Hoops premieres August 21 on Netflix.
By Elazar Abrahams
Hoops is a total airball. Even worse, it’s the kind of show that is the most difficult to write about: a comedy that isn’t funny.
Hoops follows high school basketball coach Ben Hopkins, an extremely foul-mouthed loser. He has big dreams of coaching professional athletes one day, but for now, he’s stuck yelling profanities at 10th graders. And that’s truly all this show is: Dick joke after dick joke. Inherently, there’s nothing wrong with that. Take Big Mouth, another Netflix animated adult show. Big Mouth is just as vulgar as Hoops, but actually clever. The writing there is smart and has something to say. Hoops, on the other hand, does not. It sets a very low bar for what the human race would consider “humor.”
I watched four of the ten episodes provided to critics before tapping out, and I fail to see who this show is for. Adult animation is a rich genre with so many great options for viewers to seek out. Personally, Family Guy and American Dad are not for me, but both are much better uses of your time than Hoops.
Jake Johnson is a talented actor, but he picked an awful project here. Perhaps if you’re drunk, Hoops could serve as TV background noise. Even then, most wouldn’t even crack a smile.
I give Hoops a D.
TV and City 