Owen Wilson's 'Stick' Rides the 'Ted Lasso' Formula

I am a sports fan, but I do not care for golf — the least interesting of the major televised sports. But good God, man: golf is a great movie sport. Not just Happy Gilmore or Caddyshack but Tin Cup, which might be my favorite sports movie of all time. It’s got all the classic sports movie tropes, sure, but there’s also a kind of meditative wisdom baked in.

Apple TV+’s Stick is as formulaic as these things come, but there’s a reason formulas work, and if there’s any sports-movie formula built to sustain the long haul of a television series, it’s golf. Add a terrific cast to that, and you’ve got something in Stick worth watching.

Owen Wilson — who, oddly enough, found his groove again in a Marvel series (Loki) — stars here as Pryce Cahill, your typical washed-up former golf pro who flamed out after an on-the-course meltdown, the details of which remain a mystery after three episodes. He’s been divorced for a few years, sells golf clubs for a living, and makes extra cash hustling strangers with his best friend and former caddy, Mitts (Marc Maron). Pryce is stuck, emotionally and professionally, unable to move on from his fall from grace.

Then, at a driving range one day, he discovers a kid named Santi (Peter Dager), who can absolutely crush the ball. Something stirs in Pryce. He agrees to let his ex-wife, Amber-Linn (Judy Greer), sell their house, and he uses the proceeds to take Santi on an amateur tour with hopes of turning the kid pro, making some money, and finding a sense of purpose again.

It’s standard underdog fare. Santi even has a glaring flaw that needs fixing: he spirals after a bad shot and can’t recover. Enter Zero (Lily Kaye), a kind of anti-capitalist goth love interest, who helps keep him grounded. Soon, this golf story turns into more of a found-family dramedy: Pryce, Santi, Mitts, Santi’s mom Elena (Mariana Treviño), and Zero all crisscrossing the country in an RV, hitting up tournaments along the way. It’s a relationship dramedy. And a sports dramedy. Two of my favorite genres in one.

The series comes from Jason Keller, who wrote Ford v. Ferrari, so the man knows sports movies (and Dad movies). There’s already strong chemistry between Wilson and Maron, Wilson and Dager, and Maron and Treviño, especially for those of us with a soft spot for grouchy teddy bears (a role Maron was born to play). Dager has a bit of a Chalamet thing going for him, and Zero, introduced in the third episode, shows promise beyond the Manic Pixie Goth Girl archetype.

It doesn’t quite soar to the heights of Ted Lasso or Shrinking, at least not yet, but it lives in the same warm, character-driven milieu Apple TV+ has made its signature: likeable characters, recognizable actors, and a formula that works. The first three episodes dropped this week, and the best compliment I can pay it is this: I wanted to binge the whole thing. The weekly release strategy, though, might help it accrue a steady following over time. It’s already found its way to the top of Apple TV+’s top ten, so hopefully the series (which got a two-season order) will, uh, stick around for seasons to come.