A League of Their Own Review: An Expansion of the Iconic Film That Knocks It Out of the Park

The 1992 Penny Marshall film A League of Their Own is iconic. A fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the film not only brought a rarely told story of American sports history to the forefront, but also inspired viewers as well. Those are some big shoes for the new Prime Video series of the same name to live up to. An adaptation of the film it shares a title with, the series doesn't just revisit familiar territory, it fully explores it in a way that is more honest, more in-depth, and shifts our understanding of a specific time in the era of World War II.

Created by Abbi Jacobson (who also stars in the film as Carson Shaw) and Will Graham, A League of Their Own is not a reboot of the 1992 film, nor is it a sequel or even a follow-up. Fans tuning in are not going to find recreations of Geena Davis' performance as Dorothy "Dottie" Hinson or Lori Petty as Kit Keller. There are certainly some similarities, particularly with Melanie Field's Jo De Luca bearing more than a passing resemblance to Rosie O'Donnell's Doris Murphy from the film, but in nearly every aspect, this series is more of an expansion of film, a take on the story that goes deeper into not just the real history of the AAGPBL, but the world in which these women existed, their experiences, and their lives. Jacobson has previously spoken about the amount of research that went into creating this series — particularly conversations with real-life player Maybelle Blair — and it shows. Where the film was at times extremely superficial, the series feels grounded and real.

A huge component of that grounded feel and the realness of it is that the show digs into the things that the film did not, specifically issues of race, gender, and sexuality. A League of Their Own the series picks up, in a sense, from a point in the film that never got its due: the Black woman who retrieves a foul ball. An important aspect of this story is the racial bias of the AAGPBL and indeed the racial issues of the era and the series embraces that through the character of Max (Chante Adams), bringing her into the story to outright show the bias and her story as a Black female athlete. It's a story that runs parallel to the "main" story of the series while also weaving into the larger narrative, and it's beautifully done. Adams' Max is a fully realized character and her performance is one that not only is a joy to witness but is also sometimes difficult to watch because of just how good it is. You feel her anger, her frustration, and her challenges in not only finding her place within the sport she loves, but in coming to accept various aspects of herself in the process.

That same sort of emotional journey follows Jacobson's Carson Shaw. The focal character of the series, we learn early on that she's dealing with not only her passion for the sport she's left home for, but she's also dealing with her own journey of self-acceptance and what it means to be queer in a world where not only is that taboo, but the cards are already stacked against you because of gender. Jacobson plays Carson and her unease and anxiety in a way that is just a little too amplified, yet throughout the series, there is plenty of nuance and growth with the character and it's communicated brilliantly. In fact, there aren't really any performances in the series that aren't top-notch. Field is a lot of fun as Jo and D'Arcy Carden's Greta slowly grows on you. Kelly McCormack is delightful and often deadpan as Jess and is absolutely fantastic. It's rare that a series gets every aspect of casting right, but this series does it.

The series also does a fantastic job of being queer without it being a "queer show." Yes, the sexuality aspect of things is a major part of the story, but it's not the actual story. The series incorporates it, as it does with the issues of racial bias, as simply part of the reality of these characters — and in turn, the real-life women they are inspired by — with the result being a product that feels authentic and non-exploitative. To put it more finely, there comes a point when you find yourself watching an often funny and frequently fascinating show about a baseball team that just so happens to have all of these other rich and human elements that the viewer can identify with on multiple levels while still getting a few fun nods to the more familiar film that came before.

Of course, the series isn't absolutely perfect. The first episode, in particular, often feels a little too slick and a little bit like a caricature — when I say that Carden's Greta has to grow on the viewer a bit and that Jacobson's Shaw is a little too amplified, it comes from this episode — but once you get past that and more into the heart of the story, a much more natural pacing and energy take over. There are also a few moments in which it feels like the series does veer a little close to the line of trying to be the movie, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just a little unexpected.

Adapting something that is beloved and familiar is always a challenge, and A League of Their Own more than meets it. By incorporating familiar elements while simultaneously expanding the story, the series enriches it. The result is a series that avoids the traps of nostalgia to become its own entity, one that is fresh, timely, and genuinely a home run.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

A League of Their Own premieres on Prime Video on August 12th.