I was recently turned onto this show, and my friend told me "Don't ask what it's about, just watch it. It's really funny. The reason he said this is because the show is about a group of friends who play fantasy football. I am not the kind of guy who gets stoked over football, and especially fantasy football, but I had actually heard of the show, and wanted to watch it. Mostly because the idea sounded kind of novel, and an ongoing series about fantasy football sounded ironically funny to me. Fantasy football is like the Dungeons & Dragons of the sports community. It's so unbelievably dorky, and the people that play are the same kind of people who would talk shit to me for playing D&D. Well I watched the show hoping for a few chuckles, and what I got was anything but ironic humor.
This show is so self aware, and not only does the show, but the characters in the show know that they're ridiculous for making this small game such a big part of their lives. Not only that, but the chemistry between these characters is so good that I have to assume that they're friends off screen, and they improvise a lot of these jokes, because I can't see how they could get the timing and humor so perfect. The show is really spot on, on so many marks. A lot of the shows running jokes consist of the characters compromising their real lives for the sake of their teams, and the chance to win this tournament. One of which early on involves two of the characters who are attorneys on opposing ends of a court case, who bring up a trade in their professional environment. It's hard to go into specifics about how these jokes work so well without spoiling the jokes themselves (no one wants to hear a punchline before they hear a joke...). Another of the characters is kind of like the group's bum. He just kind of hangs around them, and occasionally he randomly plays songs. This sounds like a terrible idea, and most shows can't make a gag like this work, but almost all of them are so funny in the context of the show.
The League is really a hidden gem among TV comedies. There's little to nothing else like it out there, and it does its own style of humor so well. It's hard to tell people why a show about fantasy football is so amazing, but there's just something really awesome about this show, and I cannot wait for the next season to start. Seriously, go watch this show.
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