FXX’s The League is a comedy based around fantasy football, though in reality, the fantasy football aspect of the show is a backdrop compared to what’s going on in the characters’ lives each week.
On the episode that aired this Wednesday night, the show wedged an ad for DraftKings into a scene. The characters were watching a new TV, and an ad for DraftKings came on. That led to a brief discussion about whether or not the characters liked daily fantasy, culminating with Ruxin comparing Pete’s love life to DraftKings and putting the episode back on track. I wonder if this was part of the $300 million investment led by Fox Sports earlier this year.
I generally have no issues with The League. It’s been a funny show for the bulk of it’s six seasons on TV, and season seven is off to a decent enough start. But the show is rightfully ending after this season, and this product placement was blatant, awkward, and just weird.
Furthermore, it really didn’t further anything – the DraftKings ad added nothing to the plot, provided an opportunity for one joke (that was barely worth a chuckle, for what it’s worth), and could have been replaced with a generic talk about “daily fantasy” without the commercial spliced in.
Now, if this eventually leads to a subplot where Andre becomes addicted to daily fantasy, loses his job, his home, and his relationship? Well, then maybe I could get behind it.
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About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.