It’s almost fascinating to watch how up and down this season of The League has been. Every time I start to think that it’s winning me back over, such as last week’s truly funny episode, my confidence in it starts to falter the week after. ”Breast Awareness Month” was only so-so, bogged down by predictability, a smaller cast (Ruxin’s back in Korea, neither Rafi nor Russell have a guest appearance) , and some thoroughly lackluster plots.
The episode revolves around Breast Cancer Awareness month or: the month when football, wrestling, etc. is completely overtaken by the color pink. It’s all definitely for a good cause—there is no argument there—but The League enjoys poking fun at it. It runs throughout all of the storylines: Andre uses the month as an excuse to wear pink, Taco uses it as an excuse to start “Breast Awareness Month” (he doesn’t think breasts get enough attention and also can’t figure out why everyone keeps bringing up cancer when he mentions his ”cause”), and Jenny, through falling into faking cancer, uses it as an excuse to get out of baking cookies for Ellie’s school’s bake sale. Outside of that thread, we also get smaller plots centered on Kevin’s surprise and discomfort when he learns that his doctor is gay and Pete’s worry that his boss will think he has a ”thing” for Asians. So. It’s certainly not the best episode.
Let’s get the worst stuff out of the way. In the cold open, Kevin returns to his doctor for a check-up and is caught off guard when his doctor mentions his boyfriend. The storyline doesn’t go full gay panic but it’s still obnoxious and leaves behind a bad taste, even when the other guys shrug it off. Kevin eventually ends up at Andre’s office so Andre can take a look at the goods but is a victim of Andre’s super strong grip (the result of Andre’s constant masturbation since his engagement ended last season). Like I said, it’s not the best episode. Also barely worth mentioning is Pete’s pathetic little plot in which he takes a white woman on a date in order to break up his two Asian woman dates, only to learn that he is serving as a buffer, too. Was all of the writing off this week or what? So much of ”Breast Awareness Month” was half-baked, total non-starters that go nowhere and don’t even provide laughs.
An episode where Jenny comes off as the worst person in the league should be amazing or, at the least, very laugh-out-loud funny but even this feels off. Jenny, in a pink bandanna while wearing a pink ribbon pin, is mistaken for a breast cancer survivor—who didn’t see that coming? And who didn’t predict that she’d eventually give in and use this to her advantage? I normally love when Jenny does fucked-up things but couldn’t really enjoy it here, even though it means we also get the return of one of my favorite side characters, Ellie. Jenny’s plot isn’t exactly offensive but because it’s so unfunny, it just feels off-beat and unnecessary.
Maybe it’s because The League would normally go big with something as wrong and ridiculous as faking cancer but “Breast Awareness Month” actually dials it back. Jenny just falls into the lie when she’s caught without an item for the bake sale and then is later roped into a cancer group. There’s few laughs there—the biggest joke is Taco being unaware it’s a cancer group and thinking everyone is just there to learn more about breasts (the diagram he draws is helpful) and also his great delivery when he mispronounces his own name. Even the payoff, Jenny ripping open her shirt after getting frustrated by everyone’s fixation on her flat chest, isn’t anything special. Evil Ellie thinking her mother actually has cancer was something, I suppose, but again was ultimately pointless. But hey, if I’ve learned anything from the erratic inconsistency of these last two seasons, there’s a good chance The League will knock it out of the park next week.
Stray observations:
- Honestly, the episode wasn’t terrible. There were parts that I know were funny and definitely worked for other viewers. It’s just that this week, I wasn’t one of them.
- These episodes do make me wonder how many more seasons The League has in it, though.
- Oddly, one of my favorite bits was actually Ruxin’s absence because apparently he sent Taco a list of insults to dole out to the group.
- “Nobody is not aware of cancer.”
- “I love the bandannas. I am also a Guns N’ Roses fan.“
- I haven’t even logged in to my fantasy league all week because I know I lost miserably.