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"The League" Review
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Thursdays at 10:30, FX
Fantasy football is much like anime or Star Trek, in that non-participants tend to think those involved are obsessive, pathetic and insulated from reality. But there's nothing insular about "The League"--the show juxtaposes FF obsession with everyday life in an often clever and entertaining way.
The main conflict here is one worn down by pop-culture's so-called "Frat Pack": thirtysomething men, henpecked by their wives and stressed by their jobs, seek respite through male bonding and immature competitions. In this case, the elements involved are webcam taunts, oversized trophies, and a certain Fantasy "oracle." The familiarity of this premise, coupled with the weak cast, made me wary from the start. Five minutes in, however, I was already ignoring thoughts like "Nick Kroll is a low-rent Seth Rogen" and even "Pete and Kevin are almost impossible to tell apart, even as a fellow white man."
The dialogue here is often sharp and droll. At its best, the witty exchanges and one-ups among standout smartass Ruxin (Nick Kroll), clueless vanity plate Andre (Paul Scheer) and straight man Pete sound straight from a Judd Apatow film or heyday "Entourage" episode. Amazingly, the show has created, in Kevin's wife Jenny, a female character with wits; she's equal partner in Kevin's comedic escapades, instead of a whining shrew or devoted ninny.
FX's remarkably loose censorship regulations allow the show's tone to remain consistently ribald. Ass-fingering, 69ing and something called "vaginal hubris" are discussed candidly. None of the characters, it seems, have much of an inner monologue.
This leads to an in-show issue, which I dub the "Secret Girlfriend problem." The problem is nothing new--it's plagued teen comedies since at least the second Revenge of the Nerds movie--but "Girlfriend" defines it and "League, "at times, flirts with it. Simply put, the "SGP" occurs when untalented and/or lazy comedy writers can't tell the difference between obscene/funny and just obscene. Sex, alcohol, drugs, masturbation, flatulence, scatology, nudity--anything that raises an eyebrow--are paraded out, as if the ideas alone are funny enough.
The personification of this problem is "League" character Taco. Taco is a walking pothead stereotype who fails to recognize his good friends and sings ballads about Kevin and Jenny's sex life. Taco provides drugs and sex, but no humor. The idea that Taco is always high is supposed to be inherently humorous, but I fail to find anything funny about that. A love song whose lyrics turn into a graphic depiction of sex aims to elicit chuckles, but, again, just mentioning the act itself doesn't strike me as an occasion for laughs.
To contrast, let's discuss another scene that makes the obscene funny. In the second episode, Ruxin's wife has forbid him from viewing porn. So he finds a porn loophole and begins masturbating to a video on a sports bra website that demonstrates "bounce tests." This is funny because 1) forbidding your husband to view pornography when you also won't have sex with him strikes me as patently absurd and 2) Ruxin masturbates to the same website on the same computer that his wife uses, and the website happens to be a resource for women sincerely concerned about getting support while running. See the difference? Masturbating to porn is not funny; it's a commonplace act, at least in the western world. But the circumstances surrounding the usage of porn make it funny and therefore warrant its inclusion. And if you can always make the obscene funny then, hell, be as obscene as you want.
That was a bit of a tangent. But I think it demonstrated when and how this show is comedically misfiring. At other points, as well, the humor feels strained and cartoonish--Andre has strippers serving beer in his apartment? If "League" 's writers can fine-tune the humor a little more, I see great potential for this program.
Grade: A minus
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