The Prestige TV Podcast - Inspiration in 'Last Chance U: Basketball'

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

Logan Murdock and Shea Serrano discuss the newest season of 'Last Chance U' and break down the emotional season of college basketball. They discuss their favorite characters, what it means to be a great coach, and the dramatic conclusion to the season. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Shea Serrano Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't put on the show! You win the game! Don't put on the show! Freaking win the game! Welcome to East Los Angeles College. Huskies basketball. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission.

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Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon, corn salsa, 40 grams of protein, made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. What's probably, man? Welcome to TV concierge, a podcast on the ringer.com that helps you navigate the vast streaming landscape. I read that off of the prompter. Thank you. Stephen.

If you don't know this voice, this is Logan. Stephen. And I am here with Shea Serrano. It's like if Drew Down and Pimsy did a podcast about television, this is literally what this would be about. Shea was popping, bro. How are you, sir? Logan. I am good, man.

I am good. I am good. Thundercat won a Grammy, so I'm happy. How are you doing? Thundercat is so good. Did you listen to the chop, not slot version of Drake Tate? I did. I did.

I listened to them changes all the time on that one. Shout out to all my people in Texas, man, with the- the chop not slap all of that movement, bro. I love their Don Tolliver. I mean, this is really off the rails right now. That's the chop stars, baby. Shout out to the chop stars. So good.

The air appearance to DJ Screw. We're here on TV concierge to talk about the last chance you, the East L.A. College with, um, it was, it was such a, it was really good. I binge watched it this weekend. I watched like six episodes in one day. I was exhausted after I watched. it, but it was a really good watch. It was a solid watch. I wouldn't say it was the best, but it was definitely

better than some seasons. What was your takeaway? This is my favorite last chance of your season that we've had. Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which one is your favorite? It's the problematic white guy. That's your favorite, isn't it? Is that guy? Which problematic white guy? There's a couple problematic white guys. The tall cussing one. I don't remember his name. The tall cussing problematic white guy? That's like every season.

But are you talking about the blue team? Was that the blue team? that was in like Kansas or something, that guy was for sure. I got a lot of like the one that was from LA but moved to like Kansas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a little weird. I can't lie. So I'm happy to see a black coach. So yeah, I think this was as far as coaching, this is probably the best one.

This is my favorite season that they've had. I was so excited. I mean, obviously I love basketball more than I love football, so that's part of it. But also, I just really, the kids were great. There was no, there was no. like big drop off at any point of the season. You know, usually they, so the way this, this series is structured is they'll highlight a different person for each episode, for the most part.

There's like, here's the main character. We're going to sort of bounce around them. And there was at no point during that where there was one person who I was less interested in learning about. It was great. Every single time they teed up an episode, I was excited to, to learn about it. The coach, as you mentioned, was just good energy. Coach Joe Mosley.

Coach Moes got to be with Moes or you got to get out. Like just good, it was so great to not watch a guy just cussing at a bunch of children for eight hours or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like he was digging him up, but he was digging him up in a way where it was clear that this was not a job that he had taken to get to another spot. This was a job that Coach Moes took because that's where God placed him. And I was all for it. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. Yeah.

Yeah, what's great about this, I have a great appreciation for coaches who curse you out without saying curse words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, he dropped one end bomb the whole season that that's when you knew he was really frustrated. But other than that, like, he was saying freaking and he was saying mother freak. Like, I was like, that's so great restraint as a coach. And you don't even realize it. I didn't realize it until they make that a point of one of the like parts of the episode. They talk specifically about that.

And then it's great to watch him out there like, oh, that's a strong, that's a strong rascal or like doing whatever. And then they cut the Deshawn, who is my favorite player of the whole season, they cut the Deshaun on the sideline commenting on it. And he's like making jokes like, oh, that's a cold sucker. Right. Like, it was great. It was like all, like, I just loved all of the people involved. Shea, who was your favorite character on the show? Deshawn is my number one.

I just, I just really. I think it's because I'm a dad, because this has definitely been something that's changed in my life. But I love to watch a person who has decided that they are going to just get done what needs to be done. He was so smart. He was so mature. The way that he talked about stuff lets you know that he had lived through some, like, very, very difficult times that made him reflect on himself as a person. Because he talked specifically about some of the things. and it'd be like, man, this was very difficult for me.

This was like the worst time of my life. I was like this. I was like, just the way that he, that he addressed all of the situations made me care a great deal about him. I just, that was my favorite guy. That was not yours, was it. It was my favorite guy was Coach Mosley, man. It was, it was coach Mosley. Moses is great.

