Ballers is finally on Netflix, as it always should have been

One summer I watched between 10 to 30 episodes Ballers, HBO’s comedy-drama starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a former NFL player turned pro athlete financial manager. I don’t remember how long it took me, nor could I tell you much about those 30 episodes, which passed through me as if I were a sieve. One doesn’t really “watch” Ballers. You can also click here to find out more about One You can also find out more about Ballers. BallerLife, they say.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s favorite show is now on Netflix, part of a select wave of series making the leap from HBO’s premium catalog to rub shoulders with us plebes in the Big N’s peanut gallery. It’s a big change, both financially and culturally. Ballers fits right in with Netflix’s wide swathe of shows you can fold laundry to. It’s lifestyle porn, a hangout show with dramatic hooks, EntourageIf anyone is on EntourageEver had to solve a real issue?

Johnson portrays Spencer Strasmore as a Miami Dolphins star whose career was cut short due to an injury. Spencer, like many real athletes who end their professional careers, is forced to pivot. Spencer, who is no longer on the playing field, but still in the sport, decides to reinvent his career as a financial manager for professional athletes to ensure they are paid. Stay informedThey are paid after they have finished playing. Here is where I interrupt briefly my recommendation. BallerExcellent! Thirty for thirty: brokeIt is a must-see for any sports fan.

Ballers is largely about Spencer’s rise up the ranks in the business world, as he translates his athletics grindset and stamina for partying to the work of courting and coaching hot young players like Ricky Jerret (Tenet’s John David Washington) through a minefield of off-season hazards. Like most characters on Ballers, the viewer is lured in by The Rock’s nuclear charisma, and kept there by the show’s sensational antics (parties, suits, sex) and its grittier subplots (Spencer’s painkiller addiction, which threatens to send him plummeting to rock bottom with every success).

Walk in on any episode of Ballers and it’s fairly obvious that none of the show’s heavier subplots will really stick — at least not to Spencer. Ballers is a show that’s always living in the moment, where everything is as Baller or Not Baller as it’s ever going to be. Ironically, Ballers’ ephemeral-feeling storytelling is a direct mirror of its text, full of men who need to be pushed to think a little bit beyond what’s right in front of them. This is also what makes it the perfect Dwayne Johnson vehicle.

On camera and off, Johnson is the man of The Moment. And if The Moment is over, like with Black Adam? He’ll just make a new one. That is the Spencer Strasmore ethos, a role so perfectly suited for Johnson that it circles back towards actually being a creation of Johnson’s; perhaps the last role he actually acted in before his career became characterized by uncomplicated action heroes. He is the engine that drives the show, and how much you like Ballers will entirely depend on how much you want to let him take your Netflix queue for a ride as you simply vibe to five seasons of Dwayne smizing.

Like I said, very little of this show will likely linger in your mind. You’ll just remember that it happened to you: A dizzying haze of suits and shades and Dwayne Johnson’s megawatt smile. Boardrooms and dramatic phone calls from sports cars. Television as narcotic and sedative, an upper and a downer flushed down with sugar free Red Bull on a summer night you can’t quite remember. The summer you watched Ballers.

Ballers is now streaming on Netflix in addition to Max.