Pitch wears its feminism on its sleeve during a nude photo leak scandal

Because The A.V. Club knows that TV shows keep going even if we’re not writing at length about them, we’re experimenting with discussion posts. For certain shows, one of our TV writers will publish some brief thoughts about the latest episode, and open the comments for readers to share theirs.

• Pitch is a fantasy. We know this. And yet it was a little hard to watch this week’s usual “Ginny has to be an inspiration to young women everywhere because she’s first” speech. There was a real-life parallel happening, and now there isn’t.
• The ads for the show kind of gave away what the guys were going to do, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. Again, it’s a fantasy world, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful that all these men were willing to step forward and show up naked in support of her, to prove that slut-shaming women has no place in their world. That bodies are just bodies, and that there’s no reason to feel shame when they’re uncovered. And that women shouldn’t feel any extra shame about theirs.
• Also notable: The first media member we see discussing the situation is a woman, defending Ginny. This is the show that Pitch is.
• There’s a way in which the responses to the whole non-scandal are a bit rote, as everyone cycles through the usual reactions, but it only serves to make the answers Ginny gives when people push back that much more obvious. Women have bodies, women have sexual relationships, women are allowed to take nude photos for their partners. This is not a crime.
• “You’re a woman, you gotta be smarter than that.” “Smarter.” “Unlike me. I should not have said that.” Even Blip, who briefly tries to blame Ginny, backs down.
• We’re going to need see some pictures of Blip’s amazing yorkie costumes. And also a scene of him putting the dog in a costume.
• The show’s patented Tragic Backstory Flashback strikes again. This time the victim is Mike Lawson, whose initial Tragic Backstory is his scam artist mom, and then, as is always the case on Pitch, the true Tragic Backstory is revealed: that kind coach was secretly his dad, who clearly cheated on his wife and won’t acknowledge his own kid.
• “That was a hard no on the fake mole, right?”
• If you are curious about what Mark-Paul Gosselaar had to do to get that body, this interview is pretty fascinating.
• If we didn’t know Mike to be such a stand-up guy, I would almost have thought he was playing at a little less than 100 percent at first to make it clear he needs to be the catcher. But he’s such a stand-up guy he’s even nice to Duarte, who’s a jerk, but actually pretty effective during his interaction with Ginny.