I am a massive fan of the 1992 film A League of Their Own. It’s one of my favorite films. My sister and I, both of whom played softball competitively (although I’m sure she would want me to stress that she was both better than me and also more dedicated to the sport, as I was first and foremost a soccer player), found ourselves drawn to the story of two sisters competing with and eventually against one another. In fact, if we catch the film on TV we still, to this day, will shoot a text to the other about it being on – usually by quoting the famous exchange between Kit and Dottie from the film regarding Kit’s penchant for high fastballs. So, suffice to say, I genuinely love this film. Which is why I was both excited and a bit worried when I heard that Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) and Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle) were going to take the conceit of the film and turn it into a series for Prime Video. Well, friends, after watching the entire 8-episode first season, I’m happy to report that this film fan absolutely loves the show.
The series is, first and foremost, a completely new entity. None of the characters from the film appear*, although some of the new characters certainly track in some ways with the original Peaches teammates. The series borrows some elements from the film – setting (it’s still about the inaugural season of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, with the series set in Rockford following the Rockford Peaches in one half of the show’s split story arc), basic plot (we’re watching the personal narratives unspool throughout that first season of play), and the show does hit on several key touchstones from the film that will likely make purists smile (yes, at some point in the season someone does say “There’s no crying in baseball”). There are enough familiar beats to make you recall the beloved film, but there’s so much new real estate explored – and, on the whole, explored to such a successful degree – that you quickly realize you don’t need those film touch points to fall in love with this series.
*Rosie O’Donnell, who appeared as Doris in the film, has a role late in the season as Vi, the owner of a secret gay bar in town that several of the characters visit. It’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from O’Donnell and her scenes are crucial in establishing the danger for LGBTQ+ individuals at this particular point in history – something that does play into the series.
And that’s because the series presents you with two compelling, parallel story arcs to follow that often relegate the baseball to the backburner (another change from the film, which centered much of the drama around the game itself). First, we have the story of the inaugural Rockford Peaches, told mainly through the eyes (and actions) of Carson Shaw (Jacobson, doing a great job balancing both the comedy and deep emotional depths of the character’s journey throughout the season), the catcher for the team. Shaw’s the woman who comes from out west, barely makes the train, and is clearly escaping her suffocating life out there – made all the worse because her husband is away at war (sound familiar, film fans?). While we do get to spend time with other Peaches (mostly D’Arcy Carden’s Greta, the team’s first baseman, and the antithesis to the sheltered Shaw who helps bring her out of her shell), the series’ one big failing is that we rarely get enough time with the other players to support some of their personal arcs later in the season. Introducing us to this world through Shaw’s eyes is totally fine – but we need the storytelling and character development to branch out a bit more, helping us to better understand these other characters to make several of the key plot points hit the way the series wants them too.
But I will say this: Unlike the film, which had exactly zero out characters, this series is one of the most unabashedly queer shows made for a mainstream audience (aka not Queer as Folk or The L Word, shows made for a queer audience first, and a straight audience second) I’ve ever seen. And it’s glorious. As a queer woman, I’ve often watched a series and tried to see if any characters are coded as queer – just to give myself someone to root for and see myself in. But here? This was the first time I’ve seen a character and thought “Hmmm, I wonder if she’s gay?” only to have it confirmed time and again. In fact, I’d say the default orientation for every character in this series is queer until proven straight. Will this choice turn off non-queer viewers? Perhaps, but according to actual players in the league, it’s pretty accurate to the reality of what happened back then. The series also takes great pains to explicitly stress that being out and queer at this point in history was incredibly dangerous. This fear hangs over clandestine interactions between characters – whether in private at home or out in the secret gay bar. So, while characters may be queer (or in the case of one particularly interesting character, trans), this isn’t an easy situation and one they have to safeguard to protect more than just their jobs on the ball field or out in society.
Now, the series isn’t just about the Rockford Peaches. Outside of lacking queer characters, the film also failed to include any characters of color (save for a single scene that saw a Black woman throw a baseball back on the field with more strength and accuracy than many Peaches). Here, the second main narrative arc of the season belongs to Maxine (Chante Adams, who is a star in the making), a Black woman who dreams of pitching in the League. Of course, she’s not even allowed to try-out, despite having the skills to easily make a team. Instead, she returns home to Rockford (alongside her best friend, Clance – Gbemisola Ikumelo, who steals every scene she’s in – a wife and homemaker who dreams of being a comic book artist) and tries to get a spot on the local factory baseball team – which is integrated but doesn’t allow women. It’s within this arc that the series finds its heart. I would honestly watch an entire show just about Max’s journey. While the Peaches story is strong, it doesn’t have the stakes that Max’s arc has. The women on the Peaches are getting to live out their dream – Max is trying to find a way to make hers a reality, while trying to find herself along the way. She’s not only butting up against what society expects from a Black woman, but she’s also butting up against what her family expects from her and her own sense of self. It’s an incredibly complex story to tell, and the series tells it beautifully.
It’s rare that I find myself actively avoiding watching the final few screeners a network has provided out of sadness that this story will end (don’t worry – there’s the potential for another season after this one). But that’s what I found myself doing when it came to A League of Their Own. I sat on the final two episodes for a solid five days, avoiding finding out just what happened to the Peaches and with Max’s story. Because this is a show that grips you, makes you laugh, makes you cry, and that has all the heart of the film on which it’s based – with a bit more inclusion to ensure that we all get a chance to see ourselves on that screen. I loved this season of television, and I hope you all give it a look so that we find out what happens with the Peaches – and hopefully get a bit more with other characters – in season two.
A League of Their Own debuts on Prime Video on August 12. All eight episodes of the first season were provided for review.
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