Stream It Or Skip It?

At the heart of any classic comedy are relationships. Yes, the idea that the people in the show like each other is a classic comedic trope. But what is also classic are the people who hate each other being thrown into a situation where they must coexist. These situations don’t always result in romance; in fact, we like it better when they don’t. We want to see the relationship grow over time from a state of complete mistrust to grudging trust to complete trust, mainly because of the comedic possibilities that are within that journey. A new Brazilian sports comedy promises us one of those relationships.

Opening Shot: A preteen soccer hopeful looks up at Matheus Reis (José Loreto), the mercurial star of the Fenicios football club, and flashes him one of his signature hand signals.

The Gist: The scene is part of a report for the sports talk series Team Players, put together by Elisa (Carol Castro), a field reporter and producer. The story is relatively hard hitting, where people discuss Matheus’ moody nature and the fact that he seems more intent on becoming a media star than maintain his football career.

Elisa, the daughter of a popular retired sportscaster at Antenna Sports, where she works now, is after an on-camera anchor position. However, her boss, Larecio Hartman (Ravel Cabral), would rather she stay as a bulldog of a field producer. She curses him out in frustration and he fires her, though Larecio’s sister, Suzana (Luciana Paes), working as a consultant, sees something in her.

She goes out with her coworker Pira (Danilo de Moura) to drown her sorrows when they see Matheus and his manager Lucca (Leandro Ramos) going into a club, when he should be in camp preparing for the championship semifinals. She sneaks a video of him but gets caught. When Matheus confronts her, she implies that she’s agreed to not publish the video. He even gives her the expensive watch off his wrist as an incentive.

But when she covers the match the next day, it’s obvious that she got her job back because of that story. Matheus confronts her in the hallway leading to the field and calls her a “rat” because she essentially ratted him out. She pushes back that she can’t be bought and gives him the watch back.

Near the end of the match, Matheus collapses; he finds out that he has a congenital heart condition that will prevent him from playing again. Three months later, Suzana, who has been charged with giving the network a boost, approaches Matheus and offers him an anchor job on Team Players. She offers Elisa one, as well; Elisa is overjoyed at her big chance, but is horrified when she sees her new co-anchor walk into the studio.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Team Players can be looked at as a sillier version of Sports Night, with a tone more reminiscent of the recent series Running Point.

Our Take: Despite the dramatic moment where Matheus learns he’s never playing soccer again, there’s no doubt that Team Players is being set up as a comedy, with the dogged journalist being pared with the brash ex-jock and being forced to work together. There isn’t a whole lot about the first episode, or the scenes from the season we saw at the end of it, that make us think this show is going to take any unexpected turns. The show is going to take off in the ratings due to the tense chemistry between Elisa and Matheus, and they’ll begrudgingly figure out that their pairing is better for each of their careers and lives.

The funny parts can be found in how Elisa conducts herself. She’s a journalist, and a tenacious one at that. Her life is a practical one, which we see when she has a date come over for some nookie right as she’s getting a call about the hosting job. Her no-nonsense personality conflicts with her boss’ desire to have fun women on-camera, with Suzana’s “namaste” attitude and Matheus’ overall douche-knuckle personality. That comes through in Castro’s performance.

With Elisa giving the show a solid comedic base to build on, the rest of the cast should fall into place, even though the pilot itself sometimes tries too hard to squeeze laughs out of lines and situations that aren’t funny. But Matheus trying to navigate his new role in media, especially as he tries to figure out how to work with Elisa, should make his character less of an unfunny d-bag, which will be the key to making Team Players a more satisfying watch.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode besides Matheus sloppily making out with random women at the club and his house.

Parting Shot: As Matheus’ entourage celebrates his entrance into the studio, Elisa stares him down in disgust. He stares back in a “this is going to be fun” manner.

Sleeper Star: We thought Danilo de Moura was funny as Pira, mainly because he tries so hard to be objective but is completely starstruck in Matheus’ presence.

Most Pilot-y Line: In the scene where Elisa lays into Larecio, she calls him a “son of a bitch.” When he turns and gives her a “what did you just say?” look, she corrects herself and says, “life’s a bitch.” But then starts to curse him out anyway. That means that the “son of a bitch” thing was too easy of a gag for the writers to pass up.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite some bumps and awkward writing, Team Players has us intrigued due to the chemistry between Carol Castro and José Loreto, and the tug-of-war that their characters will have during the first season.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.