A League of Their Own - My thoughts on the latest Amazon Prime adaptation.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Recently I binge watched Amazon Prime's A League of Their Own. A new telling of the story of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Admittedly, when I first saw the ads I was both excited and terrified to watch this. I was mostly excited due to aesthetic reasons I can't lie, but I was also terrified because I was afraid that they were going to ruin a movie that I absolutely adore!

I wasn't able to watch it right when it released, so I was a bit relieved to find out that it wasn't an exact retelling of the movie and that the characters were basically brand new to the storyline. Then I heard all the chatter about it being "too gay" and "too woke". I paid no mind to that because I like to make my own decisions on things and not be influenced by other's opinions (sometimes not even my own).

Immediately I felt creating new characters both worked in it's favor and against it. Having new characters allowed the TV Show to be fresh and exciting and wouldn't hurt the beloved characters that were associated with the 1992 movie. Personally, I feel that since they were telling new stories, that they should have just switched teams as well. Tell the story from another team's point of view. The Rockford Peaches are Dottie, Kit, Mae, and gang... well at least for folks like me that grew up on the movie and saw it in theaters! Honestly, I think it would have been fun to see what it was like from the (imaginary) point of view of the Racine Belles or the Kenosha Comets. 

This leads me into my biggest gripe about the show and marketing. This telling really had nothing to do with Baseball or the AAGPBL. One of the things I loved about the movie was the insider peek at what it was like being part of this league even if the history of events were slightly fibbed along the way. In the TV version with the exception of how the characters all came together, the AAGPBL was merely the backdrop to a multi story romantic drama. You could have set this TV show in any part of history or industry and it could have been told just the same. The producers banked on the nostalgia of the original movie to rope in viewers instead of marketing it for what it really is - a romantic drama series.  I would have loved a continued peek behind the curtain of ladies baseball in the 1940s, but instead I got a peek behind the curtain of queer ladies in the 1940s.

Don't get me wrong, I am not hating on that, not one bit. Personally I loved the storyline of Maxine, a black woman who is trying to find her own identity in both baseball and in society. Along with her best friend, Clance, I feel their storylines had both the best banter and heart out of all the characters. These two were my favorite characters in the whole series! I would have watched an entire series with just these characters even if baseball was just the backdrop! Maxine's character was the most developed and multifaceted from her Mom's Beauty Parlor, to her potential Beau, to working in a factory as a black woman, to coming to terms to who she really is, and to her love and frustration with baseball. It's hard for me to wrap my head around how these characters were secondary to the main leads -- all because the show had to keep up with it being a series about the AAGPBL. Which I had mentioned was all but forgotten after the 2nd episode. Yes, they still played games... but like I said... it's just a back drop.

I also loved the third line characters of Mita and Jess. Two ball players that while they do not admit their sexuality to the public of the 1940s, no one is surprised that they are lesbian. One of my favorite parts of the show is when Mita confides in another character Izzy, why she has been less than pleasant to her. It was a nice way to give that character more heart than just being the "rival" of the main character. 

Speaking of, I am a main character kind of girl -- I usually root for the underdog lead -- but honestly... I wholey disliked the two main characters. Carson, who seems to be the main lead, is just whiney and lost, but without giving me any reason to feel for her or cheer her on. The other lead, Greta (who along with her friend Jo, were the Mae and Doris of the series) lacked any substance. They tried to make her a strong sexual woman, but I feel like it came off flat and weak. It was almost as if she were supposed to be this series, Samantha Jones, but dropped the ball! No pun intended. Both leads were just miserable to watch and I couldn't wait for their overly repetitive scenes to be over with.

I do have to give props to the costumers for doing a great job with wardrobe. Overall, I think they were quite on the mark. Sure, for someone like me, I was far too distracted by some hats that were from the 50s and 60s, as well as some costume pieces being 70s/80s does 40s, but I can forgive all that because you have to work with that you have.

I wanted to enjoy their nods to the movie, but by time they made those references, I had already fallen out of love with the idea that this was a new telling of Baseball in the 1940s. So while, "There's no crying in baseball" and Rosie O'Donnell's cameo were nice, I could have done without either of those (and the other throwbacks to the movie) and never had noticed. 

Once thing that did bother me though... the music... I am not going to scoff at them using music that was released in 1945 (let's say) for a show that takes place in 1943, but for the black characters, the music they were using, seemingly was all 50s doo wop. A completely different style of black artists from the era. Continuing on with that, I get that this is supposed to be a "girl power" series, but having the scene change overlay music be Janis Ian or Janis Joplin rocking out to their best 1960s female anthems, really destroyed the setting of WWII era America. 

Lastly, one more peeve I had with the show -- Clance was a comic book artist, yet her drawings were in a very very modern comic style. I know, this one is a personal peeve, but just add it to all the little things that annoyed me with the show.

Ok, so I lied, I have one more personal peeve. The obvious inability of the actors to throw baseballs and play the game and the weak cgi to hide that fact.

Overall the show was - good... if you can remove yourself from the idea that you came to watch a series about the AAGPBL. I am not one to hate on queer storylines because I think those stories belong just as much in main stream as any other... I just wish it would have been marketed as either a romantic drama or as a social commentary set in the 40s. Heck, it had so little to do with baseball, the character of Coach Casey "Dove" Porter (the equivalent to Tom Hanks' Jimmy Dugan) was completely written out of the show after a few episodes in order to focus on "girl power".

Finally, I will admit, I am not a fan of correcting social injustices through stories that take place in the past (see Ryan Murphy's Hollywood). I want to see history portrayed accurately even if the events are fantasized. Don't misconstrue what I am saying here -- I know there were queer folk back in the 40s. The gay bar and all of it's scenes were wonderfully done. It was the language the show used, the social commentary that wouldn't have been had at that point, and the driving force behind many of the storylines and character motivations just felt way too forced. Even though, I am not a fan of this particular way of storytelling in a historic setting, I see why it is appreciated by some of today's audience. 

Would I watch a second season if it were to happen? Yes, but mostly because aesthetics.