their biggest sponsor Snoozepedic mattresses due to Cam's drug scandal. The mattress exec is also not pleased by Ness having a foreign wife, Sandy being gay, or Isla having appeared in a Playboy photoshoot, declaring "There's no family in the Waves." (If he'd waited until the end of the episode, he also could've taken offense at Jackie, a mixed-race child by an extramarital affair.) Fortunately, Isla is able to pick up a more open-minded sponsor.
• Cool Old Lady: In "The Yips," Dyson is completely flailing on free throws. Isla brings in Isha Aman, the shooting coach from the Indian Women's National Team. The short, pudgy old lady never misses a free throw, and coaches Dyson through his issues. The value of her coaching comes back into focus in "Game Seven" when Dyson's free throws give the Waves a late-game lead.
• Courteous Canadian: Ali briefly moves to Toronto for a job in season 2, and though it's portrayed as boring and wintry, her coworkers are perpetually polite. They are very quiet in the office, shocked at Isla and Ali's cursing, and even after Ali quits in the middle of a meeting to return to LA, order them an airport transport.
• The Cover Changes the Gender: In "The Playoffs," Sandy's cover of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" changes the lyrics from "You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess" to "You'll be the prince and I'll be another prince."
• Curse Cut Short: Ironically, for a show that habitually tosses F-bombs like confetti, the first season ends on one. When Isla enters her office to find Cam sitting at her desk, her reaction as narrator only gets as far as, "What the...?" and the credits roll.
• Creator Cameo: Co-creator Ike Barinholtz plays the siblings' Cousin Bennie.
• Dare to Be Badass: Isla's John Wick-themed pep-talk in "Game Seven" takes on this tone, when she says the Waves were "Forgotten about. Counted out. Left for dead." and dares them to defy expectations and show the world that the Waves are back.
• Dating Service Disaster: Happens to Sandy in "The Streak," although calling Grindr a "dating service" is a bit of a stretch. He invites a guy over for a random hookup, and ends up getting trapped in his shower and robbed.
• Debut Queue: Most of the major characters are introduced in the first episode, with a couple clips of them in action and a voiceover introduction by Isla. The exception is Lev, who gets a Second Episode Introduction.
• Desk Sweep of Rage: After Travis's first botched apology in "The Travis Bugg Affair," he flatly refuses to make a second one. Isla goes into her office to "make a very important phone call," and begins grabbing items from her desk and hurling them around the room as she screams obscenities.
  Ali: We need to get her office soundproofed. Look into that.
• Doomed New Clothes: In "Beshert," Isla is personally dressed for her engagement party by designer Law Roach in a sheer white floor-length gown. By the end of the night, she's in the swimming pool, in the dress, wrestling with Lev and Sandy. Dry-cleaning costs are mentioned, but the dress is likely beyond that.
• Down to the Last Play:
  • The game that decides whether the Waves make the playoffs is won by a last-second buzzer-beater.
  • Happens again in Game 7 of the playoffs, where the Waves have a one-point lead with seconds to go. They lose due to a Hail Mary from the half-court from the opposing team.
  • In "Gordons vs. McShays" the future of the McShay's lease at the Waves arena is to be decided by a 5v5 between the two families. Isla manages to keep them by shooting a basket at the last second.
  • In the final episode of season 2 the Waves are down by 1 in the last second of the finals game against Boston. Marcus shoots a buzzer-beater. To emphasize the shot's importance we get a montage of Isla's time as president as it flies in slow motion towards the basket. It's clean, the Waves are world champs, and Marcus gets to end his career on a high.
• Dude, Where's Our Car?: In "Game Seven," the Gordon siblings come out of a restaurant to find that Ness's car has been towed, forcing them to run four miles to the arena before game time.
• Eating the Eye Candy: The Wave City Dancers get a couple of scenes. In "Beshert" Jackie watches them practice, which is how he meets Sofia, the dance team captain. In "Game Seven" a good portion of their halftime performance is shown, focusing on Sofia. Jackie and Ness watch from the wings and Ness comments, "You fucked up, man." Jackie can only shake his head sadly.
• Eye Scream: In "The Yips," Ness arrives in Isla's office with one eye bandaged. It has nothing to do with the earlier paintball incident; in the interim, he somehow did something to himself with a popsicle stick. Which might make it a rare Ice Cream Eye Scream.
• Family Business: The LA Waves are this, with eldest son Cam originally being President after the siblings' father, Ness as General Manager, Sandy the Chief Financial Officer, and Isla as Coordinator of Charitable Endeavors until Cam makes her President after his drug problem makes him step down.
