“That’s right, I am the Shiva, totally.. and the Shiva is angry. This league does not have the Shiva’s blessing. This year will go badly for everyone. The Shiva has spoken.”

The guys (and girl) of The League are back for another season of spirited competition and fun. While last year’s Shiva trophy winner Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi) tries to defend his title, last year’s loser and Sacko trophy winner Ruxin (Nick Kroll) has become the league’s new commissioner. When Pete (Mark Duplass) declares himself the Custodian of the Hall of Records, the rest of the league—the always picked-on Andre (Paul Scheer), Kevin’s wife Jenny (Katie Aselton) and Kevin’s brother Taco (Jonathan Lajoie)—start making up their own titles. Finally fed up with her involuntary participation in this whole fantasy football competition, Shivakamini Somakandarkram (Janina Gavankar) puts a curse on the group, decreeing that bad things will happen for all of its members throughout the season—and they do!

While I am the furthest thing there is from a sports fan, for some reason I find The League hilarious. To me, the whole fantasy football aspect takes a backseat, and I am just drawn to the craziness of this group of friends and the lengths they will go to in order to win this competition. Every season is filled with pranks, put-downs, crazy schemes and total political incorrectness—and in season four the series is as hilarious as ever. Football and fantasy football fans will surely delight in all of the banter and smack-talk between the characters, and the cameos by professional football players.

This season also features some great non-sports guest stars, including Timothy Olyphant as a “Japanese” sushi chef, Julia Duffy as Mrs. MacArthur, Robert Wagner and Lee Meriwether as Pete’s grandparents and Jeff Goldblum as Ruxin’s father. There are also fun appearances by Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtzm, Ken Marino, J.B. Smoove, Zach Woods, John Ross Bowie, Dichen Lachman, Bob Odenkirk and Jayma Mays, and Kristin Cavallari appears as herself.

My favorite character has always been (and continues to be) Taco, and this season the TacoCorp schemes are just as crazy as always—an online cowboy business to deliver bad news, official unofficial NFL t-shirts, a sex-sniffing dog, taking over a dead psychiatrist’s practice and Taco’s misunderstanding of getting the books to a zero balance by the end of the year.

This is also a big year for the MacArthurs, with the arrival of their new son—and the hilarious results of last year’s trading away of the baby’s naming rights. Their 8-year-old Ellie also proves to be a handful (and a great source of comic relief), with her creepy new “boyfriend” and her racist choice in music. Meanwhile, Ruxin tries to deal with his perverted brother-in-law Rafi, while also plotting ways to anchor his wife down fearing that she will realize she’s too good for him. Pete has his own issues trying to get revenge on a woman who broke his heart, dealing with a man in a wheelchair who bought the last pair of running shoes, and a grandfather who may be faking Alzheimer’s to cheat on his grandmother. And Andre may have finally found true love—or is she just sticking around because he’s paying her to re-do his apartment?

I really enjoyed re-watching the fourth season of The League on this DVD set. With over 51 minutes of new and uncensored footage inserted back into the 10 of the 13 episodes, it was an entirely new experience. The new footage is seamlessly added to the episodes and doesn’t feel out of place. Plus, there is an additional 17 minutes of deleted footage available in the bonus features.

The DVDs look and sound great, plus there’s a gag reel, alternate takes, Taco songs and more. While it would have been nice to get a true behind the scenes featurette and/or some audio commentaries, this DVD release is still an easy recommendation if you’re looking for a great comedy series with high replay value that can be enjoyed by sport fans and non-fans alike.

What’s Included on the DVD:

Episodes: (286 min)

• All 13 episodes of Season 4
  “Training Camp”, “The Hoodie”, “The Freeze Out”, “The Breastalyzer”, “Judge MacArthur”, “The Tailgate”, “The Vapora Sport”, “Anchor Baby”, “Bro-Lo El Cordero”, “Our Dinner With Andre”, “12.12.12”, “A Krampus Carol”, “The Curse of Shiva”
• Widescreen 16:9
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
• Closed Captions

Extras:

• 10 Unrated and Extended Episodes
  Over 51 minutes of extra footage integrated back into the episodes. This is my favorite way to view deleted footage, but for those who prefer to watch the episodes as they originally aired, this is also an option.
  
