The League might have been a lot better if there were a lot less of it.

Watching the first two episodes of this raunchy FX sitcom, about 30-something guys in a fantasy-football league, I got to thinking that the premise would have made a perfect webisode series. Online series have not been around long enough to have a list of defining tropes and setups like TV series do, but one thing that web shows have been especially good at is telling micro stories of obscure obsessions (e.g., The Guild and The Line) that speak to larger issues about their characters. Expanded to half-hour length, The League has to be about more than fantasy football, and that’s where it runs into trouble.