ADVANCE PREVIEW: Disney+’s Big Shot Is No Slam Dunk, But Has Potential
John Stamos returns to the small screen in Disney+’s new series, Big Shot, and the series may not be a slam dunk for everyone. After being kicked out of the NCAA for anger management issues, Coach Marvyn Korn (John Stamos) has run out of options. No longer allowed to coach in the NCAA, Korn refuses to give up on his love of coaching and hopes of returning to the league. Thus, he is given the head coaching position for the girls basketball team at an elite private high school. It’s here where Korn will find his typical attitude and coaching methods met with resistance from his new team. With his dreams of returning to the NCAA slowly running out, he must find a way to adjust to his new life and bring his team together to be the best in the league.
The show is very reminiscent of the show that made Stamos a staple name in households many moons ago, Full House. Each episode is a quick 40-minute story, ending with one or all of the characters learning some valuable life lesson. Though lacking the emotional instrumental music that would follow every life lesson in Full House, no issue is extremely hard-hitting. The audience would not even realize a character is experiencing some kind of issue until it is brought up and solved in those 40 minutes. The audience does not even get enough time to delve into the issue because the show does not spend enough time fleshing out the issues. Everything feels very rushed. This nod to those TGIF days might be a perfect mix for a family looking for an easy watch on a Friday night, but it is definitely not for everyone.
Stamos leads the cast and is, of course, extremely charismatic as Coach Korn. Audience members will easily be able to connect with his character because they most likely have met someone exactly like them at some point in their lives. The only negative with his character is that they never really delve into his anger issues. After three episodes, the audience is still left wondering what his anger really was like when he was on the court with his NCAA team because he shows no shred of it on the high school court.
Joining him on the show is Yvette Nicole Brown as Dean Sherilyn Thomas. So far, her character feels more like a scene filler rather than an actual character. I’m hoping we start to see her more incorporated into the actual story as the season progress.
Sophia Mitri Schloss (Emma), plays Koran’s daughter while Nell Verlaque (Louise), Tiana Le (Destiny), Monique Green (Olive), Tisha Eve Custodio (Mouse), and Cricket Wampler (Samantha) round out the cast as the young ladies playing on Korn’s team. Each character has their own quirks, which some viewers can relate to while the others will most likely have them shaking their heads. No matter the viewer’s opinion, there is no denying that when the whole crew is on screen together those scenes become immediate standouts.
At the end of the day, this show will not be for everyone. It definitely has potential, but older audiences looking for drama filled episodes or laugh out loud moments will not find it with this show. However, fans of the old TGIF line-up and fans looks for something to just veg out to will have no problem sitting down and checking out the series. My only wish is that they had released the series one drop rather than having to wait a week for a new episode. There may not be enough meat in the show to keep people tuning in week after week.