“Running Point” Of View: You’re A Woman In A Man’s World (and Locker Room)

Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson) is a cliché nepo baby roped into her own redemption arc in this lighthearted comedy series about business, basketball, and family.

Growing up with three brothers with whom her father had been particularly strict, all the while being protective/dismissive of her, Isla has zero experience with the game, and the business. So when their seemingly perfect eldest brother suddenly needs to check into rehab and chooses her to step into his role as president of their family-owned NBA team the Los Angeles Waves, she fumbles the figurative ball more than once.

As if making her name in a male-dominated industry wasn’t hard enough, this former party girl without any sports or business experience needed to earn the respect of her family, the public, and her team.

The main plot of a woman striving to shatter the glass ceiling happens in the foreground, and in its background are the struggles and stereo types of other women. Particularly, women of color. Isla has a Filipina sister-in-law, Bituin, stereotyped as a mail-order bride but later revealed to be wealthier than the Gordons. Isla’s bestie/assistant Ali, is married to a Korean, and speaks Thai to a relative in one scene. Isla’s youngest half-brother comes into the scene as the son of their father and their Hispanic housekeeper.

Los Angeles Lakers owner and president Jeannie Buss is the inspiration for the show, explaining the LA connection. Let’s talk about the real women behind this show.
 
Buss says, “There’s one scene where Ali, Brenda Song’s character, says, ‘You can’t blow this. It would set women back.’ ” Buss has said that it perfectly encapsulated the pressure she felt taking over that huge role in a male-dominated field. 

In real life, she’d worked for decades to get where she is, and under her watch: the previously tanking Los Angeles Lakers acquired stratospheric superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, gaining an NBA Championship, and the first ever NBA Cup title, as a result. Not done yet, her team also acquired another generational talent, Luka Dončić, in a ballsy move that shocked the NBA and the world around it.

A fan of “The Office,” Buss handpicked Mindy Kaling to tell this story loosely inspired from her life, because she found a kindred spirit who knew what it was like in those high-pressure shoes and knew how to put complex things so succinctly. She, alongside “The Mindy Project” alumni Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen made the series a lot of lighthearted fun with their signature punchy jokes and energetic dialogue.
 
In spite of its laugh-out-loud moments, “Running Point” doesn’t shy away from more serious issues such as addiction, mental illness, casual misogyny, and nepotism in corporate America.

Isla: I know what it’s like to be forgotten and pushed aside.

Through generations, women regardless of race (some more than others) have had to navigate their lives and careers occasionally feeling unseen; unheard; working alongside casual misogyny; and in extreme cases, taken advantage of. They bear the brunt of society’s systemic disadvantage.

But history shows that women have proven time and again, that they can accomplish the most amazing things despite sometimes having to start at the lower rungs of the ladder, being held back by physical limitations, or simply navigating their personal lives through society’s unrealistic expectations.

So if you’re a woman, occasionally feeling unseen as you strive to prove yourself at work, feeling underappreciated by your family, or feeling unheard simply trying to edge your way into a male conversation… remember that these feelings don’t change the fact that you deserve a place at the table.

Or court.

Happy Women’s Month!