He was a, he teaches spin class during the day, right? He comes into his office with the little headset on, the 24-hour fitness. headset that you see every time you go into the gym, came through with that. And the fact that he didn't curse the whole season shows how great of a man he is because he was going through some real stuff. He was going through some real stuff with this coach. The thing that I really appreciated about the coach and also by extension the rest of the series was they did a great job of manifesting suspense when suspense really wasn't there.

Right. They're up 25 points and I think it's a nail. bider. I think that it's going to go down to the wire. I go look at the scoreboard. They are up 75 points in a game. And I think they did a really good job of keeping things in perspective because I thought that they lost every single time. I thought that was fascinating. Well, how did you feel about Joe, Joe Hampton? Joe Hampton. I was waiting to the end to talk about this, but let's get to it right now. Let's get into it. This is supposed to be 15 minutes. We're going to be in here for 45 minutes. I'm just to tell you right now because I have a ton of questions.

Steve, do what you got to do is going to be a special edition. This is going to be an hour and a half episode. Get on that one. How I feel about Joe Hampton. We all have Joe Hamptons in our lives, especially, you know, when we're in community college and just someone who hasn't been able to figure it out, but really means well, you know? And I kept going back and forth on whether I liked him or not.

I think ultimately I ended up liking him. But he quit on his team like 87. times. Like every game he quit on his team, every single game. And everybody's trying to convince me that he's a great teammate, that he is great for the team. He's always showing high fives. I never saw that in this episode in this whole series. I just saw him saying, really? I saw him say, sub me out. I hate this. I saw him walk out of practice every week. I saw him leave for three or four days on end. And he quit and, front of D1 coaches. I wasn't, I was very conflicted because I know like, yo, he's, it's gotten a lot for

him to get to this point. And I can't imagine being at the top of your game from a high school perspective, playing against Ben Simmons, playing with Dwayne Bacon, and then it not working out for you and you find yourself in Los Angeles after getting in trouble and trying to even get to this point as a step. But man, there was a lot of immaturity in that and Joe. And I hope that he finds peace. man, because he's going through a lot. You know, I just think that, you know, he's going through a lot, and I think that's why I like him. But I would not have wanted to, based on what I saw,

I probably wouldn't have wanted to be his teammate. If he's going to quit every single time and leave, and I don't know what he's going to come back, I'd be very frustrated with him. What do you think? Maybe. I feel like when the season started, and they start with going through his episode,

I thought, okay, this is going to be the guy that they're going to set up as, like, this guy's ruining it and you're not going to like this person. I thought that's what it was. But by, you know, three or four episodes in, I could feel it turning the opposite way, especially when they went through his history and you learn like, this is the thing I learned as a teacher. Anytime you have a kid who shows up and the kid is just whiling out for whatever reason, there's a reason they're doing that.

And it's not because of you. It's because of some other stuff that has happened up to that point. And that's all I could see whenever I watched. Whenever I watch Joe have a hard time, I feel like the reason he is doing this is because of all of this other stuff that has happened. And it made me like him more. I thought the best part for him and one of the best moments of the whole season is when they tee up, they tee up Coach Ken in the wheelchair. I love coach. Actually, I want to just make an amendment.

Coach Ken is my favorite character in this whole thing. That's a great pick because they save him, right, until you get coached. He's in a wheelchair. For like, for like eight straight up. I'm like, why is he in a wheelchair? Come on to explain why he's in a wheelchair. So they like tee up the Coach Ken thing and they're like, Coach Ken is invaluable to the program.

He really knows how to talk to the kids. This and that. And this is the thing that you see people do all the time. They're like, oh, this person knows how to get through to somebody. And you're like, yeah, okay. That just means this person. It's always an OG in a wheelchair, though. It's always an OG in a wheelchair.

That just means this person doesn't like have a real role. And you're just saying that to be nice. But then they say that about Coach Ken. And then we say that. We watch it happen. We finally get to see it happen in real time. Joe, he gets frustrated. He decides he's leaving.

He walks out. He goes to the locker room. He's like, stop filming me. He's putting his regular clothes back on. They take Coach Ken back there. We follow along. We watch Coach Ken talk Joe Hampton back into his uniform. Like, just in the middle of nothing, he's just like celebrating Joe and like telling him he

understands being very empathetic. It just felt genuine. the way he was talking to him. This guy cares about this person, and he cares about him for a reason. He's talking to him. Joe, without even realizing it, or maybe he does realize it, he just, like, takes his regular clothes back off, starts putting his stuff back on. And Coach Ken is like, come on, let's go back out there.

