Two new HBO comedies premiere Sunday; each is worth a look.
"Ballers" stars Dwayne Johnson in what might be the first truly life-sized role of his career, as Spencer Strasmore, a former football star trying to make it as a Miami-based financial manager. It was created by Steve Levinson, a partner in various Mark Wahlberg projects — Wahlberg is a producer here — and although it looks at first to be a sports-world "Entourage," a horrifying thought, it proceeds to reach for something better.
Like a lot of premium cable shows, it has a kind of split personality, aiming on the one hand for a certain new-golden-age quality, while on the other giving the people what it assumes the people are paying for.