Players (2022)

It’s spectacular. ... It’s funny as hell, which is no surprise, but somehow that all feels less important than the gripping narrative of the team.

Much like Vandal, the real thrill of Players isn’t just the deadpan perfection of its joke delivery, but its ability to build the real-world stakes and characters of the best sports docs on top of the gags.

Even though Players is a foreign setting to me, it is also a fun and poignant portrait of some specific types of guys.

You don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy Players, even though the inside references will likely give gamers a smile. It’s a classic story about the veteran being displaced by an overconfident rookie, and it’s one that’s executed well.

Although Players never quite matches the quotability of “who did the dicks,” it’s packed with lines seemingly designed in a lab to break ribs. ... [Creamcheese is] no Dylan Maxwell, but I’ll give Misha Brooks this: Not since Thomas Middleditch’s Richard Hendricks has a TV nerd been this addictively despicable.

Players may not reach the comedic heights of American Vandal, but it most visibly follows in that show’s footsteps by taking its characters seriously, no matter how ridiculous their situation may be.

Players requires a general emotional investment to carry you through the long stretches when its tongue isn’t even in its topical cheek.