On August 10, the world watched as Stephen Curry exploded in the fourth quarter of the gold medal match against France to lift Team USA to its fifth straight gold in men’s Olympic basketball. After his fourth consecutive three pointer, Curry pulled out his signature “night-night” celebration, which, according to his series, Mr. Throwback, was actually stolen from a middle school teammate. If you watched the Olympics on NBC or its affiliated streaming service Peacock, you likely saw a number of commercials for Mr. Throwback, the mockumentary series starring and executive produced by Curry.
Curry’s name and face are all over the promos for Mr. Throwback, but the series is really about Danny Grossman (Adam Pally), the fictional childhood friend of Curry’s who weasels his way back into his inner circle after 25 years of no contact. Curry does play a major part in Mr. Throwback, (though he appears less and less as the series progresses), but the focus is mainly on Danny and his family, including his ex-wife Sam (Ayden Mayeri), his father Mitch (Tracy Letts), and his daughter Charlie (Layla Scalisi). It is a comedy, but the humor at the center of Mr. Throwback is surprisingly dark, making for a tonal whiplash that both detracts from how funny the show is most of the time, and makes the more serious moments feel out of place.
What Is ‘Mr. Throwback’ About?
Mr. Throwback introduces an alternate timeline where, before Steph Curry was Steph Curry, he played second fiddle to Danny, aka “Jewish Jordan,” on their middle school team. Danny was the next big thing, even landing his own Wheaties box, until it was revealed that the 12-year-old basketball prodigy was actually 14 and a half. Danny’s dad, who doubled as their team’s coach, was the man behind the scam that ruined Danny’s life and basketball career, opening the door for Steph, who would go on to become one of the best players of all time. 25 years later, Danny reappears looking to reconnect with his old friend Steph… and snag one of his game-worn jerseys to sell for big bucks in order to pay back a $90,000 debt to the Polish mob. When he’s caught stealing Steph’s jersey from the locker room, Danny comes up with a bold excuse as to why he needs the money: to pay for the medical bills of his teenage daughter Charlie, who’s battling a rare and conveniently unidentifiable terminal illness.
Steph welcomes Danny into his circle, determined to help Charlie enjoy her remaining life and raise money to find a cure to the mysterious disease she’s suffering from. Kimberly (Ego Nwodim), CEO of Steph’s production company and Steph’s right-hand woman, is more skeptical and suspicious of Danny’s intentions, as she, too, grew up with both Danny and Steph. Danny reconnects with his estranged father when Steph goes into a shooting slump, tasking Danny with tracking down Mitch – the best coach he’s ever had – for advice on how to fix his shot. So, while his lie is snowballing, Danny is also forced to reckon with his traumatic past, his grudge against Mitch, and his failures as a husband and father.
Peacock’s ‘Mr. Throwback’ Is Funny When It Wants To Be
Mr. Throwback is at its best when it leans into the Steph Curry of it all. As far as athletes-turned-actors go, Curry is comfortable in front of the camera and actually quite funny. He plays an excessively good-natured caricature of himself; a millionaire NBA superstar who’s too trusting and generous for his own good, making him easy for Danny to take advantage of. Nwodim is consistently funny as the always stressed out Kimberly, and her break-down of “Stephenomics” – a financial analysis of the economic impact of the Golden State Warriors potentially missing the NBA Playoffs – is one of the highlights of the series. Though Mr. Throwback lacks the NBA cameos you might expect from a Curry-produced show, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr does pop in a few times, delivering a particularly great anecdote in Episode 3 about Michael Jordan punching him in the face.
The show thrives when it explores Steph’s luxurious but high-pressure life as one of the most famous basketball players on the planet, poking fun at his pristine reputation as, in Kimberly’s words, a “Hall of Fame sweetie boy.” It’s entertaining to see how two regular people like Danny and Sam adapt to and take advantage of the perks of being part of Steph’s entourage, but the show falters when we’re brought back to reality and reminded of Danny’s audacious lie, especially as it snowballs to involve even more people, including his daughter.
‘Mr. Throwback’ Suffers From Tonal Inconsistencies
In the pilot episode, Danny owes nearly $100,000 to the Polish mob, but this is quickly forgotten about, and we must assume the issue resolved itself off-screen once Curry hands Danny a company credit card. This danger of retaliation from the mob could have brought some real stakes to Danny’s scam and made his character a bit more sympathetic, but Mr. Throwback then pivots to a different angle completely. Danny’s lie about Charlie having a terminal illness is obviously horrible, despite his intentions to improve her life by using his new money and connections to throw her an expensive birthday party and buy her Taylor Swift tickets. Danny’s irresponsible man-child character only works for so long, and after the stress of watching his lies spiral out of control, it becomes tedious to watch him fail to learn the obvious lesson other characters keep pointing out to him. Even his daughter’s conscience catches up with her before Danny’s does, recognizing this destructive pattern of behavior in her family and wanting to break the cycle by coming clean about their lies.
Danny becomes more of a villain in the last two episodes of Mr. Throwback, continuing the lie despite Sam and Charlie’s pushback. When Lucy (Tien Tran), the director of the documentary being filmed about Curry and this situation, urges him to tell Steph the truth, Danny threatens to not sign the release for the documentary, which would make all the footage of him legally unusable. Danny may not be addicted to drugs or alcohol like his father was, but he’s addicted to the perks and the ego boost that come with being part of Steph’s inner circle. It’s a reminder of the fame he briefly had as a child and the success he could have had if Mitch hadn’t concocted such a massive lie. Danny swears he had no idea Mitch was lying about his age and that he really thought he was 12 years old at the time, but continues this cycle of lies by putting Charlie through a similar situation, and we later find out that this isn’t the first time Danny has used his daughter to run a scam.
Though it’s dressed up with humor, Mr. Throwback is really about Danny breaking the cycle of trauma and addiction by mending his relationship with this father so that Charlie doesn’t end up the same way. Danny’s storyline with his father, who was shut out of his life completely, is the most tragic, marred by Mitch’s lies and addiction issues and Danny’s inability to move on. Despite his apology, years of sobriety, and efforts to work on himself, Danny doesn’t forgive Mitch until he takes credit for Danny’s lie as penance for ruining his son’s life years ago. Danny eventually comes clean, and thanks to Steph’s goldfish brain (he’s literally unable to comprehend failure), everything resolves itself and Danny is forgiven, setting the series up for a Season 2 that it doesn’t really earn. Even with its humor, Mr. Throwback is bogged down by its tonal inconsistencies, and the show doesn’t take its darker subject matter seriously enough for it to have real emotional weight. Instead, it’s just vaguely depressing.