Girlbossing Too Close to the Sun

Alternate title: contributing to non-existent discourse about the latest Netflix hit series.

In case you are unaware, Running Point is a show that premiered on Netflix at the end of February. It seems to be doing quite well. I mean, it got renewed for a season 2 almost immediately, but truthfully, I never know how to clock the success of a show airing on Netflix. If I hear my chronically offline middle-aged co-workers talking about it, I gather it did pretty well for itself! I was on vacation when this came out, though, and have since not really been in the break room with my girls too much. I really should catch up with them… sorry, moving on.

As soon as this show was announced, I knew I was going to watch it. Mindy Kaling being the name attached as showrunner with Kate Hudson as lead and Brenda Song in a starring role… hello!!! I love the girls. So, on my first day off after the season dropped on Netflix, I decided I’d watch it! By this point I hadn’t heard too much about how people felt about it. I encountered a few accounts on the Twitter timeline saying they had heard bad things, but I was never really looking at Running Point for a critical darling, so I wasn’t dissuaded easily. It wasn’t until the end of the first episode, however, where… uh oh! I wasn’t loving the meal I was being served. Quickly, I decided to disengage. Protect my peace, and what not. Well, for one day, that is. By the end of my second day off work, I had binged the entire season.

Running Point is about Kate Hudson (she isn’t playing herself, but it’s just easier to refer to her character as “Kate Hudson”) getting unexpectedly thrust into the position of power of her family business, which is running a pro-basketball team.

Inherently, this becomes quite a problem because it’s quite the male-dominated industry, particularly one that harvests a culture of violent misogyny. To make matters even worse she used to be known as quite a party girl in her youth. Naturally, this arises plenty of conflict for our girl Kate Hudson!! There’s a question of who she can trust, whether she can trust her own brothers, but ultimately, new problems arise every episode and almost always are half-heartedly resolved within the half-hour time frame. This is very much a sitcom. I try not to fault it too much for what is just the standard sitcom formula… but still, it becomes increasingly ridiculous what problems can just be written away with no real lasting consequence.

In fairness, I’m going to dedicate some time to what I think works about the project. The humor didn’t always land for me, but it wasn’t necessarily off-brand from what Mindy Kaling projects usually deliver, either. Flaws and all, I love Never Have I Ever and Sex Lives of College Girls, so there is plenty of charm present here as well. Kate Hudson is always a delight; that is no different here. Brenda Song is unfortunately mostly sidelined, truly to the detriment of the show, but she never fails to be magnetic on screen. The fashion is chic, as well. The story isn’t bad, either. I’m by no means a sports girlie, but the plotline has so much potential to be truly great. I can only hope season 2 delivers upon that more than this season did. At its best, I do think this scratched the surface of what could be great in its storytelling. The family business and the in-group dynamics side of the story would likely be what I call the most interesting aspects of this season, as it stands. There’s enough on the table for me to say I will probably… definitely… end up watching season 2.

As I really started to hold space for my overall thoughts on the series, I found my deeper issue. One I’ve hinted at before. When a show of this nature decides to tackle such a culturally significant theme, such as sexism, both in a workplace context and a greater social media landscape context, the writers really have a responsibility within that. This is where the show falls apart for me. At my most generous, it’s vapid. At my most critical and cynical, I think it can be quite regressive in its political messaging.

There’s an episode where Chet Hanks (again, not playing himself, but it’s just easier to refer to him as “Chet Hanks” so you get the proper image in your head) gets the team in a major controversy for disrespecting their brand deal with Sephora. Kate Hudson goes to yell at him, but head coach Lawrence from Insecure is like… you will look hysterical if you do that. Essentially saying that as a woman she has to do things a bit differently. Right away, I don’t love the thesis statement of this episode. Yes, that’s true! Misogyny prevents women from getting the same respect men are granted without any question. Yet, this concept is never challenged. The text never quite criticizes the culture of misogyny that makes Kate Hudson unable to just yell at Chet Hanks when she so clearly had every right! Why is she not respected in the same way a man would be? Why does she have to beat around this issue in such a way? It’s one thing that this is realistically how a woman in her position would have to navigate the conflict, but the show doesn’t actually make a point to challenge the inherent misogyny that is rooted in, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Also, this is so beside the point, but I was very confused by the fact that the President of a team is not the same thing as the Coach of a team…? but admittedly that is just entirely because sports is my pop cultural blind-spot.

Back to the issue at hand, though, Kate Hudson takes Chet Hanks out to dinner, so they can have a conversation about his behavior. Problem! He assumed this was a date, and he kisses her… which she absolutely did not want! But it ends up becoming a major scandal in the sports news world. This leads to a conversation with the entire crew about the misunderstanding, involving a (bizarrely dated exactly in 2005) side-conversation where they blatantly say that Kate Hudson was leading him on by wearing a low-cut blouse? And choosing a “romantic” restaurant? I’d love to say the context makes it better, but it was truthfully just played for laughs.

