FX Aims for Raunchy Laughs with The League

Best known for its edgy dramas, FX hit comedy pay dirt with the anti-PC series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” especially since Danny DeVito joined the cast.
During the past few seasons, the network has been looking for a half-hour companion to the sitcom, but has fond that even when aiming to appeal to men, it is not that easy to be rude, crude and funny, all on a relatively low budget.
On Thursday, the network launched “The League,” about a bunch of guys who compete for fantasy football supremacy, to some decidedly unkind reviews.
The Washington Post asked “How is it possible to screw up America’s favorite two contact sports—six and football—this badly. According to the Los Angeles Times, “the crudeness seems to be the narrative. And, to a certain extent the characters as well.”
To be fair, the Miami Herald called the show “a raunchy laugh riot,” noting that “the testosterone-infused interplay as they taunt each other over career potholes, curdled marriages and sexual depravities and deprivations is scathing and hilarious, though an astonishing percentage of it cannot even be alluded to here.” Even the Old Gray Lady, the New York Times, found the show amusing. In its review, the Times says the creators of “The League” “have injected rather a lot of sex and vulgarity into ‘The League,’ so much so that by Episode 2 it pretty much takes over the show and fantasy football becomes a secondary plotline. That turns out to work pretty well: in its astonishingly raunchy way, ‘The League’ is pretty funny whether or not you’re a fantasy geek, assuming you’re a TV-MA kind of person.”
Being at TV-MA kind of guy, I checked it out.
I’m not easily offended, so the references to smoking joints filled with public hair, revelations about where one character’s wife likes to put her finger while they’re making love, a benefit for dogs with Down’s Syndrome and a plot line about child predators (the kid in question really knows his football), didn’t bother me.
In general the language pushes the limits of basic cable, with a couple of four-letter words and repeated references to body parts. FX has tried to make itself the HBO of basic cable, and part of its strategy was to risk offending viewers and advertisers with situations and language tamer broadcasters wouldn’t touch. It worked for “The Shield” “Nip/Tuck,” and Rescue Me.”
In “The League,” a bit about a wife giving away her husband’s favorite fantasy football draft day T-shirt, which reads “I shaved my balls for this?” made me chuckle. And I laughed at the way the guys determined draft position by betting on the results of a kiddie potato sack race.
I’m easily entertained, so I’ll probably watch again. But the funniest moment during last nights premiere was a promo for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”