Hear Me Out: Netflix's 'Outer Banks' Is Really Just 'The Last Dance' But With Teenagers In North Carolina
Two of the hottest things on TV during quarantine and really right now. Outer Banks and The Last Dance. Sure they both are centered around something that begins in North Carolina, but hear me out. They really are just the same thing. If you haven't seen Outer Banks yet, why the hell did you click this blog? Go watch it on Netflix. You'll knock it out in a shade under 10 hours.
Let's start with the premise here. Both shows are all about a treasure and needing to overcome a certain group. For the Outer Banks it's an actual treasure and the group are the kooks. The kooks run the Outer Banks like the Pistons were running the Eastern Conference. That's right, the Pistons are the Kooks here. Jordan is trying to beat the Pistons to get the NBA title (their treasure).
Speaking of comparisons. Here's the casting comparisons, which you simply can't argue and sorry but there isn't a lot of Outer Banks on YouTube yet and we're limited to what we can post pictures wise so just take my word for it:
John B: Michael Jordan
Pretty simple to start here. John B is the leader of the Pogues and the main character. He's fairly athletic - see how he gets away from cops and bad guys all the time? That's Jordan. Not to mention both guys fashion are through the roof. John B's seersucker suit is a 20 out of 10 and Michael Jordan invented how to wear jeans.
Sarah Cameron: Dennis Rodman
Sarah Cameron starts as the enemy. She's a Kook through and through. She's the princess of the Kooks. Dennis Rodman started The Last Dance as the enemy. He's a Piston turned into a Bull just like Sarah Cameron became a Pogue by falling in love with John B. She also randomly takes a vacation just like Dennis Rodman. This might have been the easiest one for me.
Pope: Steve Kerr
Pope gets his ass kicked all the time before he finally fights back. Steve Kerr got his ass kicked by MJ until he became the head coach of the Warriors and started kicking everyone's ass. That was Pope when he started beating people up. It worked in my head.
Ward Cameron: Chuck Daly
Sarah Cameron's dad is the leader of the island. Plus he's Josh Porter from The Office just with a phenomenal beard. I already said that Sarah Cameron is Dennis Rodman and Daly was his father figure. We're putting that here because who else would he be?
Kiara: John Paxson
Comes through in the clutch to help save MJ. Sound familiar? Hitting a jumper or two? That's Kiara. She's just consistently there riding alongside MJ. But here's the twist. Her parents are Kooks, this is what we like to call front office Paxson. When she goes to mid summers it's being GarPax.
JJ : Scottie Pippen
MJ's right hand guy. JJ and John B are best friends and the 1-2 combo leading the Pogues. I know that the father situation doesn't really work out, but we know that Scottie had to overcome his father becoming paralyzed while JJ's dad is just a drunk asshole.
Topper: Isiah Thomas
Topper was Sarah Cameron's boyfriend. He immediately became John B's rival. This is as basic as It comes. The ending of it all throws this off a bit, but Topper would have 100% frozen John B out. There's also no doubt that Topper will eventually take over a company and run it to the ground like Isiah did with the Knicks. Asshole.
Rafe Cameron: Jerry Krause
Speaking of guys who ruin everything. All they had to do was stay the course and you lock in more titles or in Rafe's case a company. Instead you're named Rafe. You don't even play it the same way as the only Raef out there. Raef LaFrentz.
But you want to talk about two things that took over during quarantine - Outer Banks and The Last Dance. They really are just the same. We have our enemies. We have our leaders. We have a ton of shirts - seriously just go to the Barstool Store. There are a bunch of Last Dance and even Outer Banks shirts. They are obviously fire.
Really the only thing Outer Banks is missing is John B. watching an iPad as people do interviews and laughing. If they did those interviews we'd really just be watching The Last Dance. Sure, it might be quarantine brain, but you can't convince me there aren't a bunch of similarities between the two. Oh and by far the least believable thing in either show is a guy named Topper winning a fight. Then again you look at someone like Bill Wennington or Bill Lamimbeer and they were starters in the NBA.
I can't stress how easy it is to knock out Outer Banks.