“I can’t wait for football season to start”
Warning: Full spoilers for The League: Season 7 premiere follow below.
Tilt those fedoras just so and gather round your Eskimo brothers because the final season of FXX’s The League kicked off Wednesday night with plenty of guest star appearances (Marshawn Lynch and his Skittles, anyone?) and season set-ups to keep drafters busy throughout this final 13-episode run.
“That Other Draft” was a slow start to the actual fantasy season, as the show took a pause from the fake shenanigans in order to honor the real chaos via the bonafide NFL draft in Chicago. There, Jenny had won a contest to announce the third overall draft pick, which she refused to pass on to Kevin even though it was his birthday. Meanwhile, Andre hid his new relationship with Meegan (Pete’s ex-wife from Season 1), and Taco learned that he actually enjoys being punished. In short, it was a pretty typical opener of the skewed comedy; even Rafi made a cameo appearance via the outhouse kitchen set up in Kevin and Jenny’s living room.
If anything, the varied antics and comfortable jokes courtesy of the six main players proved that this final season is business as usual for the series. These people will continue to be pretty terrible to one another in order to win this year’s Shiva — or whatever the new trophy ends up being called — all while attempting to avoid being deemed the next Sacko (or Ruxin) “winner.”
As the new league commissioner/champ, it’s Andre’s season to shine. His friends continue to torment him with plenty of hat jokes and ideas of what the new championship trophy should look like, but this time he’s got a little more swagger to his step. Aside from dating Meegan, he’s also come out of last season as a winner for the first time, and that gives him more confidence in the group. HIs reactions are a little less melodramatic than before, simply because he’s got more going on. It’s Andre, so we know that it can’t last, but it’s a fun character shift to follow for the start of the season.
Meanwhile, Taco’s newfound position as Ruxin/Sacko winner has been a long time coming. As the token fantasy member who knows nothing about football, it’s a wonder he hasn’t been in this position before. Knowing how much he likes to be punished, we’re sure it’s a position he’ll aspire to again. It works because rather than watch one person be tormented over and over again, his reactions and punishments actually have more of an effect on the rest of the gang. Watching him don the McGibblets costume again (this time for the simple fact that it’s his best suit) was a nice throwback to the “Mr. McGibblets” episode from Season 1, but also reminded us that this is a show that builds its comedy with each episode. In other series, the jokes and storyline reset at the end of each installment. Here, inside jokes and situations from the past can resurface at any given moment, truly making the audience feel as though it’s hanging out with their group of friends.
Unfortunately, that comedy is usually at its best as the friends are within the draft itself, making side bets and attempting to carry on every day life when football reigns supreme. This means that while there were plenty of fun threads to the opening episode (Kevin and Ruxin handling the Tyler Lockett draft, Pete finding out about Meegan), the episode itself seemed more about the cameos and real world than the fictional world these guys have set up for themselves. That’s all fine and good for now, but the quicker we get into the meat of the season the better.
It was business as usual for this ragtag group of friends as they waited out the upcoming football season with soccer, ex-wives, and a real-life NFL draft in Chicago that sparked the resurgence of a former League character. Meanwhile, Andre proved a resurgence of his own with his newfound confidence as the league champ, and Taco realized that punishments are kind of his thing. It all culminated in a fun episode with plenty of NFL cameos, but left us wanting the fantasy draft to get underway already.
