by noiseredux Wed Aug 22, 2018 8:45 am
Hindsight was a TV series that ran from January to March 11, 2015. Three months, ten episodes, and its life was cut abruptly short thanks to changes in control over at VH1. Even worse - it ended on a cliffhanger. My wife and I were devastated. Every Friday night that was 'our show.' If you never saw that one, it was about a girl who is about to get married but has cold feet. She steps into an elevator and when she gets out... it's the 90's. It was a comedy-drama and sure it was capitalizing off of a certain demographic's nostalgia. But we were totally that demographic, and the show had a certain sincerity to it rather than just hitting you over the head with "hey, remember Oasis?" references. And it was fun! Hang in there because I promise this is going somewhere by the way.
So after three months of watching Hindsight every Friday night and then having that taken away, we decided it might be fun to watch an actual 90's show on Friday nights. As chance would have it my wife had found the first season of Beverly Hills 90210 at yard sale and grabbed it for funsies. So we started watching that - both of us having watched at least some seasons when we were younger. It was fun and funny and silly and nostalgic. One season turned into two, and two turned into nine. And after that I suggested my favorite 90's teen drama - Dawson's Creek - to my reluctant wife. I reminded her that Kevin Williamson co-wrote the Scream movies. She gave it a shot and it soon became the standard by which all 90's teen dramas should be measured.
And so for the past three-plus years our Friday night ritual has been to binge-watch SOME 90's teen drama thing. It's been a blast. These sorts of shows are most definitely like soap operas with radical soundtracks, but they're a great way to blow off steam from a stressful week. We've done Party Of Five and My So Called Life and even managed to seek out the elusive Dawson's Creek spin-off Young Americans which only received one mid-season run. We snuck in a season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer at one point - and while this show is still fantastic, it's lacking in the melodramatic drama that makes this ritual fun. Which brings us to our current show: One Tree Hill. We were iffy on this one, but it turns out that it shares a lot of DNA with Dawson's Creek. Oh, and One Tree Hill is also a lot about basketball. See? I told you I was going somewhere.
Yes, if anything One Tree Hill is sort of a cross between Dawson's Creek and Friday Night Lights. We're only in the middle of the second season right now, but high school basketball plays a big role in this show. For weeks now I've been in the mood to play a basketball game because of this damn show. And then it hit me: I could make the character "Lucas Scott" in NBA 2K18's player creator and use him in the single player mode. This was somehow hilarious to me. I mean honestly, I realize how stupid it is, but it cracks me up because - besides me - who would even want to do this? I was sitting on the couch next to my wife and I looked up from the Switch and said "look, I know this will be the weirdest question I've ever asked you, but what color are Chad Michael Murray's eyes?" And so I went off and started "My Career" in 2K18 as Lucas Scott, #3 from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Incidentally, both Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill were shot in Wilmington. Just saying.
Okay, so now about the game... I think the last game I played in the series was 2K12, so it's been a while. But I've played many entries over the years going all the way back to the original 2K. However this is the first time I ever made my own player and bothered with the single player campaign. I've always just picked a team (The Celtics) and played through a season. Controlling a single character is a totally different experience for me. It's a really interesting way to play this game. For instance the campaign starts with Lucas Scott in his first NBA game which means spending a fair amount of time on the bench. Watching the game from this first person view from the bench is surreal. I mean it's a really bad view of the action, and you're not doing anything at all. But it adds drama. It made things feel tense when I was finally called into the game. It made me feel like I had something to prove.
The audio presentation is insane. I should be used to the progressively advanced commentary throughout the series, but I'm still finding myself impressed. I'll be honest, my mind was slightly blown when the announcer said "this is Scott's first points in his NBA career." I mean, he knew to say the name "Scott." I'd probably be less impressed had I created my own character in the past I guess. But either way, it was awesome and again really added to the intensity of the simulation.