  
  
  • “Training Camp” (aired 22:05, extended 26:00)
    
  • “The Hoodie” (aired 21:27, extended 27:22)
    
  • “The Freeze Out” (aired 21:20, extended 22:29)
    
  • “The Breastalyzer” (aired 21:30, extended 30:18)
    
  • “The Vapora Sport” (aired 21:19, extended 25:30)
    
  • “Anchor Baby” (aired 21:22, extended 28:54)
    
  • “Bro-Lo El Cordero” (aired 21:24, extended 26:27)
    
  • “Our Dinner With Andre” (aired 21:12, extended 27:17)
    
  • “12.12.12” (aired 23:35, extended 29:41)
    
  • “The Curse of Shiva” (aired 22:05, extended 24:45)

• Deleted Scenes (16:55)
  17 deleted and extended scenes spread across the discs. Play all on each disc or select from:
  • The Freeze Out – “More Cob” (1:50), “Andre Hits It 12 Times in One Day” (1:09), “Rafi at Paintball – Extended” (:56), “Ruxin and the Paramedics” (:38),
  • The Breastalyzer – “Tebow’s Virginity” (:19)
  • Tailgate – “Treating Jenny Like a Lady” (:45)
  • The Vapora Sport – “Andre’s Women Friends” (:38), “More Wrestling with the Blind” (:37), “Black Don’t Crack” (:41)
  • Anchor Baby – “Welsh or Welch?” (:50)
  • Bro-Lo El Cordero – “Who Invented The Toilet Kitchen?” (:50)
  • Our Dinner With Andre – “Ruxin Lies To His Doctor” (:41)
  • 12.12.12 – “Andre Cribs: Extended and Unrated” (2:32), “Shopping Montage Extended” (1:58)
  • A Krampus Carol – “The Ruxins Watch 9 1/2 Weeks” (1:01)
  • The Curse of Shiva – “Taco Repays His Debts” (1:13), “Kevin’s Got a Side Piece” (:32)
• Taco Tones (3:12)
  Watch clips/alternate/extended versions of Taco’s music performances from this season’s episodes. Items appear on the disc with the respective episode.
  • The Vapora Sport – “Pete’s Tiny Erect Dick – Player Piano Version” (1:00)
  • Anchor Baby – Couples therapy song (1:21)
  • A Krampus Carol – Krampus Bells (:51)
• Rafi’s Helpful Holiday Hints (1:18)
  More footage from Rafi’s women’s self-defense training class.
• Witchy Woman Podcast (1:08)
  Watch Andre’s full video podcast, which is described as “A little bit of magic… A little bit of Don Henley… A whole lot of Andre.”
• Alt Nation (13:46)
  The cast try lots of alternate takes for some of the season’s great jokes and lines. I feel sorry for the editor who had to choose which single takes to use in the final edit—there’s lots of fun stuff!
• Gag Reel (14:47)
  The cast crack up while trying to deliver some of shows’ most ridiculous lines and conversations.

Final Thoughts:

The League‘s fourth season originally aired in HD on FX, and has also received a Blu-ray release. However, I have no complaints about the picture and sound quality of this Standard Definition DVD set.

As for the Bonus features, it would have been nice to get some behind the scenes featurettes and audio commentaries, but the Gag Reel and Alternate Takes features help give a glimpse into the process of making this comedy. I also really appreciate the inclusion of the unrated/extended episodes—there is so much footage added back into these episodes, that rewatching them feels like a whole new experience. In addition, there’s even more deleted footage included outside of the episodes!

In its fourth season, The League continues to give this non sports fan a lot of laughs with 13 more fun episodes that I could watch over and over. This DVD set is an easy recommendation.