The League

The League is a show about 5 high-school buddies facing everyday life concerns while mercilessly ridiculing each other and placing way too much importance on their fantasy football league!

From the outset this show is way funny, making use of the relaxed boundaries cable TV offers. Not at all politically correct and not concerned with hurt feelings. A good comparison is 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' but having more likable characters and relying more on good humour than shock value (for the most part).

The chemistry of the cast is great. The characters play off each other really well, especially after the series finds its feet, and make for some of the more memorable TV comedy figures in recent history.

I was compelled to check this show out after looking for more TV comedy and reading about comparisons to the almighty Seinfeld. I would agree with this assessment in that it has intricate, often intersecting story lines, while having everyday situations with absurd outcomes and definitely prescribing to the 'no-hugging, no learning' ethos of Seinfeld.

Setting it apart is the 'dude' humour, and a level of crassness you can't get away with on network TV.

I was not surprised to find out the creator, directors of 'The League' had written for Seinfeld and directed episodes of another brilliant comedy 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.'

Standing on the shoulders of giants indeed but definitely succeeding in delivering a hugely funny, unpredictable show with brilliant moments of dialogue and a developing world within the show!

Tim Thorne

I'm so glad this show is back. It has consistently been one of my favorite series on TV for the last few years.

While last season left something to be desired this season has already started off with a bang. The Draft Shows are always some of the best. The writing is so smart and there are so many payoffs for longtime viewers. The same device was used in How I Met Your Mother and it works on this show as well.

I would like to have the stories focus more around fantasy football as the catalyst for the stories. That was my main complaint of last season. They got too far away from fantasy and focused more on sit com plot structures. The "Dirty Randy And Rafi" episode was one of the worst of the entire season because there was no football in it.

Hopefully this season will return back to their roots and be more football oriented.

Still this is one of the best shows on TV.

I will start by saying It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is my favorite show of all time. I will follow this up with saying that The League is one of the funniest shows I've ever watched. While it doesn't have the same level of satire that Sunny has, this show had the same irreverence and the same no-holds-barred energy that Sunny has. FX and FXX have struck gold with two of the funniest shows or funniest this era of television has seen. While season 7 was not good, the first 6 seasons gave me some of the best laughs I've ever had.

Difficult to rate because I'm conflicted. I have no idea why this hasn't been released in the UK, other than the fact that most of us probably don't get American Football references and it's probably not suitable to be aired on television generally. It's totally gross, sick, rude, inappropriate, blasphemous, obscene, cringeworthy and has jokes about just about everything that I personally find distasteful, and things that I'd usually turn off for. However, it is unavoidably hilarious. Laugh out loud funny even if you are berating yourself for finding something so horrible amusing. You know you should switch off but it's just too funny. It's definitely more boy-humour than girl-humour (think The Hangover) so I'm surprised I like it so much in that respect. None of the characters are particularly likable (I personally like Pete best), but you end up really attached to them, but the comedy is just so clever, fast and observational as well as horrible but there are some big names that have graced it's episodes from the world of Football and there's a great few eps with Jeff Goldblum to name one familiar actor - and he's his fabulous self as ever.

Basically set around the antics of six friends who are part of a fantasy football league, and the lengths they will go to to win their league trophy - the Shiva, named after a plain girl who went to their highschool with them who is now a very attractive doctor and friend. Do not watch this if you don't like bad language, violence, drugs, reference to any body parts, bodily functions or anything of a sexual nature. Or if you are squeamish. Or delicate. Or of a nervous disposition. Currently on four series and I hope there are more.

This is one of the best, by far in my opinion, comedies out there. For me it has successfully filled the void left by Arrested Development. There are other shows that fill this void as well but this one of the few shows that satisfies my desire for quick witted humor combined with sophomoric humor. My wife feels it's a guy's show. I can't entirely disagree. I would say it is definitely aimed at the very people it features. But also I would say anyone who likes sharp and fast humor like Arrested or Sunny will like this. There is definitely enough humor that goes outside fantasy football to appeal to a more general demographic. I think my favorite part of the is that it is lauded as semi scripted which to me really comes out in the dialogue. You can tell that there are times when they are genuinely laughing at the jokes or barbs each other throws out there unexpectedly. This also adds to the chemistry of the characters and the naturalness of the show. It really feels like you're watching 5 friends/couples going back and forth and arguing or discussing etc. Supposedly, and I believe it, the main actors are all friends in real life and even do a fantasy league with the shows creators. Regardless of whether that is true or not I think this is a true comedy gem that should be around for a long time.