He has his work cut out for him. note
A Disney+ original sports dramedy series created by David E. Kelley of Big Little Lies fame that stars John Stamos. Brad Garrett and Dean Lorey co-created and serve as executive producers on the series alongside Kelley. It premiered on April 16, 2021, with episodes airing weekly every Friday. In September 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 12, 2022. Unlike season 1, which was released in a weekly fashion, season 2 was dropped entirely at once.
After his temper leads to him being axed from his college basketball team and with his reputation in tatters, coach Marvyn Korn (Stamos) is given one more shot at restoring his image but at an all-girls school by coaching their basketball team. Hilarity Ensues.
Tropes include:
- Aborted Arc: Marvyn being required to see school counselor George Pappas is dropped in season 2; George makes no new appearances otherwise.
- Alliterative Family: The Gruzinsky Family all their names start with the letter "L," there is Larry, Lillian, Louise and Lucas.
- Alliterative Name: Trevor Thomas initials are "T.T." because both his first and last start with the letter "T."
- Aloof Leader, Affable Subordinate: Marvyn and Holly initially have this dynamic towards the team, with Marvyn not really wanting to connect with them since he viewed Westbrook as just a pit stop and Holly being the familiar assistant who knows them well. He warms up to them over time though.
- Ambiguously Bi: Giggles may or may not have fooled around with Mouse but mentions she has a boyfriend and they love each other.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Harper begins work on a video profile about Korn, it initially looks like it's going to be a hit piece where she'll employ Manipulative Editing of the player interviews to make him look bad. It winds up being a well researched and balanced profile that offers several different perspectives of Korn throughout his career and ultimately allows viewers to draw their own opinion of him based on what was presented.
- Break the Haughty:
- Korn starts off thinking that having to be an assistant coach for a girl's school is an insult to one of the winningest coaches ever. His agent has to spell out for him that no college is ever going to hire a guy who hit a ref during a game and this is the best he can do.
- Louise has to handle her status taking a hit when her family loses its money and her dad is arrested.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Emma does this in "Beth MacBeth", using her closing monologue as Lady MacDuff to call out Marvyn for interviewing with UCSB. She even points her prop sword at him as she delivers the last line, making it clear that she knows what he's been up to and isn't happy about it.
- Casting Gag: This isn't the first time that Sophia Mitri Schloss has played a character named Emma in a show centered around a school sports team.
- Chekhov's Gun: In "Beth MacBeth", Olive has set up her phone to record a segment for her "Road to DII" series when Marvyn tells her to stop filming. As Olive never turned the phone off, it ends up recording Marvyn's comment about it being good to work with college players again. Watching the recording is how Emma and the team find out he's thinking about leaving Westbrook for UC Santa Barbara.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Most of the adult staff of Westbrook - George, Ms. Grint, and Miss Goodwin - do not appear at all in the second season. Miss Goodwin understandably so, as she and Marvyn break up at the end of season 1. George's plotline of counseling sessions with Marvyn is dropped entirely and not at all mentioned. Ms. Grint is mentioned once, but never seen.
- Clockwork Prediction: In "Carlsbad Crazies," Holly exploits Carlsbad coach McCarthy's tendency to run the same play in the final seconds of a close game when drawing up her own play, having previously played under her in high school. This leads to Samantha stealing the ball and making the game-winning lay-up at the buzzer.
- Defrosting the Ice Queen: Ava starts off season two entirely dismissive of her basketball teammates and the school. By the end of the season, she's become close friends with the girls and much kinder.
- Dream Sequence: Marvyn has one while he's grappling over whether or not to take the UCSB offer.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In-Universe. Having killed Harper's character Beth MacBeth, Emma closes the play with the lines "So end all who would make this foul choice/Forsaking family and friendship for power and position." All the while she's pointing her prop sword directly at Marvyn, who's thinking about leaving Westbrook for the UCSB coaching job.
- Fish out of Water: The whole premise of the show is Korn having to coach at an all-girls school and how he has to readjust to his new job as well as the school's own set of rules.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Harper becomes jealous over Emma getting a role in the school play. Especially awkward given her mother is the theatre director and is dating Korn.
- Later reversed when Harper gets the lead role over Emma when it unexpectedly becomes vacant and Emma suspects nepotism was involved.
- Hustling the Mark: Done, minus the wager, by Korn to teach the girls a lesson about underestimating their opponents in "Everything To Me": He challenges them to play 5-on-1 against a woman struggling to so much as sink a basket at a local court. The woman handily defeats them, revealing herself to be a highly skilled player who was there at Korn's request. She tells the girls that she would have given anything to have been coached by Korn and advises them to listen to him.
- Inside Job: The "Kalm Korn" meme account, which Marvyn wasn't fond of and thought was a distraction for the team, was run by Olive and Samantha.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Korn is far from a nice guy, but he has a right to be angry about one of the teachers scheduling a mandatory lecture for his players outside of class hours that conflicts with the team's practice schedule without discussing it with him. Even Dean Thomas agrees with him and forces the teacher to relent.
