Brockmire returns for a second season on April 25th, 10pm on IFC.
By Matthew Stanford
This review will be PG, but Brockmire is certainly not. Jim Brockmire is crass, old school, drunk and funny (both intentionally and unintentionally). Season one is not required viewing in order to enjoy Season two. Essentially the premise is this: Jim Brockmire is a well-liked baseball announcer for a major league team. He has a melt down on air and says many vastly inappropriate things. He is fired and goes and lives off the grid for ten years. After which he has assumed everyone has forgotten him and he can have a fresh start and try to be an announcer again. Unfortunately for him his meltdown was the first viral video ever on the internet and he is now one of the most famous people in the US. He gets a job at a local baseball team and eventually leaves the small town and potential love of his life behind to move to New Orleans to announce for a minor league team.
Brockmire was essentially built around one simple concept, which is a baseball announcer can talk about whatever he wants as long as he still says how many balls and strikes there are. For example: “Man I had some delicious pizza today, I went with pepperoni, I don’t normally get pepperoni, but man oh man was it good, and that was one nasty curveball the count now stands at 3 and 2.” In the case of Jim Brockmire he most definitely isn’t talking about pizza in the words of Vince Vaughn’s character in old school “Ear Muffs” kids!
Season one was a bit uneven. There were episodes that worked very well and others that fell a little flat. The greatest strength of the show is the relationship between Jim Brockmire and his trusty sidekick/business partner Charles. Thankfully, season two is the Jim and Charles show and it is much better off for it! In addition to being an announcer in New Orleans, Jim and Charles have started an extremely successful podcast that is Brockmire riffing for 90 minutes on a topic someone yells out in a live audience. The podcast is of course called “Brock Bottom.” While he is making an obscene amount of money from the podcast it is still his dream to be an announcer in the major leagues again and that is what drives him.
The other large driving force this season is a competition between Brockmire and another broadcaster Raj. The team has pitted them against each other as to who is next in line to take over the major league announcing job once it opens up. Their relationship is complicated as Raj is very likable and knows how to present well and Brockmire likes the guy despite him potentially standing in the way of his dream. The actor that plays Raj is Utkarsh Ambudkar who you may recognize from the Mindy Project. Raj is hilarious and plays very well off of Brockmire.
The first few episodes of the new season are fairly button pushing in their casual offensiveness, but as the season goes on it really finds its heart. This is a show that is not for everyone as it is very crass, however if you liked season one, you will love season two. It took a bit for the season to click for me, I am very glad I stuck with it. If you decide to spend some time with Jim Brockmire just know that it might not be your best night ever, but you will get a gift basket on your way out in the morning.
New town. New Team. Same Brockmire.
I give Brockmire Season 2 an A-.
TV and City 