- Network: Paramount+
- Series Premiere Date: Jun 16, 2022
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Critic Reviews
- Critic score
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It’s spectacular. ... It’s funny as hell, which is no surprise, but somehow that all feels less important than the gripping narrative of the team.
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Much like Vandal, the real thrill of Players isn’t just the deadpan perfection of its joke delivery, but its ability to build the real-world stakes and characters of the best sports docs on top of the gags.
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“Players” uses the form to pick apart what drives each of these people. There’s no need to choose between someone telling a good story and someone living that story in real time when the show finds illuminating ways to capitalize on both.
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Even though Players is a foreign setting to me, it is also a fun and poignant portrait of some specific types of guys.
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While so many others might have approached the world of esports with an eye for the hyperbolic, there’s absolutely nothing mocking about the way “Players” explores it as a community, and it’s a better show for it.
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You don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy Players, even though the inside references will likely give gamers a smile. It’s a classic story about the veteran being displaced by an overconfident rookie, and it’s one that’s executed well.
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Although Players never quite matches the quotability of “who did the dicks,” it’s packed with lines seemingly designed in a lab to break ribs. ... [Creamcheese is] no Dylan Maxwell, but I’ll give Misha Brooks this: Not since Thomas Middleditch’s Richard Hendricks has a TV nerd been this addictively despicable.
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If you enjoy sports documentaries, then you'll likely appreciate how deeply Players understands the template that makes those shows satisfying. The result is an accessible, enjoyable introduction to a huge industry that passes many of us by.
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Players may not reach the comedic heights of American Vandal, but it most visibly follows in that show’s footsteps by taking its characters seriously, no matter how ridiculous their situation may be.
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Players requires a general emotional investment to carry you through the long stretches when its tongue isn’t even in its topical cheek.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 11
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Mixed: 3 out of 11
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Negative: 1 out of 11
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Jun 20, 2022