It’s a risky business to offer up a new take on a classic property, as the rebooted version has to be different enough to mark itself out from the original but also be close enough to capture the spirit of what came before. An example of how to strike that balance well is A League of Their Own, the period sports comedy-drama which just premiered on Amazon Prime last month. Not only is it critically acclaimed, but it’s also knocking it out of the park on the streaming charts.
Much like the 1992 movie of the same name, which featured an all-star cast including Madonna, Geena Davis, and Tom Hanks, A League of Their Own is drawn from real events as it tells the story of the first professional female baseball players during World War Two. Again like the film, the TV series follows the players of the Rockford Peaches, a team in the recently established All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
What it does differently from the movie is introducing a roster of new characters. Abbi Jackson plays Carson Shaw, a small-town housewife who moves to the city to join the Rockford Peaches and sparks up an unexpected connection with the team’s star player, Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden), in the process. Meanwhile, Maxine Chapman (Chante Adams) is a talented pitcher struggling to break into the game due to her race.
While the series has inevitably and depressingly, faced some backlash from those complaining about its exploration of race and LGBTQ+ issues, A League of Their Own has nonetheless struck a chord with Amazon users as it has remained in the top 5 ever since its release, according to Flix Patrol. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the show enjoys a near-perfect Certified Fresh score of 94 percent.
All eight episodes of A League of Their Own‘s first season are available to stream now.