• Fanservice Extra: The cold open to "The Streak" shows a flashback to college-aged Isla, who is sleeping with one of her instructors, tumbling into bed with him wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy panties.
• Feeling Their Age: A non-physical example between Jackie and Sandy in "The Playoffs." Jackie says, "my mom made us watch those old, classic, Golden Age of Hollywood" romantic comedies, like Pretty Woman and You've Got Mail. Sandy says that he is now "feeling very old," although to be fair, he's probably only about ten or twelve years older than Jackie, and would also consider those films "oldies."
• Feuding Families: The Gordons have a rivalrous relationship with the McShay family, who are older money and own a team from a less popular sport (hockey). Unfortunately the rent the McShays pay to the Gordons for use of the arena is also important, so Isla has to work to stop them from pulling out of their lease.
• Five-Finger Discount: In "Joe Pesci," during her meeting with the Sephora marketing exec, Isla admits that she did a lot of shoplifting from the store in her teens, twenties, and early thirties. She apologizes and hands over a substantial wad of cash to cover it.
• Gay Best Friend:
  • Defied when Sandy (who is gay) goes to his sister-in-law Bituin to ask her to patch up her marriage to Ness.
    Sandy: Hey, Bituin. Been too long. You are slaying that lob, Mama.
    Bituin: Mm-mm. Don't do that gay bestie thing. We don't have that kind of rapport.
    Sandy: Right.
  • Defied again when Sandy lays on the gay lingo to smooth things over with the Waves' star accountant Aruna but it doesn't work as she already has gay friends.
• Gay Euphemism: Kind of inevitable in a comedy with a significant gay character.
  • In "Joe Pesci," the conservative Indiana-based Snoozepedic exec refers to Sandy as "the one with the unorthodox lifestyle." Isla and Ali hit him with a Take That! about Sandy having "gay sex...with men...on your mattresses!"
  • Played with in "Beshert" when Ness and Sandy insist that the Tooth Fairy is male, with at least Sandy meaning it as a humorous play on the dated gay slur. (Ness may simply be clueless, or liked the movie.)
• Gender-Blender Name:
  • During a potential sponsor meeting, Isla assumes "Lindsey" is a woman.
    Tati: You were with Lindsey.
    Isla: Oh no, he was with a tall, blonde Asian guy.
    Tati: That's Lindsey!
    [...]
    Isla: How should I know Lindsey's a guy? It's a girl name.
    Ali: Lindsey Graham, Lindsey Buckingham...
  • In season 2, Dyson and Zoé recall that Dyson thought Toni Morrison was male. Zoé tells him to read more.
• Grand Romantic Gesture:
  • Invoked. Jackie convinces Sandy to win Charlie back with a grand gesture, citing romcoms like You've Got Mail and Pretty Woman. Sandy watches The Wedding Singer and is convinced. He serenades Charlie with Taylor Swift's "Love Story" at the first playoff game, winning him over.
  • Dyson attempts this to stop Zoé from dumping him — he shows up with three puppies. Since she is about to move to Europe for a few months for a movie shoot it does not go over well.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: In the series pilot, Isla is shown in her intro posing for Playboy holding two basketballs in front her her breasts.
• Irony: Sandy keeps his boyfriend Charlie a secret from his family because he is afraid they will scare him off. However, Charlie breaks up Sandy because he feels that Sandy is embarrassed by him.
• Layman's Terms: When delivering his scripted apology in "The Travis Bugg Affair," Travis provides this helpful self-translation:
  Travis: I only hope Sephora and the Waves can forgive me for my...transgression...which means, "fuck-up"...and, uh, we can move on...
• Male Gaze: Lampshaded by Isla. In "Doljanchi," while at a conference with other league owners, she needs to schmooze with some of them in the resort's hot tub. As she's getting out, she asks them to look away, because she had to buy a swimsuit on the spot, and could only get one in a child's size. They don't entirely comply with her request.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage:
  • Referenced when Ali says her Korean-American in-laws are still upset that their son didn't marry a Korean woman, but are somewhat placated by Ali being non-white.
  • Downplayed with Lev and Isla's engagement. She's willing to convert, and it's clear that Lev and his family would prefer that she did, but they're actually okay with her not doing so. However, any kids they have will need to be raised Jewish, or "it would be a whole thing" with Lev's parents. Fortunately, Jack Gordon isn't around to see it, as noted by the conditions in his will in the same episode.
