Previewing The League

The very first year I played fantasy football I somehow lucked into the first pick and quickly snatched up Barry Sanders. That season it seemed like every game Sanders would rip off fifty yard runs only to be tackled inside the five where the Lions would turn the ball over to Tommy Vardell (who my friends mockingly called Touchdown Tommy to point out how he had more TD’s than my number one pick). After owning the cellar for the first half of the season I managed to put on a run ending up with second place. Since then I rarely even finish above five hundred.

With that decade and a half of futility, there were high hopes for The League, the latest attempt at comedy from FX. Although despite the show’s title, it seems like the show is more about thirty somethings who refuse to grow up and participating is just one sliver of that extended childhood. Sure the draft takes up a chuck of the premiere episode (including a novel idea of coming up with the draft order) but past that, it seems like fantasy football gets pushed to the background except for the occasional blackmailing induced trade that is made (Adrian Peterson gets acquired in a disturbing way).

The League is actually a fairly small five players, supposable there are two players who were on auto draft and another on the phone that go unseen so far. Mark Duplass (Humpday) is the two time reigning champ who has no problem choosing fake football over his wife, Leslie Bibb (Private Parts). The commissioner of the league Stephan Rannazzisi (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) has resulted to consulting with his wife Katie Aselton (The Puffy Chair). His brother Jon Lajoie (internet star) seems to care the least which is why he does so well. Rounding out the cast are Best Week Ever alums Nick Kroll, who isn’t above stalking a fantasy genius even is he is underage, and Paul Scheer who manages to draft a retired player at least once a year.

The League seems like it would have been a decent idea for a web series that changes along real-time with the current NFL season every week. Since The League is already filmed and in the whole I bet there may be some continuity error from actual football which is probably why they steer away from football for the most part during the second season. But for those that don’t mind crass humor of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, this may be a decent companion for the hour.

The League will air six straight Thursdays at 10:30 on FX (except Thanksgiving) starting tonight. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.