The League
FX | FXX | Release Date: October 29, 2009
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
6
Negative:
9
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 2, 2014
Season 6 Review: The humor is tasteless and irresistible, an unlikely mix of juvenile jokes about sex and bodily functions, with time-honored elements of screwball comedy. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyClark Collins
Season 1 Review: You know men who devote an absurd amount of time to mocking one another? I do, and I call them ''me and my friends.'' Maybe that's why I so enjoyed this sitcom about a group of thirtysomething pals and their fantasy football league....Or maybe it's just darn funny. Read full review
88
RedEyeCurt WagnerOct 5, 2011
Season 3 Review: In its third season The League is sharper and raunchier than ever, and the aforementioned cast members, as well as Mark Duplass, Jon Lajoie, Stephen Rannazzisi and Katie Aselton, score TDs with nearly every line. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubDavid KallisonSep 9, 2015
Season 7 Review: After seven seasons, the cast makes a tight team capable of bouncing between insults and absurdist physical humor with ease. The League is pure fun, nothing more. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyClark CollisAug 29, 2014
Season 6 Review: Fantasy football's most entertainingly unpleasant competitors return to discover there are worse things than coming in at the bottom of the league (well, maybe). Read full review
80
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerSep 8, 2015
Season 7 Review: The shock bar is set pretty high, but Season 7 proves up to the task, if subtly. For the new football season, the league switches from a snake draft to an auction draft. Read full review
80
SlateTroy Patterson
Season 1 Review: Steadfastly crass in content, The League is generally subtle in execution. Read full review
80
The New York TimesNeil Genzlinger
Season 1 Review: In its astonishingly raunchy way, The League is pretty funny whether or not you’re a fantasy geek, assuming you’re a TV-MA kind of person. Read full review
80
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: The League comes close to the goal of creating a TV show with "The Hangover"-type appeal. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichAug 30, 2013
Season 5 Review: It's a podcast masquerading as a sitcom, but the fifth-season premiere is a good display of the show's shaggy charm. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierOct 18, 2012
Season 4 Review: More than ever before, The League is full of unusually affecting moments. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: As in "Sunny," they are almost-lovable losers, and that's a formula FX is now perfecting. Read full review
70
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelSep 8, 2015
Season 7 Review: The great thing about The League is that it feels entirely comfortable to return to. Read full review
70
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: The testosterone-infused interplay as they taunt each other over career potholes, curdled marriages and sexual depravities and deprivations is scathing and hilarious, though an astonishing percentage of it cannot even be alluded to here. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: If you're easily offended, you will be appalled by The League. If you chuckle at smutty, raunchy humor and profanity, this show offers dirty-minded comedic rewards. Read full review
70
SalonHeather Havrilesky
Season 1 Review: Did I mention that The League is occasionally pretty funny? Forget that it's basically a Bud Light commercial stretched out to fit a half-hour of broadcast time. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKyle AndersonSep 8, 2015
Season 7 Review: The League remains steadfast--certainly playoff-worthy, but not quite championship material. [11 Sep 2015, p.55]
63
Slant MagazineMike LechevallierOct 4, 2011
Season 3 Review: While there's no doubt that The League's third season is off to an entertaining start, the show's main problem remains that it's a comedy about friendship that lacks sympathetic and emotionally identifiable characters. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
Season 1 Review: The dialogue is entirely composed of trash talk, and as far as that goes, it's pretty creative. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: FX has always had a good idea what viewers it's after, and the way TV works these days, a loyal cult can be enough. The League certainly has the goods to get one of those. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 30, 2013
Season 5 Review: Some jokes land mildly on their feet, but creators Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer routinely allow potentially interesting punchlines to slip through their fingers unfulfilled. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: The raunchy comedy on The League had me laughing out loud a few times, but mostly I felt as though I’d seen it all done better before. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: It can be funny at times, like when a draft pick becomes part of a negotiated plea bargain in a criminal case. And there's no denying the strong chemistry among the little-known cast. At other times, though the one-dimensional humor wears thin and the guys nearly become parodies of themselves. Read full review
42
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Even with endless talk about genitalia and the things people can do to them, The League is surprisingly dull and slack - without snap or payoff. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 9, 2015
Season 7 Review: All this [bathroom jokes] serves a fan base, which is fine. It’s just too bad that a lot of viewers who would appreciate the sports humor will pass on the uber-raunch. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinSep 8, 2015
Season 7 Review: As The League begins to wind down, there's no clear indication that the showrunners see the less charming elements of their at least partially reprehensible characters as often as they celebrate their minor, shallow victories. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
Season 1 Review: There's nothing wrong with a show about lovable losers, but they have to be, you know, lovable. Here, the men seem to be products of their writers' contempt; they're such babies that even their profanity doesn't rise from the potty. Read full review
30
Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
Season 1 Review: If you're going to do a show about fantasy football, then do it. Go big, or go home. As constructed, The League will leave no one happy. Read full review
30
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: Cable's FX, which has reliably churned out good watching for most of this decade, drives off a cliff tonight with an offensive and shockingly unfunny sitcom, The League. Read full review
30
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Season 1 Review: A single-camera sitcom about guys in a fantasy football league whose cluelessness is only matched by their crudeness. Read full review
30
Washington PostNeely Tucker
Season 1 Review: Why would you want to watch a show about this lame league when you could just use the time to play in one yourself, or, good heavens, just watch the game? Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Season 1 Review: Not much about this show rang true to me, except the moment when the league commissioner begged players to get their fees in on time. Read full review
25
TimeJames Poniewozik
Season 1 Review: The show is weak, sometimes plain creepy, when it moves from fantasy football to male fantasy. Read full review
20
Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Season 1 Review: If I tell you that The League is a reprehensible show, I’m not really telling you that much. The new improvised-comedy series airing at 9:30 tonight on FX wears its reprehensibility with pride. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL