Nobody Expected The Adaptation of 90s Tom Hanks Sport Comedy to Be This Good

I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll ever get this weird obsession with reviving the already great projects. Words like “remake”, “reboot”, and “adaptation” make me roll my eyes almost instantly. After all, for every successful reimagining of a classic, there are dozens that fail miserably.

Yet back in 2022, I was proven wrong big time. When Amazon released an adaptation of Tom Hanks' A League of Their Own (1992) it definitely had some big shoes to fill. Against all odds, it actually succeeded and thrived where a lot of adaptations simply just fail.

A League of Their Own (2022): The Adaptation That Did It

The stakes were impossibly high with this one. You really have to be very brave or insanely talented (or all at once) to take on a movie that originally starred such giants as Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna.

As the original, the 2022 series is centered around the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. But where the movie mainly focuses on one team, the series expands in interesting ways. It dives deep into issues of race, gender and sexuality that the original movie only hinted at or didn't address at all.

As Lisa Respers France (CNN) wrote:

“I’m not mad at the debut of a series based on the hit 1992 film about a World War II-era pro women’s baseball team, because right now celebrating women feels pretty darn good.”

I agree. The adaptation took the core concept and expanded it into something richer and more inclusive. And that inclusivity feels like it's coming from a very genuine place.

A League of Their Own Is a Labor of Love

And it's no surprise the show treats its characters and heavy topics with such respect as the creator of the series, Will Graham, has a very real emotional connection to the original. In an interview to Script Magazine Graham really opened up, saying:

“There was not any content around me that was explicitly queer especially not when I was younger. And so you learn like I think so many people did, to just gravitate to those things that had subtext, where you were like, 'Maybe there's a part of me that can understand this or a part of me that's understood by this.' And the movie was definitely that for me.”

A League of Their Own is a proof that when done with heart and empathy, adaptations are not that bad. This one, dare I say, is excellent. The show managed to tackle some pretty heavy things and at the same time keep the humor that made the original such a comfort watch.

A League of Their Own deserves a watch. You can find it now on Fandango at Home, Amazon Video or Apple TV+.