I’m binging on Red Oaks

I don’t do it very often, but the last few nights I’ve been binging on a television series called Red Oaks. My friend turned me on to it, and I’m finding it very entertaining.

What peaked my interest is that the story starts out with the lead character playing the part of a tennis coach at the Red Oaks Country Club. Of course that led me to think about my tennis and country club days and of my son who currently works as a tennis coach. Plus the tennis shown in Red Oaks is pretty good to watch.

But that’s not all that goes on. Here’s what Google has to say about it:

“It’s the summer of 1985, and NYU student David lands a summer job at the Red Oaks Country Club in New Jersey. As the assistant tennis pro, he rubs elbows with the clientele, as well as his fellow employees. And they all have advice to offer him on how he should be planning for the rest of his life. His father urges him to buckle down and improve his grades (“a C is a Jewish F!” he tells his son, just before collapsing on the tennis court) so he can get into the college’s CPA program. Trouble is, David isn’t sure he wants to be a CPA. His boss recommends ditching college to go into the stock market. And on a personal level, though David is dating the hot aerobics instructor at the club, his eye wanders to the daughter of one of the club’s tougher members (Getty, played by the normally likeable Paul Reiser), who refuses to shake the hands of any of the staff members. Summer won’t last forever, though, and David has some decisions to make as he eventually moves on to the Big Apple.”

The series originally opened in 2014 and got a ninety-three percent rotten tomatoes rating. I attribute that to a lot of action, some very good acting, always wonderful humor, and even some sex and dope smoking. That the unlikeable character Paul Reiser plays lands in jail where he belongs doesn’t hurt either.