[7.5/10] Normally I find the attempts at clockwork comedic storytelling in The League pretty underwhelming, but my favorite part of this episode is how it set up so many different storylines and had them nicely crash into one another in the final act. Not everything falls together perfectly, and some of it gets a bit broad, but there’s enough controlled chaos at play to make this a fun finish.
I think I’m just going to have to live with the garden variety sexism and gay panic here if I’m going on this show, because it shows no signs of getting better. That said, I do like the fact that Ruxin’s terrible idea of a “work flirt” backfires when the judge he’s been flirting with wants to take things further. Him barking like a dog with a bone in his mouth is too cartoony, but Ruxin getting some comeuppance is solid at least.
At the same time, I like the idea of Andre trying to use his medical/sketch skills to get Taco to do a trade with him, replete with an amusing homage. But the fact that the whole thing ends in another big gay panic joke is pretty weak.
I did like Taco’s plotline where he’s dating the court sketch artist (Alia Shawkat, who knows a things or two about clockwork comic stories!), and having things go south. Taco’s naievete, and the ridiculousness of communicating through sketch really worked for me,
I also liked the plotline where Jenny and Kevin are colluding with one another, and get called on it the group in Court. It’s a nice escalation of ridiculousness in a good way, and gets the show back to its fantasy football premise a little bit. I felt colder about the bit where Peter’s constantly trying to steal Andre’s thunder (the “Peter as jerk” plotlines just never do it for me), but I did get a kick out of how humorously terrible Andre is as an expert witness, and the circus the group creates in court at the end was the peak of the episode.
Overall, this one still has a solid number of demerits, but the comedy and the writing felt sharper all around, which gives me a spot of hope for the series.
Shout by TheLazyReviewerBlockedParent2023-10-18T07:22:42Z
Not a good episode. Probably equal worst. Okay up until the court room scene but it goes down really quick from there.