Stream It Or Skip It: 'Mr. Throwback' on Peaco*ck, a comedy about a schlub who reconnects with his junior high teammate Stephen Curry (2024)

Sometimes we’re pleasantly surprised by a show, especially when we see the premise of a particular series and roll our eyes. A new Peaco*ck comedy had that eye-rolling potential, given the fact that it’s in the too-tired mockumentary format and stars NBA megastar Stephen Curry. But we actually found a show that’s got some potential.

MR. THROWBACK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We hear a basketball bouncing. Then Stephen Curry walks dribbles into the frame and approaches the camera. “This is the story of one of the most dominant basketball players of all time,” he tells the camera, then makes a turnaround jump shot.

The Gist: Curry actually isn’t talking about himself, or any other NBA legends. He’s talking about Danny Grossman (Adam Pally). In junior high, “Danny was so good, I was his backup,” says Curry. But, as we see in this mockumentary format, Danny didn’t grow up and become an NBA superstar. He now owns a sports memorabilia store called Mr. Throwback, and it’s been a year since his now ex-wife Samantha (Ayden Mayeri) divorced him.

We also see his Instagram marketing videos; in one of them, a thug comes up and punches him in the jaw. As the camera rolls, we find out that Danny owes some loan sharks around $90,000 and he has one day to get the money. Danny claims he did it all for his teenage daughter Charlie (Layla Scalisi), but we’re not sure exactly why.

Apparently, the reason why Danny didn’t go on to the pros is that his hard-driving father Mitch (Tracy Letts), who was the team’s coach, pretended that Danny was 12 when he was really fourteen-and-a-half. Danny’s life has been one long crapshow since.

To get out of his jam, Danny decides to get in touch with Curry, even though they haven’t seen each other in 25 years. He finagles his way into the tunnel at the United Center in Chicago, where the Warriors are playing the Bulls, and Danny finds Curry, trailed by Kimberly Gregg (Ego Nwodim), the CEO of Curry Up And Wait Productions. There’s also a film crew and director named Lucy (Tien Tran), whom Curry hired to follow him around.

Danny used to hang out with Curry and Kimberly back in junior high, and joking around with them again keeps him for out and out asking Curry to bail him out. So he decides to swipe Curry’s game-used jersey. But when Curry and Kimberly catch him in the act, Danny makes up an illness for Charlie, even showing them a picture of her in a hospital gown. Right there and then Curry says they should set up an all-star charity basketball game to raise money for Charlie.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There are dozens of mockumentary series we could compare Mr. Throwback to, but there is a bit of a meta format to it that made us immediately think of another Peaco*ck series, Paul T. Goldman.

Our Take:

One of the factors is that EPs David Caspe, Daniel Libman and Matthew Libman got the best out of Pally when they all worked together on Happy Endings, and a decade or so later, they still know when to let Pally go and when not to (David Wain directed the series, and Curry and Pally are also EPs). As much as this show will get publicity because of Curry, Pally’s Danny Grossman is the character the story will revolve around, and Pally brings his signature combination of freneticism, desperation, and physical daring to the roll.

The other good bit of casting was bringing Nwodim on as Kimberly. Curry is OK playing himself, making fun of his desire to be a multimedia superstar before his basketball career is even over, but having the SNL vet to play off of makes Curry’s lack of comedic timing a bit less critical. Nwodim can elicit a big laugh with just a look, so having here there to react to both Curry’s underacting and Pally’s sometimes flop sweaty energy brings a balance to the show that wouldn’t be there if it was just Pally and Curry.

Does Mr. Throwback provide wall-to-wall laughs? No, but there are enough moments that hit that make us think that the show is at least going to be watchable. And as the story of Danny faking his way through this charity game continues to spiral out of control, we hope the hit rate will get even higher.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: As we see scenes from later episodes, in true docuseries style, Kimberly tells the director, “Sundance, here we come. Let’s go.”

Sleeper Star: Tracy Letts is another smart bit of casting, playing Danny’s smarmy dad Mitch, who excuses away his behavior with Danny to his various addictions and says lame dad lines like “why don’t you buy me dinner first?” as a crew member puts a microphone on him.

Most Pilot-y Line: Samantha, while telling Danny to take responsibility for his mistakes instead of constantly blaming his father, says, “My dad set himself on fire in front of me and I’ve mentioned it maybe twice?” Then in the talking head she says it was his twin brother and her father is still missing. It’s one of the more outlandish lines in the episode, which mostly tried to keep things a bit more real.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Does Mr. Throwback have the potential to fly off the rails? Absolutely. But the show’s creators have decided to keep the goings on relatively low-key, which actually makes the show funnier than it should be.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.