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Twitter'The League' review: It could go all ... the ... way
Here's the thing: whatever your feelings about FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" -- love it, hate it, ambivalent -- chances are you'll feel the same way about new comedy series "The League," premiering Thursday, Oct. 29.I have never been in love with "It's Always Sunny," but "The League" made me laugh out loud several times. It focuses on a group of guy friends who play in the same fantasy football league every year and as I happen to be an avid fantasy football player, I found the jokes punchy and clever.
The five guys are League Commissioner Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi), a married father and assistant DA; Kevin's best friend Pete (Mark Duplass), the reigning champ and three-time winner of the league who has a controlling girlfriend; Kevin's brother Taco (Jon Lajoie), a stoner slack-off ladies' man; Ruxin (Nick Kroll), an intense defense attorney; and Andre (Paul Scheer), a plastic surgeon, terrible fantasy football player and the group's punching bag.
The interactions between the men are amusing and realistic. Anyone who has spent a lot of time in the company of men, will find that the
pranks, shenanigans and ragging on each other rings true and sports fans will
enjoy the football-centric dialogue. The writers obviously know what they're doing, as evidenced by the use of real-life NFL players and real-life fantasy football mistakes:[to Andre, remedial fantasy football player]
Pete: Andre of the previous seasons is gone. The last thing he is gonna do this year is draft Tiki Barber, even though he's actually just a commentator.
Kevin: You know what you should do this year? You should look at Phil Simms or Boomer Esiason.
However, when the show veers away from the buddy time and the football talk, it gets into the absurd "It's Always Sunny" territory and that may lose some viewers.
The best example is the sexually-explicit song Taco writes for brother Kevin's daughter Ellie's 5th birthday. Not only is it hard to believe someone would write a song like this in the first place and actually think it's appropriate for a child's birthday party, there's not a chance Kevin's wife Jenny (Katie Aselton) would have let the performance go on as long as it does. Therefore, the joke falls flat.
Speaking of Jenny, she's the character who needs to get more screentime. While both Pete and Ruxin have controlling girlfriends -- Meeghan (Leslie Bibb) for Pete and as as-of-yet-unseen Sofia (Nadine Velazquez) for Ruxin -- it turns out Jenny is quite the fantasy football guru and essentially runs husand Kevin's team as the (Wo)Man Behind the Curtain to the Great and Powerful Oz. Hopefully she continues to be "one of the guys" because her character is immensely enjoyable.
Overall, "The League" leans more heavily towards The Funny and not as heavily towards The Gross and The Absurd of "It's Always Sunny."
Oh, and for the record: I'm currently 8th (out of 12) in one fantasy football league but am 2nd in the points total. In my other league, I'm 18th (out of 18) but am 6th in the points total, which shows you how much I've been getting jobbed week in and week out.
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Funny, but it isn't even on the same level as Always Sunny. Your probably someone who finds 30 Rock and Two and a half Men funny. Can it with the Always Sunny criticism.
It just wasn't funny according to www.fantasy-football-first.com and they should know.
Like Always Sunny, they took an interesting idea and then loaded it up with low-brow, gross-out jokes that only the lowest of the low would find funny more than once or twice.
Enjoyed the FFB humor, hated the rest as it just wasn't funny.
Very disappointed.
This show is amazing. I hope it runs at least a couple seasons. I will be watching next thursday at 10:30. I also found a sneak peak of taco's next song on hulu.com check it out if you liked episode one. I forgot to mention my wife loved it too. She said its like a midwestern entourage or sex and the city the way the guys joke around with one another.
Ehhh this was decent. There are several problems though. First, they're going to have to make up fantasy news since they're running 8 weeks behind reality, although their draft was semi-realistic. Second, the few football jokes they make are pretty easy ones. Personally, as a hardcore fantasy player, I was hoping a show like this would delve a little deeper than jokes about drafting guys already retired or "stealing" a pick.
I just don't know if there's enough content to keep this going week to week.
"Fan of the Show" 30 Rock is genius. Two and a Half Man is rubbish. I can't believe you'd lump fans of those two shows together.
watched it once. hated it.
8/10...very funny for a pilot. Can't wait to see the characters develop later on
I think it is absurd to compare this to always sunny. Not because im such a huge fan, which I am, but because they are totally different shows.
I cant agree more that you probably find 30 rock, and sadly anything with an outdated laugh track, and awful punch lines like 2 and a half men funny.
Shows like Always Sunny, Arrested Development, old Office and the pilot episode of Modern Family are in a totally different league (HAHA get it?). I wouldn't call us viewers the lowest of the low as much as the smartest of the lowest.
My like minded roommates and I decided to give the league a shot last night. The scene with the Dad being forced to dance with his daughter and her favorite electronic dancing doll was funny, and never done before which was great.
As for the rest of the show filled with stupid reasoning based scenes, and gay innuendos that almost make you uncomfortable you realize that this isn't the way you and your friends would talk, and that the writers are trying to hard. Making it stupid. Maybe your friends talk that way and your all secretly hooking up with each other.
Just an opinion, im sure im part of a smaller smarter audience.