Everyone you know is fighting a battle you know nothing about. It’s a cliché because it’s true, and it could be the motto of Pixar’s best creations: its animations have revealed the hidden feelings of toys, monsters, and even cars. That idea is what drives Win or Lose, the studio’s latest TV series, and in the moments when it fully commits to its philosophy, it offers a powerful call to empathy with a knowing smile.
We watch the Pickles, a high school softball team led by swaggering father-coach Dan (Will Forte), as they play a crucial game. They win! They thus get a chance to play in the state championship seven days later, which is as terrifying as it is exciting. That’s the foundation on which each installment is built. Like a sports version of the multi-perspective arthouse classic Rashomon, we keep replaying the events of the same week, but through the eyes of a new person each time.
Stars: Winston Vengapally, Chanel Stewart, Josh Thomson
First up is Laurie (Rosie Foss), who fears she’s only on the Pickles team because her father is the coach. She’s right: She can’t play at all. When she hits, pitches fly past her as she freezes; in the field, high balls cause her to lose her way and fall on her back. As her teammates and parents watch her miss, the beads of sweat on Laurie’s forehead coalesce to form Sweaty (Jo Firestone), an evil goblin who lives on Laurie’s shoulder, audible and visible only to her, taunting the girl by vocalizing her myriad worries.
It’s a decent premise but, with the opening episode clocking in at less than 18 minutes, there’s no time to really develop the otherwise interesting characters dreamed up by writer-directors Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates. Laurie is the child of divorce, but her mother, Carole (Rhea Seehorn), is underused; And Sweaty – who has grown to the size of a rotund adult man by the time the championship game rolls around, overwhelming Laurie – is, to viewers who have been seduced by the sophistication of the Inside Out films, a fairly basic manifestation of a nagging insecurity. “Let’s go over all the mistakes you made today!” and so on.
Much better is the second episode. It’s a richer, funnier story about Frank (Josh Thomson), the game’s referee and school teacher. Flamboyant and assertive in his cries of “Strrrrrrrrriiiiike!” during the game, Frank becomes a different person as soon as the game is over. His joy at being strict, fair and precise has made him, at 30, an unhappy loner.
Frank loves fantasy novels, and whenever hostile people or difficult emotions cross his path, his defenses rise in the form of a shield and armor that magically manifest. At first, that happens when the players’ parents disagree with his refereeing decisions, but in his personal life, Frank’s problems are more serious. His fear of emotional commitment has stolen the love of his life, and his reluctant entry into the world of dating apps, presented as a dangerous video game, prompts a test of courage he might not overcome.
It’s a tender and wise story, filled with charming supporting characters and throwaway jokes as appealing as the walls of Frank’s lonely apartment being decorated with a framed photo of his mother and a much larger photo of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If most of Win or Lose turns out to be this good, it will be almost a Pixar classic.
That seems less likely, though, given the controversy that has plagued the show. An upcoming episode focuses on star player Kai, voiced by transgender actress Chanel Stewart. Stewart revealed that Kai was conceived as a transgender character, but was later changed to a cisgender girl. Disney’s explanation for this change of course, which says that “we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain topics with their children on their own terms and in their own time,” doesn’t fit with Win or Lose as we’ve seen it so far. If kids watching the show can deal with characters struggling with crippling anxiety, low self-esteem, and the terror of never finding romantic love, then they can likely handle the reflection on being “born in a girl’s body, but [feeling] like a boy.”
The lack of trans representation in Win or Lose simply puts it on par with virtually every other show on TV, and it might normally have gone unnoticed. But it’s another reason it feels like a failure.
Comments
Post a Comment