I was slow checking out Playmakers, ESPN’s drama series. This is partly because I never tune to ESPN, so it wasn’t in my mind, and partly because I was half-thinking it was on HBO, a network that I do not subscribe to.
I did, however, catch 2 episodes this weekend, and it is a respectable attempt at a drama. The setting is the fictional Cougars football franchise, a setup that gives plenty of opportunity for intensity and heightened emotions.
The show is well shot and well acted. The episodes I wtched focused on a couple key characters, so I don’t yet have a sense of how many of the other guys are really the focus of storylines and how many are mere window dressing.
The show is shot in letterbox format, and ESPN uses the blank area at the bottom for a constant crawl of sports scores and news. That does prove distracting. The series also airs on ESPN’s High Definition channel; as more a fan of drama than of sports, I would hope that they air it without the crawl there. But I would not be surprised either way.
Playmakers
