Somebody places a bet early in the second season of “Stick” that Pryce Cahill (Owen Wilson) will fall apart on a golf course. It is not a crazy wager, given that an on-course meltdown is what derailed his career in the first place. Whether he will do it again hangs over the first two episodes, which Apple TV released on Wednesday, November 4th, with one new episode every week after that until December 30th. The first season belonged mostly to the teenage phenom Pryce was coaching, and this one hands a good share of the spotlight back to the ex-pro’s own swing, which turns out to be the more interesting story. Our read is that the premiere has more bite than a gentle sequel season about a found family needs to have.
Jason Keller created “Stick”, and Wilson stars and executive produces. In the second season Santi (Peter Dager) takes the next step toward professional golf, while Pryce, urged on by his former rival Clark Ross (Timothy Olyphant), does something nobody expects and, as Apple’s synopsis puts it, “he bets on himself”. Mitts (Marc Maron) is still the caddie, Elena (Mariana Treviño) and Zero (Lilli Kay) are still part of the traveling family, and Rhea Seehorn is the headline newcomer. “In Season 1, Pryce was a mentor to Santi, and we flipped that a bit in Season 2”, Keller told Sports Illustrated, which is a decent summary of what the first two episodes do. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for “Stick” and for the first two episodes of its second season.
Our read is that the premiere has more bite than a gentle sequel season about a found family needs to have.”
The first episode, “Sirens in Soft Spikes”, opens with Santi, now 18, playing the Dove Charity Pro/Am Invitational as an amateur. The question of why he has not turned pro follows him around, with fans, according to Ready Steady Cut, counting up the earnings he is skipping. Pryce wants him to take a full-ride scholarship in Indiana instead, and he wants it for reasons that have little to do with golf and a lot to do with what happened to him, since a career that arrives before the person is ready for it is the exact mistake he made. Santi’s counterpoints are reasonable, and Digital Mafia Talkies notes that he reminds Pryce it was once Pryce’s own plan to cash in on his talent, which Pryce admits before saying he cares about the boy now. The show never turns Santi into a petulant child, and the argument is stronger for it, because both of them are right about something.
Pryce ends up on the course anyway. He agrees to fill out Santi’s foursome as a favor to an old friend, with homeless children involved on the charity side, and the amateurs in the group bet that he will come apart before the round is out. He does nothing of the kind, and the result is a record-breaking round, capped by what Ready Steady Cut calls a crowd-pleasing Hail Mary, that steals the attention that was supposed to belong to Santi. Santi, according to Ready Steady Cut, is supportive rather than jealous, and Clark Ross, who has been watching, takes note.
In the RV, according to Fangirlish, Santi asks calm, reasonable questions about Pryce’s career and about his late son, Jett. Pryce knows the warning signs of turning pro too young better than anyone, yet Fangirlish points out that he never asks the kid why the money matters to him now. The rest of the family is settling in around them. Santi and Zero are officially a couple, with Zero still caddying and handling his social media, and Mitts wants to ask Elena to move in with him, an idea Santi backs enthusiastically.
The other half of the hour is a date. Pryce’s ex-wife (Judy Greer), who has moved on and wants him to do the same, sets him up with Beth, a divorced coworker of hers and a pickleball player. He spends the dinner on the cruelty of nature until Beth excuses herself, according to Digital Mafia Talkies. Clark takes the empty seat and ends the evening, in Ready Steady Cut’s words, by “mercy-killing a dying date”. His pitch is the one Apple’s synopsis hints at, sharpened into the biggest comeback in sports history, with Pryce becoming the oldest man to win the US Open. Pryce says no and points to his age, and according to Fangirlish he admits to Clark that he wonders whether he will ever be as good again, which draws real frustration out of a man who tried the same road with less talent and failed.
Episode two, “Don’t Be Summer Mayonnaise”, takes the group to Los Angeles for the Founders Invitational. The invitation arrives courtesy of Jeremy Pierce, a smooth sports agent who has been working his way into Santi’s circle since the first hour. Jeremy takes Santi out for tacos instead of to the La Brea Tar Pits, where Pryce would rather be, and dangles meetings with Michael Jordan and big prize money, according to Ready Steady Cut, while Digital Mafia Talkies says the trip includes a party where that introduction happens. Clark, meanwhile, keeps turning up out of nowhere to repeat his offer. His pitches run alongside Jeremy’s, and Pryce can see straight through Clark’s salesmanship while Santi, at 18, cannot see through Jeremy’s. That is probably the whole season in miniature.
The title comes from a cautionary tale Jeremy tells about a promising amateur who took a Stanford scholarship and ended up selling sandwiches in Arizona, because mayonnaise curdles in the heat, in Ready Steady Cut’s telling. The story is aimed squarely at Santi’s college plan, and Digital Mafia Talkies says Jeremy’s strategy works. At a celebratory dinner, Santi raises going pro again and Pryce doubles down. Santi then says what the two hours have been circling, that Pryce is making decisions for him that Pryce would have made for himself with a do-over, as Ready Steady Cut puts it. When Pryce relents, Santi announces that he is turning pro without him, and Indiatimes reports that the agent he picks is Jeremy. Pryce and Mitts part ways with Santi, Elena and Zero for now, with Fangirlish noting that Elena stays in California while Mitts goes to Ohio. Pryce does not sulk for long, because the hour ends with him in Clark’s hotel room, saying he is ready to come out of retirement, which is the beat Apple’s synopsis has promised since August and which plays better as a reaction to Santi’s rejection than it would have as a plain decision.
The reviews skew warm. The Guardian’s Jack Seale writes that Clark is “just about the most Timothy Olyphant role Timothy Olyphant has ever played”, and Absolute Geeks calls the season “A little corny and predictable, but warm, funny and worth the weekly tee time.” GolfPass is cooler on the golf, saying the show “cards some pars and birdies, but also its fair share of bogeys”, and pointing to an early putt on the 18th hole where the scoreboard reads “THRU 18” instead of “THRU 17”. The warm side wins on these two hours. The beats are easy to see coming, but a show about a found family does not need surprises, and the cast is probably enough to carry it.
Amanda (Rhea Seehorn), the coach Apple’s synopsis promises, does not appear in either hour. InBetweenDrafts, which has seen the first seven episodes, puts her entrance at the third, “Chip Off the Old Butch”, due Wednesday, November 11th. Olyphant, who guested in the first season, is now listed in Apple’s press cast for Season 2, and the premiere gives him plenty to do. The split between Pryce and Santi sets up a season in which a mentor and his student might end up chasing the same leaderboard. That is the part that should keep this from being a gentle sequel and turn it into something sharper.
What Do You Think? Is Santi right to turn pro now, or was Pryce right to want him in college first? Will Pryce’s comeback end in the kind of collapse that derailed his career, or has he really changed? And do you want the mentor and his student on the same leaderboard before the season ends?
See you on the next binge!
