“My crotch is getting so old, it hasn’t even lived yet.” – Kevin
I made the determination that The League had finally “hit its stride” in the new season. Now, I’m willing to go one step further and announce that The League is officially on fire. “Ol’ Smoke Crotch” was leaps and bounds funnier than last week’s “The Au Pair,” which at the time was the funniest episode of the season.
The episode starts off with a bang, with Baby Jeffrey and Ruxin (Nick Kroll) struggling through a father/son meal at a fancy restaurant. Sophia (Nadine Velazquez) is out of town and Ashley (Brie Larson), the au pair, is on a date with Pete (Mark Duplass), so Ruxin, who is both a terrible person and a terrible father, is left tending to the baby. As soon as Ruxin takes Jeffrey into the men’s room, you pretty much know something awful is going to happen, but when it actually goes down it’s no less horrifying. If you’ve seen the episode, you know exactly what I’m referring to. If you haven’t, well let’s just say Jeffrey puts something in his mouth that leaves him “forever unclean.”
Ruxin is understandably furious at the au pair for not being there in his moment of need. He wants to fire her but can’t when she threatens to tell Sophia that he was masturbating to a picture of her. If he can’t fire her, he’s determined to do the next best thing: get her to quit. And who better to convince someone to run for the hills than his brother-in-law Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas)? His plan backfires when Ashley turns out to be just as freaky as Rafi. Instead of sending Ashley packing, Rafi, with his “pee corner”, “slop bucket” and grotesque sexual kinks, ends up scaring Pete into breaking up with her.
The rest of “Ol’ Fire Crotch” is pretty much the Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) show. Now, I have mixed feelings about Kevin as a character. I often find him to one of the least funny members of the cast. When his wife and daughter share a story with him, he tends to get a little better. But his story in last night’s episode is all his, and he makes the most of it.
By no means does The League chart any new sitcom territory with the “guy approaching middle-age finds a gray pube and freaks out” plot. However, the beauty of this story is not in its originality, but in its execution. Kevin’s hysteria increases throughout the episode, and builds to the kind of crazy, chaotic final scene that the show did so well in its first two seasons. I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen the episode; however the surprise is kind of given away in the title of the episode.
Some stats and info about The League, “Ol’ Smoke Crotch”
TV SHOW – The League
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 4
AIRED ON – October 27th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FX /FXX/Hulu
GENRE – Comedy, Relationship Shows, Sports Shows
CREATED BY – Jackie Marcus Schaffer, Jeff Schaffer
CAST – Mark Duplass, Nick Kroll, Jonathan Lajoie, Stephen Rannazzisi, Paul Scheer, Katie Aselton, Jason Mantzoukas
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.