And then Joe's like, all right, cool. And then he tells him, hold that door for me. And he comes out. And then Joe grabs the chair and, like, that's the last thing we see. And you're like, I fucking love this guy. I love Joe Hampton. I love this whole cast. Man, it was so much.

it was so much fun to watch this whole season. We're going to spoil a bunch of stuff right now. So if you have not watched it, turn it off because you need to watch it without having anything spoiled. So you have three seconds to do that. And now we're going to talk about the ending because goddamn. Okay, so before we get to that, I would let your perspective on teaching Joe is very, like being a teacher as you see a former teacher watching Joe is really interesting. Before we get to the ending, at what. point do you see Joe when you're like, okay, I have to help this kid and I'm not going to give up

on this kid. What kind of mindset do you have to have because you know he's going to keep messing up? You know he's going to keep messing up. He's going to disappoint you a lot. What keeps you there like Coach Mos. Well, because Coach Bose went into it knowing that that's what he was going to have to do. There's never going to be a spot where you just totally fix somebody or like alleviate all of their problems because that's not what you're there to do. You're not there to do that. You're just there to make this person feel like you like having them around and you appreciate what they're able to contribute to whatever it is that they're contributing to. So when I imagine Coach Mos went into it and he knew for the entirety of this season, this will be part of my job is handling the Joe Hampton blowups.

And then we saw it at the end. Joe is very sincere about it. He was like, man, thank you for not giving up on me. That's all I needed was for somebody to not give up on me. When he said that, like, that's what you do it for it for that one moment right there. Did you shed some thug tears? Did you shed some thug tears? Listen, I didn't cry on that part. I usually don't cry what I'm watching a lot of TV stuff. And like, not like actual tear will come out. I get, my eyes get watery all the time. Sure. Like if there's like a long hug, my, my eyes will get watery. But when, when they had the Deshawn episode and he was walking us through all of the stuff that happened with his mother. And he gets to the part about, you know, there's a thousand six foot

two basketball players and I have to be perfect just to even be seen or whatever. We're doing that whole thing. Like I like three or four actual tears came out of my eyes watching that. And then especially we got the big payoff when we see him take over the game and he gets that, he gets that great steal and the layup. And then later on in the season when they have the big comeback and he does the big celebration, I'm like, God, dog, I just got me. You know my favorite thing about coaching? in basketball and sports in general is constructive shit talking, right? And you get a lot of that with Deshaun. You get a lot of that with him yelling at the refs and yelling at his coaches

and the coaches yelling back. And it's still love afterwards. I really respect that. And where there was a lot of times for coaches that would be insecure to say, oh, I'm kicking Deshaun off the team. No, you don't do that. You need that edge. You need that edge and you need, you know, as long as there's respect, you need that edge.

And I like that from Deshaun, man. He was one of my favorite characters. He was a G. He was a G. And I had a fun time watching him. Now, you did bring this up about COVID and the ending, right? It seemed like, I don't know about for you, but for me, the whole season of Last Chance to you was literally, it felt like a countdown to COVID, right?

Like, they're having all the great times and then you see January go, And then you're like, they don't know this, but COVID's about to hit, right? February comes. They don't quite know this yet, but COVID's about to hit. Even when March comes around, it seems like, okay, it made me relive a lot of the things in my life right before COVID hit. How did that make you feel as you were watching this, watching this? Listen, I was so far in on the show because I did like you as soon as I started it. I started it late one night.

and I was like, I got to finish this. I watched seven of the eight episodes or whatever it was, the last seven, all in one day. I just like, I needed to see it. So I was so far in, and I was so invested in the playoffs because they're doing the playoff tick down, the tick down counter thing. I was so into it that I didn't even, that this was going to be ended early because of COVID was not something I even thought about until they give you the one shot where you see the hallway and there's a hand sanitizer right there.

And that's when I was like, oh, shit. Oh, I forgot about this. And then they do like in a Sean of the Dead style where in the background on the TV, you see like a coronavirus update. And you're like, oh, they're in that world. Like I had no idea what I was doing. I'm going to tell you exactly what happened because I started watching the last few episodes Laramie joined me.

And I'm going. And this always happens where it's like they're saying, okay, we have to win five games to win the state championship. And I'm like, okay, cool. what episode are we on? Oh, we're on episode seven. There's no way they can cover five games in these last two episodes, which means they're going to lose at some point in the playoffs. So they tee up, and the second to last episode is when we get the first playoff game, and they're losing big, and then the next one starts, and they come back and they win, and you're like, they figured it out. They snapped it all together here because the one,

the one where you have watching this team is that they're going to implode. Deshawn and Joe are going to get into a big fight, and it's going to drag everybody else down or whatever. but they get down early in that playoff game, they're losing. They should lose, but they go on the 9-0 run or whatever it was to start the second half and they end up winning. And you're like, oh, they like each other now. This is what's supposed to happen. We're going to win it.

