“Pete, no last name, died in 2072. He loved to watch TV.” – Pete’s obituary as written by Taco
The League has always been a few degrees nuttier than your average sitcom, but “Ramona Neopolitano” was such a bizarre and sloppy episode that it almost ceased to be a sitcom at all. Instead it felt more like a series of loosely connected sketches. Some of which were funny, while others were just strange.
In lieu of an actual plot, what we get this week is a bunch of little factoids about the characters. For example, we find out that Sofia (Nadine Valezquez) is still breastfeeding her 19-month-old son. “If you’re old enough to ask for it, you’re too old to receive it,” Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) chimes in. Also, Andre (Paul Scheer) has been eating a lot of soy lately which is causing an increase in estrogen levels. This manifests itself in crying fits and the growth of manbreasts. What do you get when you combine a kid who breast feeds and a gown man with boobs? That one wasn’t very hard to predict (especially for fans of Family Guy). The episode featured a decent ongoing bit about Taco (Jonathon Lajoie) writing obituaries about his friends as a hobby. “Pete, no known last name, died in 2072. He loved to watch TV.” That’s really the only one clean enough to print, although the others were funnier.
The weirdest part of “Ramona Neopolitano” is Ramona Neopolitano herself a dead wife Ruxin (Nick Kroll) invents to drum up sympathy from a couple of fantasy football satellite radio hacks. Sofia overhears him on the phone with them begging for start ’em/sit ’em advice and actually believes he had a previous wife that passed away. The whole thing makes no sense and does little other than reinforce that Ruxin is an evil genius and Sofia is a gullible moron with a fiery Latin temper.
Pete’s storyline was slightly more coherent, but only slightly. He is busted by his boss for manipulating his fantasy line-up on company time. Pete (Mark Duplass) is given an ultimatum; either he takes over his boss’ floundering squad and leads them into the playoffs, or he will be fired. Later Pete gets trapped in an elevator with a couple of co-workers and despite a heroic effort to free them, he misses the deadline to set his boss’ lineup. Luckily for Pete, the guy he frees from the elevator turns out to be a company big wig, who gives him a promotion instead of walking papers.
The strength of The League is its ability to provide chuckles, if not belly-laughs, even when it isn’t having a great game. Let’s just hope that the show regains its stride for the final two episodes. Wackiness is good, but only in moderation and in the context of an actual plot that connects at the end of an episode… preferably an end that includes a Taco song.
Some stats and info about The League, “Ramona Neopolitano”
TV SHOW – The League
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 11
AIRED ON – December 2nd, 2010
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.