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Further complicating the show’s racial politics, the Peaches have two Latinas on the team: pitcher Lupe Garcia (Roberta Colindrez) and Esti González (Priscilla Delgado). As fair-skinned women, they have much more freedom and privileges than Max and her Black counterparts, but still find themselves stuck in a racist system.
It’s all very smart and well done, and then Jacobson and Graham lay in their biggest update to the original: unapologetically highlighting lesbian stories. 1992’s “A League of Their Own” hinted at lesbian sexuality but the film’s top takeaway on the matter was “playing baseball as a woman doesn’t make you gay.” Here the message is more “there’s nothing wrong with being gay and the laws, structures, and culture that say otherwise are monstrous.”
In this version, we have gay romances to root for with sexy scenes, gay joy, and full, gay personhood. There’s also an examination of the laws and isolation LGBTQ people faced in the 1940s, including a scene depicting state violence. The networks of support—from friends to family members to underground safe spaces—are more nuanced than typically portrayed, and while bigots certainly exist in this fictional world, they are largely given the chance to grow and learn.
The result is a show that is more fun than the original. This “A League of Their Own” is able to explore and laugh with more of its characters, find their depth, celebrate their new-found freedoms, and cast an unflinching gaze on the ways their society still held them back—not just as women, but also as lesbian or bi people, Black women, and Latinas. As such, the 2022 “A League of Their Own” is so much better at telling the tale of this moment in women’s history, finding the real joy that only comes when not shying away from injustice.
Whole season screened for review. Premieres Friday, August 12th.
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