Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: 9/3/2013
Director: Jeff Schaffer
Cast: Mark Duplass, Stephen Rannazzisi, Katie Aselton, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Jonathan Lajoie
Year: 2012
Purchase from Amazon
The Movie:
FX's raunchy comedy continues to hold on to television life with this fourth season of The League, a show about a small fantasy football league participated in by some shitheaded people. The show takes place in Chicago and features a group of four life-long friends and their families: Pete (Mark Duplass) is a divorced man with a shitty job living the single life and has no interest in much of anything other than football; Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) is a prosecutor who makes incredibly bad decisions along with his wife Jenny (Katie Aselton), who was allowed into the league in the third season. She is no better than the others. Ruxin (Nick Kroll) is a sarcastic, rude defense lawyer who enjoys others pain a bit too much; Andre (Paul Scheer) is a plastic surgeon and the favorite target in the group. Kevin has a brother, Taco (Jonathan Lajoie), who is also in the league but doesn't care. His time is spent being baked and marketing bad business ideas.
Other than Taco, the group live to verbally abuse one another while trying to undermine each other in order to win the coveted championship trophy, “The Shivaâ€, named after a girl they went to high school with. This season they anger Shiva (Janina Gavankar), who became a urologist, and things don't go well for anyone due to her curse. Add to the mix Ruxin's brother-in-law Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas), who makes them all look likes saints. He's rude, crude, and pretty much insane. And his relationship with his sister, Ruxin's wife (Nadine Velazquez), is creepy and inappropriate. Usually when Rafi shows up, something vile and disgusting is in the cards.
It's immature humor, and who would want it any other way? 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 they seem to push the envelope further every season. Jizz humor, breast milk shenanigans, shit jokes, fart jokes, tons of sexual jocularity, and racism. All of the offensive avenues seem to be covered.
Guest stars show up too, like Jeff Goldblum as Ruxin's father who tries to have sex with his daughter-in-law. Julia Duffy makes an appearance as the mother of Kevin and Taco and she hates Jenny, subjecting her to breast milk alcohol tests. J.B. Smoove shows up in an episode and a man in a wheel chair who wants some high end sneakers and steals the show. Seth Rogan plays Dirty Randy the pornographer. Timothy Oliphant makes an appearance as a sushi chef. And Bob Odenkirk gives Ruxin some trouble at the mall during Christmas (Ruxin is Jewish). Also thrown in here and there is the occasional NFL player that they happen to bump into almost like the Brady Bunch happened to bump into Don Ho in Hawaii. If you like football, maybe that will excite you. If you don't, it's not too much to bear. In fact the show only uses football as the thread that connects them all. There is plenty of non-football humor so that the football stuff doesn't get in the way.
After four seasons, The League continues to maintain its entertainment value. At 22 minutes an episode, it's just enough of a fix without being taxing. And the show holds up to repeat viewing. If you haven't given this show a try, you should. It's just fun, dumb humor.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The show is laid out on DVD in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, and as far as DVDs go it looks great. 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.
Extras-wise, there's some good stuff to check out. Disc One has some deleted/alternate scenes (just under seven minutes), a song about Pete's tiny erect dick (1 minute long), “Rafi's Helpful Holiday Hints†is an extention of a bit from an episode and is awesome at only a minute and twenty seconds. “You know who loves Christmastime more than kids do? Rapists.†Last on the disc is “Witchy Womanâ€, a magic podcast Andre made (1:10). Disc Two: 6.5 minutes of deleted/alternate scenes, then Taco sings about Ruxin's “anchor baby†idea (1:20). “Alt Nation†is a rapid-fire alternate takes of jokes not used in the final cut. It's about 14 minutes of some pretty good stuff. Lastly is a gag reel running about 15 minutes and it's a good one, mostly the actors trying to outdo each other and crack one another up. And as an added feature, extended versions are available giving the viewer even more foul language (mostly the “F†word) but also offering some extra footage. You may as well watch the extended episodes over the aired ones.
The Final Word:
Solid entertainment for those who like their comedy on the vulgar side, The League is worth the time spent with it. The fourth season looks great, lends itself to some great moments and the extras are all entertaining. Well worth the price of admission.