Mr. Throwback: Why Steph Curry’s Mockumentary Is Actually Really Good

The TV world is pretty damn weird right about now. There’s a universe of NBC dramas set in Chicago, multiple Yellowstone spin-offs with numbers for titles, and reality dating shows where self-described MILFs hook up with their sons’ friends. (Look it up.) Season 4 of Power Book II debuted after season 2 of Power Book IV, and House of the Dragon has so many characters that part of my job is simply explaining what just happened in any given episode.

That’s all to say: I needed a breath of fresh air this summer. But I didn’t think I’d find it on Peacock.

Previously, I had the streamer filed under “The Place Where I Watch Reruns of The Office.” But audiences looking to cancel their Peacock subscription the second that the Olympics
ends may want to wait a beat. It just debuted a new comedy that—I shit you not—is giving me shades of the legendary NBC mockumentaries of yesteryear.

Titled Mr. Throwback, the six-episode comedy (streaming in full today) follows a desperate memorabilia dealer/vintage-store owner (Happy Endings’ Adam Pally) who reconnects with his former middle-school basketball teammate (Stephen Curry, playing himself). After he hoodwinks his famous friend into a fake charity scheme to make up his financial losses, chaos ensues. Mr. Throwback is told in a mockumentary style—making it feel like a hilarious mashup of Abbott Elementary and Uncut Gems.

The story kicks off with a twelve-year-old Danny and tiny Curry. They’re sixth-grade basketball stars who make national news alongside Danny’s father, their head coach. But while Curry goes on to become a four-time NBA champion for the Golden State Warriors, Danny’s career ends before high school. He was only dominating his prepubescent peers because his father forged his birth certificate to say that he was twelve when he was actually fourteen. Now Danny is in dire financial straits. (The character is partly based on N.Y.C.’s real Mr. Throwback, who I hope isn’t in debt to Polish loan sharks like Danny.) So after Danny “accidentally” runs into Curry after a game, he lies to him—saying that his daughter is dying of a terminal illness to convince Curry to help him start (unbeknownst to the NBA star) a fraudulent charity campaign.

You can guess what comes next. Danny abuses Curry’s wealth and influence as he finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a web of lies. Meanwhile, Curry wisecracks about his basketball career, enormous celebrity, and sponsorship deals. There’s a delightful cameo by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr—mostly just so he can make jokes about the time Michael Jordan punched him in the face (which is true!). The series also features Ego Nwodim (Saturday Night Live) as the CEO of Curry’s media company and Ayden Mayeri (The Afterparty) as Danny’s ex-wife.

PeacockPally reportedly scored on Curry behind the scenes.

But the main draw is Curry. Outside of appearances on his golf competition series, Holey Moley, and his heavily curated (sorry, Steph!) documentary, Stephen Curry: Underrated, the basketball phenom hasn’t been this unguarded and loose since he juked Dillon Brooks. The fictionalized version of Curry pulls Undercover Boss pranks on his employees. He’s so competitive that he steals food from his children just to be the first one to eat! He jokes about combining cardio and golf like he’s playing Mario Golf: Super Rush IRL—an idea he claims he got from Mark Wahlberg’s Conan interview. And when Curry has a particularly hilarious shooting slump in episode 3, NBA on TNT’s Kenny Smith asks if it’s possible that he’s “possessed by a ghoul or something,” like when the monsters in Space Jam steal the players’ basketball skills.

Nwodim is equally funny as Steph’s living, breathing day planner. She works 164 hours (!!!) a week to keep him moving through his busy schedule of events, including Sasha Obama’s graduation dinner and a “faith-based prank show starring Steve Harvey.” Reminiscent of Wanda Sykes’s record-label executive on The Other Two, Nwodim moves mountains to manage the “Stephenomics” of Curry’s GDP “like a small country.”

The rest of Mr. Throwback goes down like your go-to bar order—exactly as you think it will. Danny’s plan flails and he almost loses everything, yet he miraculously turns a nightmare into a success story. But the series is short, sweet, and an ingenious use of a true once-in-a-lifetime athletic talent. Hopefully, next time we’ll see one of the great plans Curry says he’s cooking up—namely “training the new Air Bud” or producing a spin-off prequel called Teen Steph.