Kate Hudson, Brenda Song, Drew Tarver, Scott MacArthur, and Fabrizio Guido in 'Running Point' Season 2 on Netflix.

Photo by Katrina Marcinowski/Netflix 2025

Netflix scores a win with its basketball comedy Running Point. The Kate Hudson-led series stays in a league of its own, delivering a standout second season loaded with razor-sharp one-liners, a best-in-class ensemble, and scene-stealing cameos.

Creators and executive producers Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen sat down just ahead of the April 23 premiere to break down what sets their comedy apart.

Kaling made one thing clear: they committed early on to classic comedy rather than dramedy trends. “This is not one of those comedy shows that’s basically a drama. This is the opposite.”

Stassen, who also serves as showrunner, said season two finds Hudson’s Isla Gordon fighting to hold onto what she earned in season one, which was becoming president of her family’s basketball empire, the Los Angeles Waves.

“The show is about being underestimated…being the underdog. It feels like Isla is trying to hold on to what she earned in season one,” said Stassen. “She wants to win. She didn’t win in season one, so it was very incomplete. She says in episode two that she doesn't want to be a one-hit wonder.”

The season opens with the return of Justin Theroux’s Cam Gordon, Isla’s brother, who stepped down as team president in season one to enter rehab. He pegged Isla as a safe placeholder, someone who’d fail while he cleaned up and reclaimed his seat. That plan didn't quite pan out.

As Barinholtz put it, to laughs all around, “It’s very sibling rives.”

Isla Gordon’s character is loosely based on Jeanie Buss, who has served as president and CEO of the Los Angeles Lakers. After taking over in 2013 from her father, franchise icon Jerry Buss, she led the team to its 2020 NBA championship, cementing her status as one of the most powerful women in professional sports. She also serves as an executive producer alongside Hudson, who portrays her.

In October, the Buss family trust sold its majority stake in the team to Guggenheim Partners CEO and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter at a $10 billion valuation. The Buss family maintains a minority ownership stake and she remains deeply involved as governor and continues to oversee day-to-day operations.

Buss’s success in a male-dominated world fuels both the comedy and the stakes. Kaling noted that she, Stassen, and Barinholtz identify as feminists. “We want to write characters that are strong, smart, and funny, but also very flawed. We want them to be entertaining, as well.”

The trio, who previously collaborated on The Mindy Project from 2012 to 2017, explained why Buss’s story and a Hudson-led basketball comedy felt like the right fit. As Stassen noted, Hudson was the ideal choice, thanks to her comedic chops and real-life connection to Buss.

“Jeanie came to us many years ago and wanted to do a show based on her life. I mean, of the incredible accomplishments that she has, the thing that I probably admire the most about her is the fact that she is willing to let us examine her life and pull things from it,” said Kaling. “I would never do it in a million years. And she has so much to lose, and I think that’s what makes the show so funny.”

Kaling broke down what makes Isla so watchable. “She’s incredibly ambitious, but she's also vain. She's also a little selfish. She can be a little cheap sometimes, you know? But she's that way because of the way that she was raised. We see all of her bad qualities flare up, but then we see the part of her that is a good person, the part that’s the underdog, and I think that’s the heart of the show.”

Season two ups the ante with standout additions, including Ray Romano as socially awkward but brilliant coach Norm Stinson, and Barinholtz as the Gordons’ hilariously annoying cousin, Bennie.

Asked about joining the cast, Barinholtz admitted he was envious watching season one from the sidelines and was mock-offended by how his character was described.

“Annoying? This is a very serious character with gravitas. Please don’t refer to him as annoying, or stupid, or a clumsy oaf, or a con artist,” he laughed, alongside Kaling and Stassen. It was Kaling, he said, who ultimately suggested he take a role.

“I was like, maybe I could be a love interest kind of romantic thing. Kiss Kate Hudson. And Mindy was like, ‘You’re gonna be a subhuman, a grifter moron whose pants are falling down because he has so much candy in them.’ I gotta tell you, I’m still going to figure out a way to hook up with Kate on the show, even though the characters are cousins,” Barinholtz teased.

Kaling leaned into the joke. “Ike is so funny on the show, and I know, like, listen, he’s a handsome guy. We can all tell he’s a cool guy. He’s a handsome guy. He’s wearing Dior; he's friends with Jonathan Anderson (Dior’s creative director). We get it. We get it, Ike. But on this show, he's cousin Bennie. Okay?”

On a more serious note, Kaling praised Barinholtz’s range, comparing him to comedy heavyweights like Steve Carell and Emma Thompson. “I know he can do drama and be a leading man. He could do all that. But it is so much rarer to find someone who can be truly funny.”

Hudson and Brenda Song, who plays Isla’s best friend and colleague, Ali Lee, shared their perspective in a separate interview. After years of film work, Hudson relishes the shift to TV.

Fresh off an Oscar nomination for her role in the musical biopic Song Sung Blue, where her vocals earned her critical praise, Hudson shows off her dance moves in Running Point this season.

“Oh, my God, it's so fun. How did I get so lucky? I love doing comedy because it requires a playfulness and an intelligence at the same time that is specific to certain people,” she said. “I've been having a great time.”

As for where season two goes, she said it builds on the foundation already laid in season one. “Having all that runway to explore is something I’ve never experienced, and I've been having a great time doing it.”

Song echoed the sentiment. “Not only are we making something that I genuinely love, and I’m so proud to be a part of, but we have such a good time making it. When you're working with the caliber of actors that I'm surrounded by, where everyone is so good at improv, the bar is so high,” she said, adding that the environment keeps her sharp. “I always say Kate is the best scene partner because she's so generous, and she pushes you, and she questions you, and she makes you really think.”

The dramedy boom isn’t going anywhere, but Running Point isn’t playing that game. It ditches that playbook and sticks to what it does best: full-court unapologetic comedy.

Corrected, April 23: This article has been updated to reflect Jeanie Buss’s current role with the Los Angeles Lakers.