I could’ve moved on from all of this, however the episode also resolves so… easily. Her brother tried to evade the controversy by using his burner Twitter account to cover up the scandal, but he ended up slipping up and tweeting on main instead… still, nothing of consequence actually materializes out of any of this. Everything is wrapped up in a bow. No controversy follows her to the finale. Episode after episode, these conflicts emerge that would’ve realistically followed Kate Hudson to her death bed in our modern culture that hates women so terribly, but she either girlbosses them out of her line of sight, or outside forces work with her to conveniently sweep away any bad publicity.

There’s a Joe Rogan-esque podcast host who has been out to get her the entire season. Yet by the end, when said host interviews her, he’s… suddenly just entirely on her side and impressed by the work she’s been doing? Totally chill. There’s also an entire thing in one episode where her brothers want to take ownership of the team, but then she gets a Sephora brand deal, and her brothers are so impressed they never become a real conflict ever again. They just accept their positions… besides Justin Theroux’s character. He was the one who gave her the team to begin with, but he was very clearly trying to set her up for failure. He comes back in the finale. That’s aside the point. I can’t buy what this series is selling, is what I’m trying to say.

The humor, as well as the commentary, is all so dated to the point where the series itself - at times - reads more sexist than critical of the patriarchal culture the show is based on. An odd problem for such a show to have, mind you, particularly in 2025.

Now, I can hear counterclaims already talking about how I’m taking this all too seriously. It’s ultimately just a Netflix sitcom. A Mindy Kaling production, as well, and although I’ve been an admirer of her work for as long as I’ve wanted to be a writer… still, I wouldn’t say I associate her with a particularly radical perspective in feminist theory. However, as I said… if you are going to create a show that is conceptualized around being commentary on sexism in a male dominated field, you have a bit of a responsibility to do that throughline justice, no?

I can also imagine people reading this and thinking I just want to see Kate Hudson struggling. I want to see her getting harassed day and night because misogyny is such a prevalent issue in our culture… no, not quite. The central conflict of the show is one that impacts our real culture, though. It shouldn’t be traumatic to watch by any means, but I do think it’s important that it hits on some type of truth. This could’ve been a really compelling satire, and while I don’t mind that this was a more idealistic approach in the end, but for every conflict that was introduced to be so low stakes in the grand scheme of the story… it just feels very shallow. I believe it was the first episode where Brenda Song said something along the lines of, “don’t make any mistakes, it looks bad for all of us.” Yet, by the end of the season, it gives the impression as though all of the stakes were just… very false? Almost every single conflict gets introduced and resolved within the 30-minute timeframe of each episode. The show wanted to feature a surface level girlboss feminist message without actually investigating anything about our patriarchal culture.

Also, I touched on this earlier, but Kate Hudson never challenges the system that kept oppressing her, either. Rather she jumps through hoops to appease the patriarchal barriers set against her. This just plays a bit too into respectability politics for my liking. The one time I thought she was going to verbally fight back against the misogyny she was facing, during the podcast interview, the violently misogynistic host was like, “actually, for a stupid and gross woman, you kind of ate that.” Never once during this season does she seem interested in breaking down the doors the patriarchy had shut on her, rather… she wants to be let in, and to lock the doors behind her.

I can’t say I hated this show. By a certain point, I did enjoy the ride, especially in the second half of the season where the story becomes more cohesive and directed. I just don’t think it was prepared to leave us with any type of statement on the themes its plot brought forward. The current media landscape is very shallow in much of its political commentary, though. There’s not much room for radicalism in our current big studio projects. I truly understand the appeal of this show, and its issues aren’t unique to it.

I admit I only watched this show one time. Almost a full month ago at this point, as well, so I don’t really have the freshest memory of it anymore. As a result, my criticisms aren’t that specific. I still just had to get this out in the open, and I didn’t really want to rewatch the series. Protecting my peace, you know?

I enjoyed stretches of season 1 of Running Point, and I will probably continue watching it. It’s certainly a well-meaning season of television, but I can’t help but feel as though it’s 10 years late to any meaningful conversation.

P.S: I couldn’t find any natural way to incorporate this observation, especially considering absolutely nobody saw the film I’m about to bring up, but every single thought I shared here is almost identical to how I felt about the 2019 film Long Shot, starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen. This film has been weighing on my spirit for 6 years now, and this is the first time I’ve had an excuse to bring it up. I’m adding it here as a post-text author’s note.