FTT Review: The League

Now appearing on Netflix Instant, it's Season One of The League, the semi-scripted FX comedy series about shameless fantasy football league players (are there any other kind?) who care more about the humiliation of their friends than their own success. Like any semi-scripted piece, it's very hit and miss, and fails on the big test of comedy, which is funny on repeat viewings. For my tastes, it was also fairly light on the fantasy content, and trying a little too hard to be "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," another semi-scriped FX piece that's a little too red-meat awful people to be entirely enjoyable. But it's still winning enough, especially when there is no real commitment, since it's just an Instant button click away.

I have one other quibble about this show: real fantasy guys are never, if ever, married to smoking hot women, but since no other kind of woman is allowed to work in television, I suppose I need to just get over that. In the show, Katie Aselton gets a breakout role as the not-so-secret brains behind her man's team, and she's never not funny. Less solid is Mark Duplass in the nominal lead role, and Nick Kroll as Ruxin gets too many awkward things to do to come off as anywhere near likable. But Jonathan Lajoie as Taco is pretty great, and Paul Scheer is always a win. Give it a spin, even if you don't enjoy play in a league, and nitpick it for yourself. At least while you aren't laughing your fool head off...