• Missing Mom: Jackie's mother has recently passed away, which is how he learns that he is Jack Gordon's son. Little to nothing is ever said about the other siblings' mothers, except to indicate that Cam, Ness, and Isla have the same mother and Sandy is from a later marriage. Lampshaded in "Game Seven" when the siblings (minus Cam) are at Jackie's mother's favorite restaurant and he talks fondly about her, while the other three simply say theirs are "deeply problematic" and "totally insane."
• Mistaken for Romance: In "The Travis Bugg Affair," when Isla invites Travis to a one-on-one dinner meeting to address his behavior, Jackie unknowingly books them a table at a very romantic restaurant. Travis misreads the situation, and tries to kiss Isla, with various people getting the wrong idea and posting rumors to social media.
• The Mole: After The Sean Murphy Show gets wind from "well-placed sources" that the Waves are planning to trade Marcus, Isla starts freaking out about who could possibly have leaked this to him. The end of the episode reveals that it was likely Cam, from rehab.
• Moment Killer: Isla and Jay finally decide to act on their mutual attraction for each other in "Gordons vs McShays". Unfortunately, Isla's cousin Bennie walks in on them. They get back to it after telling him to leave.
• Nepotism: Played for Laughs when Isla makes Jackie "Senior Executive Assistant to the President" after it's questioned on a live interview why he'd go back to working in concessions selling peanuts after finding out he's from one of the wealthiest families in LA.
  Rich: And that is some nepotism I can get behind.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: In "A Special Place in Hell," Coach Brown is worried about the effect Bonnie Bugg's presence is having on Travis, and the team as a whole. Isla tries to be accommodating and understanding, but eventually sends Bonnie packing back to Florida, which everyone, including Travis, sees as a good thing. Her absence leads directly to Travis abusing his pain meds, and ending up in rehab during the playoffs, which is likely the reason the Waves lose in "Game Seven."
• Now-or-Never Kiss: A non-fatal variation. In the season one finale, "Game Seven," after the Waves have lost and Coach Brown seems to be leaving the franchise for Boston. Jay and Isla sit in the empty arena and he leans in for an unanticipated kiss, which she eagerly returns.
• N-Word Privileges:
  • In "We Are Broke", Ali says that Sandy looks like a tiny, Asian woman in the derogatory sense, and then says she can get away with saying that since she is a tiny Asian woman herself.
  • During a meeting with Luke McShay, whose family is bitter rivals with the Gordons, Luke brings up how Isla and her brothers nicknamed him "Puke McGay" when they were kids, drawing laughter from Sandy and Ali. Sandy says he can laugh because he's gay, while Ali says she was laughing at something else.
• On One Condition: Isla is planning to convert to Judaism before she marries Lev. Until, in "Beshert" a clause is discovered in her father's will, saying that any of the Gordon siblings converting to "Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, or Hinduism" will forfeit everything they received from the family business.
• Only in Florida: The various Floridian traits of the Bugg family, particularly Bonnie, are played up. In "A Special Place in Hell," Bonnie Bugg is introduced as "an opinionated northern Florida momager." She was a Single Mom Stripper, dresses in sequined track suits, (briefly) plotted to murder Isla and frame Lev, and her signature dish is something called "trash bag chicken" which involves a lot of ketchup. Isla casually predicts that Charlize Theron will "get ugly to play her in a movie." Travis's father, the Kissimmee Killer, "was the last man in Florida to get the electric chair," but Bonnie assures Isla that he deserved it.
• Paintball Episode: Not a full episode, but there are a couple of incidents in "The Yips." First, Isla ambushes Ness and Sandy when she suspects one of them leaked a story to commentator Sean Murphy. Not only does she destroy their suits, but in a surprising bit of realism, Ness is having trouble talking later because she shot him directly in the throat. They later demand revenge, which she relucantly allows.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: An online variant. In "The Travis Bugg Affair," Ness reveals to Isla that he has a "burner account" on Twitter under the name "DirtyBoyWave69" which he thinks he can use to discredit the rumors about Isla and Travis. And it might've worked, except that he screwed up and posted from his official account, completely forgetting the disguise.
• Periphery Demographic: Exploited In-Universe by Isla, who realizes that women make up a significant portion of basketball viewers but marketing doesn't reflect this. She obtains a sponsorship for her basketball team from makeup giant Sephora, pointing out that they would be advertising to an untapped market. This deal convinces the board to call off the impending vote of no confidence, allowing her to remain president.
