But Ben himself is just as immature and unfiltered. Many of the characters actually are teenage boys, and their juvenile behavior makes sense within the context of the show, as they're trying to navigate the scary worlds of adolescence and high school. Most of the humor in Hoops is aggressively vulgar, a constant stream of swear words and dick jokes that come off as a desperate effort to appear edgy and transgressive, but are about as boundary-pushing as a 13-year-old boy who’s just discovered his first R-rated movie. RELATED: Steven Universe and BoJack Horseman Deserve to Win Emmys This YearĪt least the Little Man Tate jokes are relatively tame. Hoffman constantly doubles down on bits that aren’t funny in the first place, repeating them over and over again as if sheer force of will could make the audience laugh. That this foul-mouthed, angry, inconsiderate coach is really, really into a forgotten ’90s family drama starring and directed by Jodie Foster is kind of funny at first, but the 10-episode first season of Hoops is packed with Little Man Tate references, all of which amount to only one thing: None of the characters have actually seen Little Man Tate, despite bringing it up constantly.
LITTLE MAN TATE MOVIE
Some of them are kind of awful people, too, but Ben dominates Hoops, and Johnson’s voice performance consists entirely of yelling in the same exact register, whether Ben is complaining about his players’ abysmal performance on the court or rhapsodizing about his favorite movie Little Man Tate.īen’s obsession with Little Man Tate is the perfect example of the way the show runs a feeble joke into the ground.
LITTLE MAN TATE FULL
That includes his team full of misfits and nerds who just enjoy hanging out together, his cheerful assistant coach Ron (Ron Funches), his world-weary ex-wife Shannon (Natasha Leggero), his vain former pro basketball player dad Barry (Rob Riggle) and his exasperated boss Opal (Cleo King). RELATED: Hoops: New Girl Cast Reunites in Foul-Mouthed Trailer for Netflix Adult Animated Comedy Ben doesn’t yell because he’s passionate about his players or about the game he yells because he’s a self-centered, short-tempered jerk, and he treats everyone around him with contempt.
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The first episode opens with Ben yelling profanities at a referee, and that’s one of Hoops' subtler moments.
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LITTLE MAN TATE SERIES
That’s what creator Ben Hoffman attempts to do in the excruciatingly unfunny Netflix animated series Hoops, and he succeeds only in creating an extremely unpleasant character who isn’t funny to laugh with or laugh at.īen Hopkins (voiced by Jake Johnson) is the coach of the local high school basketball team in Lenwood, Kentucky, and he’s terrible at his job. It’s a well-worn cliché, so there’s nothing wrong with the idea of poking holes in that image, and taking the expected portrayal of a high school sports coach in the opposite direction. Even coaches who start out with personal problems, like Ben Affleck’s character in this year’s acclaimed basketball drama The Way Back, usually end up not only redeemed but also sharing that redemption with others.
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Sports coaches in movies and TV series tend to be inspirational figures, often surrogate parents for the players they work with and leaders of the communities they represent.