It’s bad. Real bad.
As it turns out, I’m not quite done with this week’s premieres on television. Last and less than least on the mound is Fox’s Pitch. This one is a little bit different from the others, but I feel like I should let you know about the premise before I get to the meat of the story. In contrast to my other reviews, this one will contain spoilers for the ending twist. If you’re not interested in that, check out now with the notion that you’re not missing much.
You’ve been warned.
The Premise Is Far-Fetched, But Not Utterly Impossible.
She could easily be a stand-in for a few real life girls and women. It’s too bad that it’s such a bad show.
Some of the criticism of this show came from the idea that a female would never come close to pitching or playing for Major League Baseball. However, that is not necessarily true. There are a few outliers like Mo’ne Davis or Sandy Almon that have pitched in the range of 70-80 miles per hour through middle and high school, so the story of a Ginny Baker would not be all that impossible with some beefy muscles and more training.
It’s very unlikely that a prospective female would actually make it to pro leagues, but one could say the same thing about boys playing baseball, too. Therefore, I shall set that aside for the sake of the plot. That’s the one pass that this will get.
The Execution Utterly Ruins It.
How did the Padres not notice her failure to control the ball? Then again, they are the Padres, so it’s a wash.
Unfortunately, the sort-of interesting premise is completely destroyed with a script that is riddled with sports movie cliches, plot holes, and completely unnecessary gender politicking. Viewers will not be able to get even two minutes into this pilot before the jetstream of garbage starts flooding the television. Did you know that a woman is the top sports story in the United States, which will force men to start weeping and question their masculinity?
Those lines didn’t need to be there other than to deliver a preachy middle finger to the audience. Cringey dialogue may snap people out of the story, but who cares? This show has attitude!
It’s also odd for a show that uses authenticity as a selling point to skimp out on it in noticeable ways. For instance, the first thing viewers will notice is that Kylie Bunbury did not appear to do much strength training to sell us on our lead, Ginny Baker. She’s not a bad actress, but that oversight robs the story of some plausibility.
That being said, no one could save this turkey of a script.
Ginny Loses Control… For Absolutely No Reason.
Yeah, no.
When Ginny gets called up to the Padres, some people and baseball fans are excited, whereas some of the players see her as a gimmick to sell tickets. To be fair, this is probably the most plausible thing about the story. Everything after that goes straight to hell in a handbasket. It all starts with the fact that she doesn’t seem to be used to the clubhouse culture. It’s encapsulated in how she thinks that most just hate her and a few just want to see her naked.
Ugh.
While her incredibly annoying agent (Ali Larter) tries to dictate things, Ginny goes to work, hugs an old friend, and seems to have a problem with some fairly light hazing that she apparently never received in the Minor Leagues. It is here that we are introduced to Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who plays an immediately likable catcher named Mike Lawson. He has a commanding presence from his first appearance, but balances it with a smarmy personality. It’s not much, but I have to give credit where it’s due.
So, we get to our first game. Ginny steps onto the mound and completely loses control of the ball. Why? No reason. During the story & the flashbacks, Ginny is described as a state champion with an arsenal of pitches at her disposal. She’s good enough to get scouted right from high school. However, she suddenly forgets all of that experience, throws ten balls, and checks out of the game.
Did I Mention That She Is Mentally Ill?
I’m not proud of you, sweetie. Not at all.
In a realistic scenario, that would have been the end of it. The skipper, general manager, and owner even debate the topic, but decide against it because plot. However, that’s not the end of the insanity. As you could probably guess from the header, Ginny went crazy a long time ago.
She hallucinates her dead father, Bill (Michael Beach), and gets into a fight with him over how she has no friends or interests before they go to “practice.” This would be a sad scene if it weren’t for the fact that she hugged a friend/colleague in the clubhouse and a woman visited her later on while she fumed over her completely manufactured failure. And how is it her dead dad’s fault that she has no interests? He was an abusive parent for reasons, but she could try reading a book in her down time.
I forgot that I’m asking for an approximation of genuine humanity here. After all, this is Pitch, a “true story on the verge of happening.”
She practices in a montage and takes the mound, but still screws up until Lawson gives the cliched inspirational speech about how you have to do it for yourself. After that, she’s able to do well against the Giants up until she gets relieved by a closer to give her the win.
There’s also a sub-story about how the injured pitcher that forced Ginny’s call-up exists to be a jerk because muh sexism. Oh, and Joe Buck is annoying. After all that, they reveal that the dad died in a car crash. End show.
Conclusion.
It’s okay. I’m fine. I forgot I was in a cliched sports movie!
While the premise was not bad, Pitch ends up as an embarrassment to baseball and the medium of television at large. If nothing else, it serves as a good lesson on how not to write a good drama. Likable characters and a decent story about baseball would have made this into something special, but nothing came together to form a cohesive whole.
And that’s sad. We could use more original dramas out there.
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