The League: A Show For Fantasy Football Fans

This past Thursday saw the premiere of a new show on FX called "The League".

The show is about five friends who have known each other since high school who are all in a fantasy foot ball league.  Three of the men are successful regular guys and the other is a stoner slacker who think CFL players count in the League.

The show is similar in style to always sunny in Philadelphia or curb your enthusiasm.  It has plenty of great characters to satisfy any TV fan, from the geeky rich guy to the stoner who writes sexual birthday songs to the lawyers who use trading first round picks to negotiate a mans prison sentence to the three time champion who has his own trophy for the league winner.

The show lets you know how much the writers know about football with their quips about current and past players.

The show stars pretty much a bunch of no name actors but all of which have appeared in other shows as one offs or side characters.  The main character, Pete, is a married man whose wife wants to have a baby and stick her finger in his ass during sex.  His best line was during his opening speech- "There are many things a man can do with his time and this is better than those things" referring to fantasy football of course.  Petes wife gave his "I shaved my balls for this?" shirt to their housekeeper, prompting Pete to pay $200 for his own shirt and also breakup with his wife Meegan.  By the way her name is actually pronounce MEE-GAN, what the hell is that?

One of the lawyers, Ruxon, comes off as almost a pedophile in his quest for guidance from the Oracle, a nine year old with a keen insight to fantasy football.  During the final minutes of the show Ruxon shows up to the Draft with the Oracle to discuss strategy alone in an upstairs bedroom, without the knowledge of the kids parents.  The deal he made was he would give the kid his Manning jersey for a winning season, the problem here being the kid is an asshole and has no real input for Ruxon.  As the he attempts to rip the jersey off of the kid his parents burst in wondering what the hell is going on only to hear the response "This guy is being a douche" from Ruxon as he tries to get his jersey back. 

Taco, the stoner, is one of the funnier characters as he doesnt even seem to remember Ruxon at a little girls birthday.  He introduces himself only have Ruxon reply, "Dude, Taco, Ive known you for seventeen years" without any real surprise in his voice from not being recognized.  He even owns a unicorn bong the requires him to smoke fromt he mythical creatures backside.

The best bit of the show was when the character hosting the draft showed the framed dubbie left over from his first joint.  He soon finds out that the joint was in fact filled with pubic hair "From right near the root" as one character describes.  After hearing that it may have actually gotten the other guy high Taco tried to smoke his own pubes.

With the shows sharp wit and charsmatic cast it is sure to be a hit.  Hopefully it appeals to non football fans as well with its relationship, friendship and breakup story lines.  I give this shows premiere a 9.5/10 for comedy.

What did you think of the premiere of the league.