“The League – Season 1” DVD Review
FX has always been a home for some exceptionally original shows such as “The Shield,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “Rescue Me,” so it’s not entirely unexpected to see the theme of Fantasy Football be used to create a show of its own. Using a mixture of expected scripted and surprising improvised humor, The League delves into a realm that you’ve potentially been curious about but have never quite been so dedicated to sports to actually experience yourself. As expected, it’s a comedic romp through awkward personalities interacting with even more awkward personalities, filled with even further character development than you really expect for the premise the show is based upon.
Synopsis
When six friends compete on the virtual gridiron, it’s a no-holds-barred, win-at-all-costs free-for-all full of deception, trickery and one-upmanship. Pete (Duplass), a slacker who has won the league the past four seasons, is determined to triumph once again even at the risk of his marriage. Arrogant yet paranoid, Ruxin (Kroll) would rather brush up on key fantasy stats than dote on his newborn, much to his wife’s chagrin. League commissioner Kevin (Rannazzisi) secretly has his wife – the ruthless, confident and vaginally talented Jenny (Katie Aselton) – run his team. Kevin’s younger brother, Taco (Jonathan Lajoie), is a part-time musician who writes inappropriate songs and a full-time stoner. Once a loser in high school, Andre (Scheer) is now a successful plastic surgeon and a just as unsuccessful fantasy league player. Though marched grudgingly into adulthood, the motley crew finds refuge from life’s tedium with immature behavior and the thrill of chasing victory.
Throughout the season, despite its shortness and a few rough patches in the first pair of episodes, most of the characters will eventually be able to lure you into having more fun than you really expected to have. Mostly due to needing to become acquainted with the comedy style of some of the actors, although a select few don’t quite ever deliver as well as the others. Still, it was a pleasant treat to see so many diverse, though still awkward, characters get inserted into a series that had very misleading promo trailers. The trailers generally left me uninterested since they focused a little too much on a quick joke based on the stereotypical premise. It’s generally fine for the first few to do, but even going into the second season they don’t exactly give the impression that it’s not just a continuous cheap joke at fantasy football.
Considering its short season, I wasn’t really expecting much in the way of character development and subplots, but they actually do exist. They aren’t many, granted, but the few that are there allow for some really pleasant development of characters that seem solely there for the occasional backup joke. This can be credited significantly to the actors, who mange to convey a lot more range than the usual (relatively) unheard of is generally capable of on their first outing of this scale.
Overall, I have to admit it’s still not really my type of show and I was skeptical of finding anything redeemable since even the subject of the premise itself doesn’t interest me, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many times I found myself laughing and caring for the characters. FX seems to need to work on marketing this better since I can remember the barrage of promos for the start of the season, but I had no idea it had such a short first season as promotional material seemed to disappear after the series premiere. Unless you really like fantasy football, I feel it’s best to leave it recommended as a Rental for now, especially since it’s only six episodes – which usually is only the first disc of a season.
The DVD
Fox has pushed out The League’s first season in a standard two-disc clear amaray single width pack. A double sided jacket serves as the episode guide and disc information. Menus are simple and easy to navigate and despite watching this season originally in high-definition broadcast only, I was still impressed by the level of detail that this transfer brought to the table. Solid colors, nice detail and a hint of grain here and there help maintain the original look of this series as best as it can on a standard definition format. Audio is a DD5.1 mix and a bit superfluous on a comedy show, but surrounds and LFE do occasionally pop up when the occasion calls for it (which admittedly isn’t very often). There’s a Blu-ray edition of this show available as well.
The first thing to note that while, yes, there are only six episodes in this series, there are extended versions of each one included here. For simplicities sake I’ll just do a quick disc breakdown:
Disc 1
Episodes: (Extended episodes seamlessly branched)
* The Draft
* The Bounce Test
* Sunday at Ruxin’s
Special Features
* Deleted Scenes
* Andre: Dress with Style, Win with Style
* Legalize Kevin’s Pubic Smoke
* Bonus Feature from FX: “Archer” Pilot Episode
Disc 2
Episodes: (Extended episodes seamlessly branched)
* Mr. McGibblets
* The Usual Bet
* The Shiva Bowl
Special Features:
* Blooper Reel
* Deleted Scenes
* Alt Nation
* Mr. McGibblets Fun House and Dojo
* Three Penis Wine Infomerical
* Vaginal Hubris Extended
* Birthday Song
As you can see there aren’t just the six episodes but quite a few extras to partake in as well and like the series they’re all well worth checking out. While they won’t take up a lot of your time, fans of the series will no doubt enjoy seeing extended versions of Taco’s commercials/infomercials. Overall a Recommended set.
The League: Season 1 is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Season review by Andrew
DVD review by Zach Demeter