Praise for FX's "The League"

Brace yourself; I'm devoting a blog entry to a sitcom on FX that's not It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Before we get started: If you're asking yourself, "FX airs something other than Always Sunny?" then click here.  If you're asking yourself, "What's FX?" then try this one.  If you're asking yourself, "What's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?" then I'm going to have to ask you to leave this site immediately.  Now that we've taken care of some housekeeping, let's talk about The League.

The League isn't really a show about sports.  It's actually a traditional sitcom about a bunch of guys, their wives / girlfriends / relationships, their jobs, etc.  Sounds pretty awful, not to mention fairly predictable, no?  Well, to some extent it's both of those things.  The show is extremely juvenile (even compared to Always Sunny . . .), and several of the plot lines are cliche and repetitive.  So, why do I watch The League and why am I encouraging you to do the same?  Because, in an underserved market, even a pretty crappy product can survive if demand is sufficiently high and competition is sufficiently low (see, I'm learning something in business school after all).  In this case, the underserved market is "television dedicated to fantasy football," a market that The League attacks aggressively and somewhat successfully.

Before you start to attack me with talk of Matthew Berry and DirecTV's Fantasy Tracker, I'm talking about TV content that talks about what it's like to play fantasy football, not content that tells you who to start each week (we actually have too much of that, if anything).  Anyone who has a league (or leagues) that they're loyal to and take seriously knows what I'm talking about; fantasy football takes up more time than we'd like to admit, and at times we'll do anything to secure a win.  That's what The League is all about - overly-extreme examples of how far guys will go to win their fantasy football leagues.  In one episode, one guy convinces his buddy that a random drunk black guy in a bar is Bears star Matt Forte in order to get him to trade the running back to a competing team.  In another episode, the gang races through airport security, with the first man through the checkpoint earning the first pick in their draft.  While admittedly stupid, these plotlines are a pretty clever way at poking fun at how obsessed American men (and sometimes women) are with fantasy football.

Check out The League on Thursdays at 10:30 PM on FX Network.

The show also features cameos from NFL players, so it you ever wanted to know who was a better actor between Browns WR Josh Cribbs and Ravens LB Terrell Suggs, watch last week's episode (spoiler alert: they both sucked).  Ochocinco guest-starred in the Season Two premiere, and other stars are slated to appear in future episodes.  The show also has the luxury of airing at 10:30 PM on FX, so they get away with a lot.  Not only is there some cursing, but last week there was a scene were the characters comically (and accurately) discussed racially-based diction in sports (how black NFL coaches are always referred to as "class acts" and how latino baseball players are "firecrackers" or "spark plugs," for example) that would never fly on NBC or even FOX.

The League's not the best show on TV, but it's definitely worth watching if you enjoy stupid comedies (any fan of The Hangover shouldn't consider himself too good for this show . . .) and/or play fantasy football.  I'm hoping the show gains a little more traction, because between it and Always Sunny FX has developed a surprisingly solid hour of television on Thursday nights.