Most critics find Stick pleasant rather than remarkable, and the praise settles almost entirely on Owen Wilson. Review after review credits his easy charm with holding the series together, with several noting that it makes Pryce’s late shot at redemption believable even when the writing does not. Peter Dager’s Santi and his rapport with Wilson are mentioned warmly, and a handful of reviewers single out the supporting cast, Lilli Kay and Mariana Treviño among them, for finding life in thin parts.
The reservations cluster on the writing. Nearly everyone notes the debt to Ted Lasso and the familiar sports-drama beats; the difference is how much that bothers them. The kinder reviews call it comfort viewing. The harsher ones, IndieWire and The AV Club, find the characters underdeveloped and the emotional stakes thin. Vulture is the lone dissenter, arguing that a formulaic trauma plot keeps sinking the lighter golf comedy. The spread is wide for a show nobody calls a disaster.