- In "This Is Our House", Holly gives Louise a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about her attitude, pointing out that she stuck her neck out to protect Louise and deserves better than the way Louise is treating her in return. Given what Louise is going through, it does come off as harsh, but she's also right that Louise's actions are no way to treat the people who care about her. Louise eventually realizes this and goes to Holly's house to apologize.
- Killed Offscreen: In "TCKS", Marvyn Korn gets a call that his father passed away for an unknown reason. Marvyn's father never made an appearance before his death but Marvyn had mentioned him a few times.
- Last-Name Basis: Marvyn Korn is often referred to as "Coach Korn" or just "Korn." Marvyn Korn sometimes refers to Louise as "Gruzinsky."
- Lipstick Lesbian: Mouse and Harper.
- Love Triangle: Two in the second season:
- First involves new student Nick Russo, who dates both Louise and Ava (without either of them knowing).
- Then there's Holly, Marvyn, and Holly's ex-husband trying to re-enter the picture.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: In "Everything to Me" Destiny finds out when she overhears Angel and Christina's conversation in the kitchen that Angel, who she was raised to believe is her aunt, is actually her biological mother that gave her up.
- Meaningful Name: Giggles earned her nickname due to her PBA causing her to laugh at awkward moments.
- The Missus and the Ex: Samantha used to date Louise's brother before he got together with Emma. However, the girls end up getting along well after some initial awkwardness and jealousy.
- My Brother Is Off-Limits!: Subverted. When Emma and Louise simultaneously realize that the guy that Emma met on her first day in town is also Louise's brother, it looks for a second like this might become a point of contention between them, but Louise isn't bothered by it.
- Nepotism: Defied in the case of Harper and Maggie, as the latter made it a point not to give the former preferential treatment on account of them being mother and daughter.
- One-Gender School: Westbrook is an all-girls, private high school in La Jolla, California.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Because of her Overly Long Name, Carolyn prefers to go by her nickname "Mouse" (Harper gets an exception though). Averted for Samantha, who's never called "Giggles" after the first episode.
- Parental Neglect: Downplayed, as he clearly does love her, but Korn isn't completely attentive to Emma's needs when she first comes to live with him, due to focusing on his coaching job. He puts off spending time with her in order to watch game footage instead, seemingly not realizing that the reason she wanted to live with him was so they could have more time together, and he messes up when ordering her school uniform so that it doesn't arrive in time for her first day. He also dismisses her discomfort with living in a hotel, seemingly not grasping that just because he finds it acceptable doesn't mean that she would enjoy it. To his credit, he does come to his senses about this pretty quickly.
- Parental Substitute:
- Korn becomes this to Destiny, filling the void her father left behind. This even helps her bond with his biological daughter Emma.
- He also becomes this to Louise, who explicitly states that she thinks of him as more of a father to her than her actual father.
- Realizing that he's become this to the team in general motivates Marvyn to turn down the UCSB offer to stay at Westbrook.
- Holly becomes one for Emma.
- Prestige Peril: In "Carlsbad Crazies", Louise realizes that while having her family's name on the gym might come with nice perks, it also comes with additional pressures, especially once the student body turns against her. This eventually motivates her to sign the petition to rename the gym.
- Replacement Flat Character: Jason and Travis, the two players from UCSB that Korn meets, are set up as this to Louise and Mouse, respectively.
- Role-Ending Misdemeanor: In-Universe example; Korn's firing from the University of Wisconsin for throwing a chair during a game.
- Scholarship Student: Marvyn gives the scholarship intended for recruiting a star player to Olive instead after it's revealed her parents can barely afford to send her to Westbrook.
- Ship Tease:
- Surprisingly averted between Korn and Holly. Despite having the making of having a Belligerent Sexual Tension, the two's relationship remains strictly professional. Interestingly he ends up getting into a relationship with the school's drama teacher, Miss Goodwin, instead. That is, until season two when the two kiss and are implied to begin dating at the end of the season.
- Mouse and Harper fit it more traditionally. They eventually become an Official Couple.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Olive meets a boy named Jake from Carlsbad at Emma's party, and they grow close despite being from rival schools.
- The Friend No One Likes: Harper is disliked by the team and Emma due to her arrogance, but is tolerated due to her relationship with Mouse.
- Title Drop: In "Carlsbad Crazies" when Coach McCarthy first meets Marvyn Korn she calls him "Big Shot." In "Beth MacBeth, Korn is referred to as a "Big Shot" by Coach McCarthy in her call with Holly, where she offers to hire Holly as her successor as Carlsbad head coach upon her upcoming retirement.
- Toppled Statue: Marvyn's statue at the University of Wisconsin is toppled after he was fired. He later has it set up at his house, much to Emma's chagrin. Later becomes the subject of a meme account "Kalm Korn" which goes viral.
- “Well Done, Daughter!" Girl:
- Louise Gruzinsky admits that she’s desperate to make her father proud and it’s clear him pressuring her to be successful as the star player has led to some tension between them.
- Similarly, Harper feels pressured to live up to the high standard set by her overachieving mother Margaret.
- Wham Episode:
- "This Is Our House": Louise gets caught cheating on a test, then her father gets arrested on suspicion of embezzlement. The combined stress of these events causes her to attack an opposing player, resulting in her ejection.
