''Hoops'' is an American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

created by

Ben Hoffman Benjamin Isaac Hoffman (born December 13, 1974), is an American comedian, actor, writer, and musician. Hoffman is well known by his country musician alter ego Wheeler Walker, Jr., as whom he has released four albums of country music rife with pr ...

for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

that premiered on August 21, 2020. In December 2020, Netflix cancelled the series after one season.

Premise

''Hoops'' follows Ben Hopkins, "a hot-headed, foul-mouthed high school basketball coach who thinks turning around his God-awful team will take him to the 'big leagues' and turn his miserable life around."

Cast and characters

Main

Jake Johnson Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger (born May 28, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, film producer and screenwriter best known for his role as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'' (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' C ...

Coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Ben Hopkins, a rude and bad-tempered basketball coach at Lenwood High School. He is Shannon's ex-husband, Ron's best friend and Barry's estranged son. Ben's main goal is to turn his team's poor reputation around, but his attempts to do this often end in disaster and failure (with the exception of the episode "The Sponsor", in which he encourages each member of the team to treat the competition like their respective father, which leads to a rare victory for Ben's team). Aside from basketball, Ben wants to rekindle his relationship with Shannon, and is also obsessed with the 1991 film ''

Little Man Tate ''Little Man Tate'' is a 1991 American drama film directed by Jodie Foster (in her directorial debut) from a screenplay written by Scott Frank. The film stars Adam Hann-Byrd as Fred Tate, a seven-year-old child prodigy who struggles to self-act ...

''. *

Ron Funches Ronald Kyle Funches (born March 12, 1983) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Born in California, Funches spent his early life in Chicago before relocating to Salem, Oregon, as a teenager. He began his comedy career in Portland, Oregon, at ...

as Ron, Lenwood High's assistant basketball coach and Ben's best friend who is dating Ben's estranged wife. *

Cleo King Harriet Cleo King is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on television, particularly ''Mike & Molly'' (2010–2016). Early life King was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was the youngest of seven children. She graduated from ...

as Opal Lowry, the principal at Lenwood High and Ben's boss. *

Natasha Leggero Natasha Leggero () (born March 26, 1974) is an American comedian, actress and writer. She rose to fame after appearing as the host of the MTV reality television series '' The 70s House'' in 2005, and as a regular roundtable panelist on Chelsea Ha ...

as Shannon, Ben's estranged wife. * A. D. Miles as Matty Atkins, a seven-foot-tall 16-year-old who is on Lenwood High's basketball team. * Rob Riggle as Barry Hopkins, a legendary former basketball player who is now the owner of Hopkins Steakhouse and Ben's father.

Recurring

Nick Swardson Nicholas Roger Swardson (born October 9, 1976) ...

as Scott, a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

teenager who plays on Lenwood High's basketball team * Sam Richardson as Marcus, the only

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

player on the basketball team. He is often the team's voice of reason. *

as Time Bomb, a

redneck ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term chiefly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, '' ...

player on the basketball team who is implied to be from an inbred family. *

Eric Edelstein Eric Edelstein is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing the role of Bobby Mallison in '' Shameless'', Chad in ''Clarence'', B.O.B. in the '' Monsters vs. Aliens'' television adaptation, and Grizzly "Grizz" in ''We Bare Bears ...

as Kirk, one of Ben's friends. *

Mary Holland Mary Holland (born June 24, 1985) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Early life and education Holland was born and raised in Galax, Virginia. She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from North ...

as Connie, a

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

whom Ben knows. *

Gil Ozeri Gil Ozeri is an American comedian, actor, and writer, best known for his work writing for '' Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', '' Big Mouth'', and '' Happy Endings''. Career Ozeri started his comedy career with the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York, and ...

as Isaac, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

player on the basketball team. * Steve Berg as DJ, an

overweight Being overweight or fat is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary. , excess weight reached epidemic proportions globally, with mo ...

player on the basketball team. He wears goggles with orange lenses while playing and speaks with a

lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

. *

Max Greenfield Max Greenfield (born September 4, 1979) is an American actor. He appeared in recurring roles in ''Veronica Mars'' and ''Ugly Betty''. He co-starred as Schmidt in the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'', for which he received nominations at the Primetime Emmy ...

as Lonnie Seymour, an ethics teacher at Lenwood, who dislikes Ben.

Guests

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; ''né'' Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City, Las ...

as Himself *

Damon Wayans Jr. Damon Kyle Wayans Jr. (born November 18, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for starring as Brad Williams in the ABC sitcom '' Happy Endings'', for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award f ...

as Damian Chapman *

Hannah Simone Hannah Simone (born 3 August 1980) is a British-Canadian actress, television host, and former VJ and fashion model. She is known for portraying Cece on the Fox sitcom ''New Girl''. Early life Simone was born in London to an Indian father and ...

as Dr. Brooks *

Will Forte Orville Willis Forte IV ( ; born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Forte is known for being a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' (2002–2010), a recurring character on the show leading to a feature film ada ...

as Dawa, an anger management therapist who is a

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

master. In "Zen", he helps Ben to control his temper and reduce his arrogance, only for the former to reappear later in the episode when Ben sees three gay students harassing Scott for apparently being

straight Straight may refer to: Slang * Straight, slang for heterosexual ** Straight-acting, an LGBT person who does not exhibit the appearance or mannerisms of the gay stereotype * Straight, a member of the straight edge subculture Sport and games * Str ...

, and the latter in the following episode.

Episodes

Production

On October 3, 2018, it was announced that

had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was created by

who was also expected to executive produce alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Seth Cohen, M. Dickson and

. Production companies involved with the series were slated to be

Bento Box Entertainment Bento Box Entertainment (also known as Bento Box Animation) is an American animation studio located in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2009 by executive producers Scott Greenberg, Joel Kuwahara, and ...

and

20th Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

. Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that

was set to star in the series. In July 2020, it was announced that

, Rob Riggle,

and A. D. Miles were cast in starring roles. The series premiered on August 21, 2020. The official series trailer was released on August 6, 2020. On December 8, 2020, Netflix canceled the series after one season.

Reception

''Hoops'' received negative reviews from critics. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives it an approval rating of 14% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 3.71/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Crude, rude, and aimless, ''Hoops'' first season throws nothing but bricks."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, another aggregation site, gives it a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 35 out of 100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Caroline Framke Caroline Framke (born 1988) an American writer and critic and is Chief TV Critic at ''Variety''. Formerly, she was a columnist at Vox and has contributed to ''The Atlantic'', ''The A.V. Club'', ''Flavorwire'', ''Complex'', ''Vulture'', ''Salon'' ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' described the series "isn't half the joke machine it would need to be in order to justify its total lack of nuance". Stuart Jeffries of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described it as a "puerile comedy ... perfect for

Trump Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...

's America" that is more "toxically retrograde" than ''

Love Thy Neighbour Love Thy Neighbor or Love Thy Neighbour refers to the Biblical phrase "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" from the Book of Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament about the ethic of reciprocity known as the Golden Rule or the Great Commandment. ...

'', noting its sexualized portrayal of women, an overabundance of penis jokes, and a cast of mostly stereotypical

token character Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality wit ...

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original animated series and films 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American adult animated television series 2020s American high school television series 2020s American sitcoms American adult animated comedy television series American animated sitcoms American adult animated sports television series American flash adult animated television series Animated television series about teenagers Basketball television series English-language Netflix original programming Television series about educators Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by Fox Television Animation Television shows set in Kentucky