JASON EVANS' 100 WORD REVIEWS: Netflix's Hoops

A foul-mouthed and occasionally funny animated series that isn’t really going anywhere

 

Film and TV critic Jason Evans knows your life is busy, so he gives you everything you need to know about entertainment in exactly 100 words (not 99, not 101). Here is his 100-word-review of the new Netflix TV series Hoops.

The Premise: This animated series stars Jake Johnson (New Girl, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as high school basketball coach Ben Hopkins, the son of local basketball legend Barry Hopkins (Rob Riggle). Ben dreams of the big time, but he can barely coach his team of misfits to even be competitive. Ben never saw a situation that was not worth cursing about, though he is surprisingly sanguine about his estranged wife (Natasha Leggero) shacking up with his best friend, Ron (Ron Funches). When Ben discovers a new 7-foot basketball player in his high school, he thinks he can turn his team and his life around.

The 100 Words: The job of comedy is to make you laugh. I will freely admit that I laughed more than I expected while watching Hoops (especially during some of the middle season one episodes), but a good comedy also reveals something about society or human nature. A good comedy has well-developed characters. A good comedy allows you to care about those characters and their journey. And that is where Hoops is a complete failure. I’m just not sure what the point of the whole thing was… other than a desperate attempt to break the record of swearing in an animated TV series.

Comments