And then you realize, oh, there's no way we're going to get through the rest of these games in time. I thought they were going to lose. I wasn't even thinking about coronavirus. And then it happened. And I was like, you've got to be fucking kidding me. For seven hours, I was able to completely forget about coronavirus. and then it jumps back up into

my TV, I was so fucking mad about it. I was so disappointed. I was so sad for the kids, for coach. Like, come on, come on. We can't get a break. I mean, the last scene in the bus,

when Coach Rob runs into Coach Mosley, when Mosley's coming on the bus, and Moose is trying to keep it together. And then he just breaks apart when he sees the team. He can't even wait to tell the team that it's over. He tells the coaches first, like, we can't, it's over, it's over. And then coach Rob, who was also probably one of the most underrated characters on this show, to be honest. He's probably one of the, it's great.

And then he delivers the news, and then it winds up being one last powwow at the end. It was a great sobering ending to that whole thing, right? Because they start going down memory lane, right? And it was during this time in COVID where you know that it's there, but we're not fully in like the, the new restrictions aren't in place yet. It's just in, we're just in the abyss right now. It's like this purgatory where, you know, you don't know if like how to even test for COVID or if you can get it. But you just know everything is canceled.

And they're talking and they're going one down memory lane. And then I just started getting a little sad because these guys felt like the forgotten athletes, right? Because D1 college is going to figure this out. Yeah, they canceled, but they're going to figure this out. They're going to continue to play. And then you see at the end, community college, they're not going to play for the next season. And that's a lot of guys who have their sophomore season put on hold. And a lot of their futures put on hold because, and this is supposed to be their second chance.

So it got really sad towards the end, you know, with the community college aspect of it. And a lot of these guys also with recruiting, they don't get to see coaches, man. They don't get to see. They have to zoom people. They don't have to take visits. It was really rough to end. but it was crazy to see how that powwow was where they were like, yeah, man,

this was the best team I ever had. It was like a movie, Shea. It was literally like a movie, like a Disney movie or something. Yeah, they're all just in the locker room crying with each other. I don't know who they were going to play in those last couple of games, San Francisco or whatever is who they were headed towards.

San Francisco City, yeah, yeah. I'm just going to, we're just going to declare their state champions. I don't care what anybody else says. Nobody was beating that team. Nobody was getting on the court. They finally started to like each other, Shea. They finally started to like each other. Oh, I want to want it.

It was great. I didn't think I was going to like it. Wait, why didn't you think you were going to like it? I didn't think it was going to like it because I'll be real with you. And this is an overarching thing that I feel about last chance to you. It gets a bit redundant, right? The same kind of characters exist and in a different space, right? And it was starting to get stale for me.

And then I came into it with that mind. set. And then as soon as I kept going and gradually going into new episodes, it started to, I started to fall back in love again. Can I tell you something? That's sort of the point of the show, Logan. That's sort of the point of the show is that these same characters exist in this world, in perpetuity. And there's nothing that can be done about it outside of the occasional one or two people escapes. Like it's supposed to be, here's a bad situation. And here's, us just trying to make the best of it. Here are the good people in it.

You know what I like the most about the football versions of Last Chance You? Is there was always in each of the seasons, there was always a couple of teachers involved who just were doing everything they could to help the kid. They just love these kids. They love these players. They love their students. And that to me is like,

oh, that's the good part of the show, watching them away from like, away from the field or away from the games or whatever. I thought the best, like the overall, best episode, the best I felt at any point was when they went on the little retreat together, the camping trip. Oh, in the woods, yes. And they're all just hanging out and they're doing a fucking, they're doing a puzzle.

And then they have their, they have their, like, debate class thing or their debate activity, and they're all playing. And then they finally get to pretend to be Coach Moes. And they all are just, everybody just felt great and good. Like, that's what we're looking for here, those little, those little moments there. It's not a coincidence that they had their biggest one of the season a few weeks after that. Yeah. That's when they bonded.

It was great, man. And we didn't make some t-shirts, man, about for this school, man. The state champs? They won the stage champs. I will wear one, bro. What are we doing? What are we doing, man? That's like the second most egregious, like, non-title winning team.

It's like the women's organ ducks and then the East L.A. team. That sounds right. We're going to give the Sabrina UNESCO, Oregon Ducks, the national championship. They weren't allowed to finish the job, but they would have won it anyway. So there you go. All right. Thanks for listening. You can find me, Logan Murdoch, every Monday and Thursday on The Real Ones Podcast.

Where can we find you, Shea, Sharano? I'm also, I'm the new co-host of the Real Ones podcast. So you find me on Mondays and Thursdays on that show with Roger Bell and Logan Murdoch. Okay, cool, cool. We will see you guys later this one. week for more TV concierge.