• Prenup Blowup: Isla and Lev come into conflict a few days before their wedding because Lev doesn't want to sign the prenup, which is purposefully restrictive to stop him from making a play on her inheritance. Lev eventually signs it but it doesn't save their relationship.
• Product Placement: Done frequently, and at all scales, often with characters eating or drinking brand-name products that are conspicuously either shown or name-dropped.
  • The Waves play at Microsoft Copilot arena, with the product's logo being shown prominently on the venue's roof as a lead-in to game action scenes. In season 2, it's now the Ally Bank Arena.
  • While Microsoft got marquee sponsorship, desktop and laptop computers are Apple branded, and at least Sandy uses an iPhone, since he shouts his message at Siri when he's trapped in his shower.
  • "Joe Pesci":
    • There's an extended scene in Sephora where Isla claims it's a wonderful and relaxing place where nothing bad happens. She later secures a sponsorship deal from the brand.
    • Isla is riding a Peloton workout in a live session with a personal trainer.
  • In "Doljanchi":
    • Ness gets a drive-thru combo meal of his favorite items from In-N-Out Burger, McDonald's, and Wendy's.
    • Ali complains about her sister-in-law, whose entire personality (and wardrobe) centers on being an Audi owner. She attends the doljanchi wearing an Audi branded visor, and parked her Audi in Isla's reserved parking space.
  • In Season 2 the training court is bedecked in Doordash's logo, and several characters also get Doordash.
  • "New Coach Who Dis" has a long scene in California-based coffeeshop chain Peet's.
• Read the Fine Print: Fine print in her father's will prevents Isla from converting to Judaism, as noted above in On One Condition.
• Rule of Pool: At Isla's engagement party, she, Ness, and Sandy all end up in the swimming pool. It seems unlikely that a "dry cleaning bill" is going to cover the damage done to her designer original dress.
• Running Gag: Isla turns and walks face-first into a plate glass window every time she leaves the team's practice court. Possibly a Visual Pun related to her breaking the "glass ceiling"?
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: A minor instance in Ness's intro. After he ends up in a Philippine prison for "trying to bribe a bouncer at a club with ecstasy," Jack Gordon called in a favor from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to get him released. (Yes, that's Defense, not State intervening, although depending on the time frame, Rumsfeld might've just been acting as an influential private citizen.)
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: During the swimming pool fight in "Beshert," Isla's white dress becomes completely sheer and clings to her body. There are even a couple shots of her elevating her shapely behind out of the water as she dunks Ness.
• Shiksa Goddess: Referenced in one of Lev's engagement party dialogues, where he says he didn't expect to end up with Isla, a "smoking hot shiksa from Brentwood". Isla herself ^note played by Kate Hudson, who was raised Jewish is open to Converting for Love.
• Ship Tease: Done in an understated way, with a minimum of Unresolved Sexual Tension between Isla and Coach Jay Brown, since she is engaged and their relationship is professional. Still, they clearly like each other, as shown in the bar scene in "A Special Place in Hell," and his Shirtless Scene in "The Streak" plays up both his physical attractiveness and the compatibility of their personalities. Comes to a head with their Big Damn Kiss in "Game Seven," when Isla's engagement has been broken off and Jay is planning to leave for Boston.
• Shout-Out:
  • In episode 2, Ali convinces Isla to watch Casino, lending the episode its title, "Joe Pesci."
  • Lev tells Isla that when she's working out, she grunts like Shrek.
  • Sandy decompresses by watching The Crown (2016). When he explains to Ness that it's Tony Blair onscreen, Ness rattles off other Tonys like Stark, Soprano, Danza...
  • In "A Special Place in Hell," Isla develops a grudging respect for Bonnie Bugg, and casually predicts that Charlize Theron will "get ugly to play her in a movie," referencing Theron's role as Floridian serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003).
  • In "Game Seven" Isla asks Jay what the players are into so she can write a good pep talk. To her dismay, he cites "strippers, Call of Duty, John Wick..." She ends up theming it around John Wick and succeeds in hyping them up. They're particularly impressed that "She even saw the third one."
  • In "Triangle of Badness" Sandy sulks that he's going to watch Andor in his room after his house becomes a Bravo set.
  • Sandy mentions a fondness for The Traitors (US) multiple times in the second season.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The Gordon siblings are all very different from each other. Eldest son Cam is a seemingly proper president who turns out to be a major drug addict. Second son Ness is a dudebro who tried going pro abroad and wound up in prison. Only daughter Isla is a reformed party girl. Third son Sandy is an uptight MBA type. Youngest son Jackie is a dopey teen whose existence was only revealed recently, so he's still out of place.
