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Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: 10/4/2011
Director: Jeff Schaffer
Cast: Mark Duplass, Stephen Rannazzisi, Katie Aselton, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Jonathan Lajoie
Year: 2010
Purchase from Amazon
The Movie:
A small fantasy football team in the greater Chicago area is the focus of this FX Channel sit-com, and the second season finds its way to home video. Fans of the show will enjoy funnier episodes than the first season, and the introduction of a new character. Those not familiar with the show, here's what it's about.
Five guys and one lady are heavily involved in a fantasy football league, which leads them to fierce competition and unrelenting verbal abuse of one another. Pete (Mark Duplass) is a divorced man with a shitty job living the single life; Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) and his wife Jenny (Katie Aselton, yummy and a Mainer) are raising their young daughter Ellie; Ruxin (Nick Kroll) is an asshole lawyer who will do anything to win; Andre (Paul Scheer) is a plastic surgeon who's just plain awkward; Taco (Jonathan Lajoie) is Kevin's dim-witted stoner little brother who's practically homeless. They constantly say mean things to each other, mostly in good fun, and there's just as much on the personal attack level as there is bravado talk about how much better their team is than the other guy's team.
Season Two yielded thirteen episodes, which in FX Land is a full season. Some of the episodes offer the aired version and an extended version (noted below), the extended versions mainly adding “fuck†to the dialogue in spots, but also offering some extra footage.
Disc One: Vegas Draft (extended)/Bor-Lo El Cunado (extended)/The White Knuckler/The Kluenberg (extended)/The Marathon/The Anniversary Party/Ghost Monkey
Disc Two: The Tie (extended)/The Expert (extended)/High School Reunion/Ramona Neopolitano (extended)/Kegel the Elf/The Sacko Bowl (extended)
The League is simply a fun show to watch. All the characters get their turns at being made fun of and because each person is a dick in their own way, watching awful stuff happen to them is enjoyable. Most any guy can relate with the constant bashing they give one another, and the female lead in the show, Jenny, holds her own as well as gets what's coming to her. The crass humor and physical comedy are mixed well, and even though it can be over the top at times, it never falls into the ridiculous, and thus maintains some realism that keeps the show and characters likable.
And this second season introduces the character of Rafi (played with expertise by Jason Mantzoukas), the brother of Ruxin's smoking hot wife Sofia (Nadine Velazquez). He is such an asshole he makes Ruxin seem like a nice guy, which he isn't. Rafi is a fucking riot and there is a scene in “The Kluenberg†that deserves to be mentioned with Deliverance and Pulp Fiction when talking about man-on-man butt love. For this viewer's money, he is easily the funniest character on the show, and they wisely don't use him in every episode. Too much of a good thing can take away from said good thing. Another standout episode is the Halloween episode, “Ghost Monkeyâ€. Taco steals a monkey from a petting zoo and chucks it out the car window after it goes wild hearing Andre's shitty music. Taco's is afraid the monkey's ghost is looking for revenge and everyone gets creeped out. And Pete gets into Ruxin's head by letting Ruxin choose Pete's lineup for the weekend. As a result Ruxin goes nearly insane. It has to be seen to be appreciated.
Those who dig football may like seeing a few cameos here and there by some players, for whatever that's worth. Those who don't give two shits about football shouldn't be bothered by these cameos or the football talk, as it's kept to a minimum and not the main focus of the show. Each episode runs under half an hour and that's just enough. If you haven't given this show a look yet, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by ignoring it. It's good television comedy.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The show is laid out on this disc in 1.78:1 Widescreen, AVC encoded. It's filmed in high-definition and it definitely comes across as such here. A Crisp, clean image with great colors, deep blacks, and frankly an excellent picture comes across the screen. No imperfections to report. The audio is a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and as with the picture it comes across as of high quality. Plenty of background sounds, a great balance of levels, and a nice rich sound. There is nothing out of the ordinary to report by way of glitches.
There's a good helping of extras to sift through on both discs. There are some sketch comedy pieces that tie into certain episodes. Like for example, in the episode “The Kluenberg†Andre pays $25,000 for a painting of a penis bird flying out of Butt Mountain. In the extras, Paul Scheer (Andre) is dressed like that dude on PBS with the afro who used to demonstrate how to paint scenery, and he demonstrates in the same way how to recreate the penis bird painting. Another extra is an extended version of wedding video footage shot by Taco at Ruxin's wedding, and it's not a flattering video for anyone in it. If deleted scenes are your bag, both discs have a smattering of them. Also to be found is a gag reel, which is a good one, and Jason Mantzoukas (Rafi) has some great adlibs, showing how funny that guy really is. Interviews with the cast would have been an added bonus. Maybe for Season Three?
The Final Word:
Good stuff. Season Two is even better than the first one and all we can hope for is that they keep it on the same caliber for another season or two. Hopefully they go on too long with the series and ruin it, which doesn't seem to happen with FX shows anyway. The 2-disc set delivers excellent image and sound, and the extras add a lot of value to the overall release. Well worth picking up.
