The League

EW had recommended this show a few times, and I can generally abide by their "Must List" recs. It had always been on the periphery of my radar, but I never thought it was for me. During a particularly slow pop culture period a year or so ago, I tried watching the pilot, but got bored after the first five minutes, because I didn't think it was funny. (It was also not evident within five minutes how truly raunchy the humor would get.)

But a couple of months ago, I gave it another shot, and I have a bizarre affection for this show now. I don't know why. There is so much I would normally dislike or, more accurately, just not be interested in. I'm a bandwagon sports-fan, and I can get wrapped up in it, but it's not an obsession. I have tried Wikipedia and Googling the rules of fantasy football for years now, and I still don't understand it. I hate raunchy humor (and maybe I'm over-stressing that element, but this level of raunch is typically to much for me). And there are just too many dudes on it, being dudely and gross and offensive about everything. The one woman who is a main character is annoying because she tries too hard. Everyone is so mean to Andre, and I dislike mean humor (all the piling on Jerry is my only quibble on Parks & Rec, which is like the moral opposite of this show). As an Indian-American, everything surrounding the Shiva trophy is incredibly offensive to me.

And yet, I kinda love it. And it makes me laugh a lot, several times, in every episode. The cast is awesome, and the dude who plays Taco is a real find. So many of my trusted comedians/comic actors have been on this show, and that's usually a sign that the show is respected by people I trust. The funny thing is, I know lots of guys who act like these characters. It's kind of a ridiculous show, but it's grounded in something I recognize, even though I would personally hate to hang out with these people in real life.

I assume there's some critical acclaim for this, but I'm honestly in the dark about it. I have no idea how most people feel about it. But, I've busted through the two seasons that are now up on Netflix (Season 2 must have been added recently), and am trying to figure out a way to catch up on the third season, as the first few episodes are not available online.

I have no idea if there are other people that watch here, but that's what I suppose this thread is for!

I feel like I should hate this show, too, but liked the first two seasons. This one I'm more "meh" about, though I liked the cult episode with TJ Miller.

Taco's my favorite character, before this I was only familiar with the actor's videos on Youtube.

I love this show and I'm glad others watch it! This season (four?) isn't doing it for me as much as the last ones but I still think it's pretty good. Taco is definitely the all-star of the show but all of them are genuinely funny characters and considering the show is semi-improvised the actors must be really good. I think the best episode ever was Mr. McGibblets from S1 where Taco ends up robbing Kevin's house and using Ruxin's sleep apnea machine as a bong. I'm laughing thinking about it.

New season starts on September 4th!

You can check to see if you get the new FXX here!

DirecTV is starting the FXX channel Sept 2. I'll get my League fix! SHIVAKAMINI SOMAKANDARKRAM!

Naginata Please!

Raised by wolves wrote:I love this show and I'm glad others watch it!  This season (four?) isn't doing it for me as much as the last ones but I still think it's pretty good.  Taco is definitely the all-star of the show but all of them are genuinely funny characters and considering the show is semi-improvised the actors must be really good.  I think the best episode ever was Mr. McGibblets from S1 where Taco ends up robbing Kevin's house and using Ruxin's sleep apnea machine as a bong.  I'm laughing thinking about it.

Responding almost a year later, but the Mr. McGibblets episode is my favorite as well. I'm also looking foward to Season 5 and my area is getting FXX. Though I think it's a stupid move to put all comedies on one channel that people may or may not get.

I started watching this on Netflix because of recommendations here and elsewhere. I have almost the exact same dislikes as Auroura76 (not interested in sports or bro humor, don't like how they all pile on Andre, find the Shiva stuff disturbing), and on top of that I don't think Mark Duplass is funny, and is creepy and gross, and find Paul Scheer irritating, AND YET, I love the show and watched all 3 of the available seasons.  How have seasons 4 and 5 been? I found season 3 the least funny of the first 3 seasons (though I appreciated that they tried to have one narrative thread going throughout -

Spoiler:

, so wondering if it gets even less funny.

Do we know why Taco is called Taco? Jeff Goldblum as Ruxin's father was GENIUS.

Season five starts tonight on the new FXX channel.

puddingcup wrote:I started watching this on Netflix because of recommendations here and elsewhere. I have almost the exact same dislikes as Auroura76 (not interested in sports or bro humor, don't like how they all pile on Andre, find the Shiva stuff disturbing), and on top of that I don't think Mark Duplass is funny, and is creepy and gross, and find Paul Scheer irritating, AND YET, I love the show and watched all 3 of the available seasons.

I hate basically everyone on the show--I find the characters absolutely disgusting and basically irredeemable. But I still like the show too. I can only watch one episode at a time, or it stops being funny and just becomes painful.

Not equimunk!

Netflix just put up Season 4 and I can't stop watching. Can't deal with Rafi, though.

Can't deal with Rafi, though.

I wouldn't want to live in a world without Rafi. Well I mean I wouldn't want to live in the actual real world with Rafi, but he is so horrifically hideously hysterically awful I love him! Mantzoukas is a national treasure!

I enjoyed the season 5 premiere and thank god they made Nick wear glasses! His face creeps me out when he doesn't.

Continuing the tradition of fucking with Ruxin's draft, I love that he got a defense first and then a kicker in round 2. Best screw job ever.

I LOVE RAFI! They use him just enough to not make me tired of him and he's so cringy. The domination league was glorious. The masks on/off and low voice conversation, having to clarify that they weren't supposed to kill Ruxin and Dirty Randy's dildo trident had me rolling.

thank god they made Nick wear glasses! His face creeps me out when he doesn't.

Me too. He has a weird combination of laser blue eyes and olive skin that just looks odd without the glasses.

The characters are awful but I love the show, unlike It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I just can no longer watch that show and haven't been able to for years. But The League works for me for some reason. And I too, LOVE RAFI!!!


The Domination League was my favorite part of the episode

New season starts tonight! How with Ruxin's draft get screwed this year? The Lady MacArthurs won the Shiva! Does Taco even know he's in a FF league? And which of Taco's NFL eskimo brothers will cameo this year?