• Slut-Shaming: A well-deserved male example, directed at Jackie. First, in "The Yips," Sofia calls him out as a "scummy ran-through little fuckboy" in front of the entire dance squad. Then in "A Special Place in Hell," when word gets around about his chlamydia. Isla, and Stephen Ramirez, admonish him about his health, his self-respect, respect for others, and the team's image.
• Smash to Black: In "A Special Place in Hell," we get an Isla's-eye-view of Bonnie's fist coming at the camera, then the sound of a punch landing as the screen goes black. Followed a moment later by a shot of Isla holding an ice bag to her eye.
• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: In "The Yips," Marcus's agent, Clint, alternates between profanely tearing into Isla over her (rumored) treatment of his client, and graciously trying to peddle other talent to her.
• Spoof Aesop: In "The Playoffs," Isla is considering whether to let Travis keep playing, or suspend him and send him directly to rehab. She considers a few instances when she has done the wrong thing, harming others for selfish reasons, and inadvertently caused a good outcome. The lesson she takes from this is, "sometimes doing the wrong thing can lead to the right outcome," and decides to let Travis play.
• Stress Vomit: Isla does this at her engagement party in "Beshert," while worrying about how to tell Lev that she can't convert.
• Strike Episode: In "The Strike" Sofia leads the Waves' dance squad in a strike for better working conditions after Isla gives them only token improvements.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Keeping Travis out of rehab and letting him continue to play with an injury, when he has a history of drug problems (having been in rehab twice before), and no one to supervise his medication, ends up going just the way you'd probably expect.
  • Jackie having what is implied to be unprotected sex with numerous random hookups leads to him getting a case of chlamydia. Which makes sense, because if those women were so casual about safety with him, they likely were doing the same thing with others. It could've been much worse, if he'd caught something less curable, or had been baby-trapped. His Humiliation Conga continues as he has to contact his recent partners and confess his status, and Sofia decides she wants nothing to do with him.
• T-Word Euphemism: In "The Streak," several of the more superstitious characters insist on saying "the P-word" instead of "playoffs."
• Those Two Guys: The Sean Murphy Show stars two talking heads who voice the In-Universe fandom reaction to Isla's actions.
• Training Montage: Played for laughs; over several scenes in the third episode, Ali transforms Jackie from a dope who can't transfer phone calls into a fairly competent executive assistant. The focus is on anticipating Isla's needs, which are many, and sometimes odd.
• Uptown Girl: The major issue in Sandy and Charlie's relationship — Sandy doesn't feel like a lowly dog groomer is an appropriate partner for a member of one of Los Angeles' wealthiest families, so he keeps Charlie a secret from his siblings. This eventually causes Charlie to leave him, but after Sandy serenades him in front of 20,000 people, Charlie agrees to get back together with him.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The story is partially based on the life of Jeanie Buss, an executive producer of the series. Her father Jerry Buss was president of National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers until his death in 2013, and Jeanie assumed the position afterwards.
• Wham Line: The first episode ends with the reveal that Jackie is Jack Gordon's son via an extramarital affair.
  Jackie: Let me get this straight. My real dad is dead and he owned the Los Angeles Waves?
• Wham Shot: The final scene of season 1, in "Game Seven," has Isla walking into her office to find Cam sitting at her desk, where he delivers the Wham Line:
  Cam Gordon: Hey, what's up sis? I'm back.
  Isla: (narrating) What the...?
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In "The Playoffs," done inadvertently by Sandy to Jackie, who desperately wants Sandy to like him. After helping him reunite with Charlie, Jackie is very disappointed that Sandy again treats him as an employee, asking him to make a dinner reservation. Jackie brightens up for a moment when Sandy says to make it a reservation for four, only to have his hopes dashed again by Sandy clarifying that he wants to invite Ness and Bituin.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: A couple of characters receive praise for their bad deeds.
  • In "The Playoffs," after she talks to Marcus, Jay, and Ness, Isla is already feeling conflicted over treating Travis as a commodity instead of a person. Although he sincerely means it as a compliment, Isla is visibly disappointed when Sean Murphy tells her that she is "just as much a killer" as her father and brother were.
  • A more humorous example in "A Special Place in Hell." After Ness directs Jackie to the team doctor for his chlamydia, he also gives him a hug and says, "Congrats on all the sex." Jackie's already feeling very ashamed of his bad behavior, and from his body language, Ness's approval doesn't help.